John Landers was on the Lightning Ridge Opal Fields for the first 40 years.

He was local reporter to the Walgett Spectator, setting out social news as well as miners' plights.

It is said John studied to be a priest, and as an educated man, he was called upon to name opals worthy of a title. The most colourful description of him has nothing to do with the beautiful opals he so often named. Bob Bruce, in a 1980s video reminiscing with Molly Darby, says "John could beat a pig eatin'!"

Indeed, John Landers was a portly man and also of good nature.

Some said he was a remittance man, so unusual a character was he.

Apparently, it wasn't the solitude that he sought, and he wasn't a worker, nor was he spreading the Gospel.

Who knows what brings the different types of people to the opal fields?

Anyway, does it really matter?