Lightning Ridge

Today we completed the Blue and Red Car Door Tours.

First up - Blue Tour. We headed out through the opal mine fields, locally known as 'the suburbs', before stopping briefly to explore Bevan's Cactus Garden with over 2,500 cactus varieties and 48 Bougainvillea varieties. Interesting, but not really our thing.

Next up was the Walk-in Mine Tour. This was pretty cool and being self-guided meant we could move at our own pace.

Being one of the shorter Car Door Tours, we quickly moved on to the Red Door Tour. We passed the plaque sharing information on the first settlement in 1906 called Wallangulla or Old Town, which is where the first Opal Rush boomed. We then stopped to marvel at the Stone & Bottle House - an interestingly constructed private home made entirely of, would you believe, stones and bottles, and filled with collectables!

Just a bit further along the road we stopped to explore the Ridge Castle - a unique castle nestled in Lighting Ridge. It was in fact an AirB&B property but as with most things in Lightning Ridge, it wasn't your typical lodging.

Moving on, we noted some other interesting sights along the way including Sim’s Hill - the highest point in the district (170m above sea level), astronomers' monument - a very cool homemade observatory, and KFC Drive-thru (although it never seems to be open).

But the highlight of this tour was definitely Amigos Castle - a unique and fascinating private home. The castle was built by Vittorio Stefanato, also known as Amigo, who was born in Italy and moved to Australia in 1970. The castle is built with stones and planks, and Amigo has been expanding it since 1982. The castle sits atop dinosaur bones that are millions of years old - not officially catalogued but locally known as 'Amigosaurus'. The underground tunnels and secrets of the Castle were closed the day we were there as it turns out Amigo had been sentenced to at least 13 years and seven months in jail for murdering a local woman, near his castle in January 2020. He shot her point blank with a rifle after she asked him for money, and then hid her body in the bushland. He pleaded guilty to the murder in October 2021. I think I'm glad we missed his 'private' tour!En savoir plus