White Cliffs Opal Fields was one of the first commercial opal fields in Australia. There are a few stories that Opal & Gems were found in White Cliffs around 1884 but at that time seeing that people weren’t that interested in gemstones in Australia we can’t be completely sure.

It was during 1889 that the White Cliffs Opal Fields were confirmed as a source of Australian Opals. The story goes some kangaroo hunters went out to White Cliffs and came across some precious Opal. Not know ing what it was they brought it back to Adelaide and showed it to an ex-surveyor colleague who then confirmed that it was good quality precious Opal. The ex-surveyor himself then went out to White Cliffs where he was easily able to prove the discovery.

For a good while digging for Opals in White Cliffs was very easy. It was famously known for the beautiful White Opal & Cystal Opal that could be found. For 30 years, the White Cliffs were widely known as the first commercially accepted opal source because it surpassesd the quality of the Opals in the Hungarian Opal fields.

Today, the White Cliffs Opal Fields are all but exhausted unfortuantely. While they still produce a small amount of White and Crystal Opals and even though the situation is not as good as 2 centuries ago, there are still some miners who continue to fossick among the old diggings hoping that one day they can hit that one lucky strike and will make a big BOOM in the White Cliffs Region. Lets hope they can!

The White Cliffs Opal Fields are located in the top left hand corner of New South Wales, near the Queensland & South Australia borders.