Outback Towns

White Cliffs

Hot, Hot, Hot! - White Cliffs is proclaimed as one of the hottest towns in outback NSW.

About White Cliffs

White Cliffs – Opal Mining and Underground Accommodation

From the air, White Cliffs looks like a moonscape with an estimated 50,000 disused diggings. Most of the town's 'buildings' are underground. For every one you see on the surface there are as many as ten more underground. By 1900 there was an underground bar at the Centennial Hall. Today there are around 140.

It is a 98 km drive from Wilcannia, 974 km northwest of Sydney through scrubby, semi-desert saltbush. The permanent population is around 200 and this rises to about 500 in winter when gem seekers come from the south.

White Cliffs History

Opals were found in the area as early as 1884 but it wasn't until the drought of 1889 that real interest was shown. Four shooters were hired to reduce kangaroo numbers on the Momba Pastoral Company Station. They found opals, and realising their potential value, sent them off to Adelaide for valuation by a man with the improbable name of Tullie Cornthwaite Wollaston.

By 1890 a small settlement had come into existence. It was around this time that it got the name White Cliffs as a simple description of the white shale which every miner had to dig through to find opals.

In 1987 the production of opals from the White Cliffs fields was estimated to be $150 million. Remarkable opals have been found, such as the White Cliffs opal 'pineapples' and opalised shells. By far the most unusual was the opalised remains of a nearly 2 metre long plesiosaur.

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