Lord Howe Island

Worlds largest ocean stack Balls Pyramid off Lord Howe Island

Lord Howe Island is a small island in the Tasman Sea 600 kilometres (370 miles) east of the Australian mainland, and is part of the Mid-North Coast Statistical Division of New South Wales, Australia.

Lord Howe island is roughly crescent-shaped, about 10 kilometres (6.2 miles) long and 2 kilometres (1.2 miles) wide. It is an eroded remnant of a 7 million-year-old shield volcano. The crescent of the island protects a coral reef and lagoon.
Mount Lidgbird 777 metres (2,549 ft) and Mount Gower 875 meters (2,871 ft) dominate the south end of the island, are remnants of lava flows that once filled a large volcanic caldera.
These lava flows occurred 6.4 million years ago, and were the last volcanic events on the island, which has subsequently eroded to what remains today.

Lord Howe Island was discovered on 17 February 1788, by HMS Supply, commanded by Lieutenant Henry Lidgbird Ball, RN, who was on his way from Botany Bay to Norfolk Island with convicts to start a penal settlement there. On his return journey on 13 March 1788, he sent a party ashore on the island. It was uninhabited, and it seems that it had not been known to any of the Polynesian peoples of the South Pacific. Whilst Mount Lidgbird on the island and the nearby Balls Pyramid are named after Ball, the island itself was named after Richard Howe, 1st Earl Howe, who was First Lord of the Admiralty.

Only one native mammall remains on the island, the Large Forest Bat, there are two terrestrial reptiles that are native to the island, a skink and a gecko. Both are rare on the main island but more common on smaller islands offshore. The Garden Skink and the Bleating Tree Frog  have been accidentally introduced from the Australian mainland in recent years.

Lord Howe is also Australia’s premier bird watching destination, with over 14 species of seabirds nesting on the island

Lord Howe Island, with its adjacent islets, is an important breeding site for several kinds of seabirds. They include the Providence Petrel, for which the island was its only breeding location for many years after the breeding colony on Norfolk Island was exterminated in the late 19th century.
Species of landbirds that breed on the island group include an iconic endemic rail, the Lord Howe Woodhen, and three endemic passerine subspecies of the Golden Whistler, Silvereye and Currawong.
The Flesh-footed Shearwater breeds in very large numbers in summer; its chicks were heavily harvested by the islanders for food.
Masked Boobies are the largest seabirds breeding on Lord Howe island.

Fishing
On Lord Howe Island you can hand-feed the metre-long kingfish at Neds Beach, or try your hand at catching one off-shore from one of the local sports fishing boats.

Diving

Lord Howe Island has a mind blowing and isolated scuba diving site which was only discovered six years ago. Ball's Pyramid is the best diving Lord Howe Island has to offer - we encounter large schools of fish and huge hard, soft and black corals, gorgonia, stingrays, turtles and sharks.

How to get there!

QantasLink offers year-round scheduled services to Lord Howe Island. Flight time is under two hours, with flights departing from Sydney on most days, and from Brisbane on weekends.

A seasonal weekly service to the Island is also available direct from Port Macquarie from February to June and September to December.
There are connecting services with Qantas from all Australian capital cities and with QantasLink from many regional centres.

The Torres Strait Islands

Gabba Island or Pig island

The Torres Strait Islands are a group of at least 274 small islands which lie in Torres Strait, the waterway separating far northern continental Australia's Cape York Peninsula and the island of New Guinea. They are mostly part of Queensland Australia, a few islands very close to the coast of mainland New Guinea belong to the Western Province of Papua New Guinea. Population is approx 48,000

The Torres Strait Islands are distributed across an area of some 48,000 km². The distance across the Strait from Cape York to New Guinea is approximately 150 km at the narrowest point; The Torres Strait Islands lie scattered in between, extending some 200–300 km from furthest east to furthest west.

Waier Island

Culture

The indigenous people of the Torres Strait have a distinct culture which has slight variants on the different islands where they live. They are a sea-faring people, and engaged in trade with people of Papua New Guinea. The culture is complex, with some Australian elements, some Papuan elements, and Austronesian elements, just like the languages. The Islanders seem to have been the dominant culture for many centuries, and neighbouring Aboriginal and Papuan cultures show some Island influence in religious ceremonies and the like.

Thursday Island, also known as TI or Waiben, is the administrative and commercial centre of the Torres Strait Islands.

Eddie Mabo Born Murray Island 1936 died 1992

Native Title

Eddie Mabo, a man from the Torres Strait Islands, fought a court case, attempting to assert a legal title over his tribe's traditional lands.
It was a landmark case recognizing native title in Australia for the first time.
A judicial revolution occurred in 1992 when the High Court discarded the doctrine of terra nullius in the Mabo case. The ruling had repercussions for Indigenous peoples within Australia and around the world, especially in Canada, New Zealand, and the United States.

