If you haven’t already, you can purchase your own copy at Whiz-Bang Bargains, Opal Books, the Visitors Centre or the Heritage Cottage.

However, further to the early history of Lightning Ridge, many of you have seen this photograph titled ‘The place is becoming civilised’.

It appears on the historical poster that accompanies the fossil poster series published by and for sale at the Australian Opal Centre showroom in Morilla Street as well as at the Heritage Cottage.

We believed it to be on 3-Mile flat where the second settlement known as Nettleton was situated in 1910. However, recent research at the State Library of NSW reveals that this view is in fact at Old Town, not Nettleton.

The Australian Town & Country Journal, March 15 1912, presents several photos we had never seen before and includes this familiar view with the caption Old Town, the original Wallangulla. We can see the main street that complements the 1910 postcard looking down from Sims Hill into the settlement held in the local historical society’s collection.

In due course we’ll have copies of the remaining ‘new’ old photos from the 1912 article.

Discovery is the joy of being a member of the historical society.

Don’t miss our display at the Opal Festival 2010.