Language

There are two indigenous languages spoken on the islands: the Western-Central Torres Strait Language (called by various names, including Kala Lagaw Ya, Kalaw Kawaw Ya and Kowrareg), and the Eastern Torres Language Meriam Mir. One language, Torres Strait Creole, or Brokan, is used throughout Torres Strait, in neighbouring Papua as far as the West Papuan border area, and Cape York, as well as in many Island communities in Mainland Australia. This is a creole English similar to the closely related Tok Pisin in Papua New Guinea.

Getting there
QantasLink (13 13 13; www.qantas.com.au) flies daily from Cairns to Thursday Island (from $480 return). The airport is on Horn Island. Aero Tropics (1300 656 110, 07-4040 1222; www.aero-tropics.com.au) and Regional Pacific Airlines (1300 797 667, 07-4040 1400; www.regionalpacific.com.au) fly weekdays from Cairns to Bamaga (from $280 one way).

There are regular ferry services between Seisia and Thursday Island (one way/return $47/94, one hour) run by Peddells Ferry Service (07-4069 1551; www.peddellsferry.com.au; Engineers Jetty, Thursday Island).

The Pilbara

The Pilbara has been occupied for at least 30,000 years.

Archaeological evidence shows that more than thirty distinct socio-linguistic groups lived in the region, utilising and managing the natural resources according to their Law. Pilbara Aboriginal culture, including its intricate social organization and strong spiritual relationship with the land, is still strong today.

The beliefs that Dreamtime beings, who created the land features, control the water and provide food supplies, are still in existence in the land features, is still strongly felt throughout the Pilbara.

The Pilbara is situated south of the Kimberley, and is made up of the local government areas of Ashburton, East Pilbara, Port Hedland and Roebourne.

The Pilbara Covers some 500,000 square kilometres of land about 1,300 kilometres north of Perth, the Pilbara contains three world class national parks, including Rudall River and Karijini - regarded as one of Australia's most stunning natural assets.

Fern pool Pilbara

It has a population of just under 40,000 people, most of whom live in the western third of the region, in towns such as Port Hedland, Karratha, Wickham, Newman and Marble Bar. A substantial number of people also work in the region on a fly-in/fly-out basis.

Spa pool Karijini National Park

The Pilbara consists of three distinct geographic areas. The western third is the Roebourne coastal sandplain, which supports most of the region's population in towns and much of its industry and commerce. The eastern third is almost entirely desert, and is sparsely populated by a small number of Aboriginal peoples.

These are separated by the inland uplands of the Pilbara Craton, including the predominant Hamersley Range which has a considerable number of mining towns, the Chichester Range and others. These uplands have a number of gorges and other natural attractions. Pilbara contains some of the world's oldest surface rocks, including the ancient fossilised remains known as stromatolites and rocks such as granites that are more than three billion years old.



The climate of the Pilbara is semi-arid and arid, with high temperatures and low irregular rainfall that follows the summer cyclones. During the summer months, maximum temperatures exceed 32°C (90°F) almost every day, and temperatures in excess of 45°C (113°F) are not uncommon.

The Pilbara town of Marble Bar set a world record of most consecutive days of maximum temperatures of 100 degrees Fahrenheit (37.8 degrees Celsius) or more, during a period of 160 such days from 31 October 1923 to 7 April 1924.

Earthquake map Australia

While the full impact of the devastating Christchurch earthquake in New Zealand continues to unfold, some interesting environmental effects are being revealed.

The Christchurch earthquake caused a 30-million-tonne chunk of ice to break off from the Tasman Glacier, 200 km away in Aoraki/Mount Cook National Park on the west coast of the South Island. The 1.2 km long slab of ice plunged into Tasman Lake.
A group of tourists on a boat in the lake at the time were walloped by giant 3.5 m waves created by the calving. The ice broke up in the water, forming several icebergs, one 250 m long.

The 30-million-tonne chunk of ice

Earthquakes are most destructive at the surface of the Earth, where the energy is released as the ground shaking. This means that when the epicentre is close to the surface, there's not much rock or earth for the tremor to travel through and act as a shock absorber.

Earthquakes do occur in Australia even though the nation does not sit on a tectonic plate boundary like in New Zealand.

The nearest boundary passed through Papua New Guinea to the north, into the Pacific Ocean and south to New Zealand.

Australia experiences "intraplate earthquakes" along fault lines dating back millions of years when parts of the country were on or near plate boundaries.

The greatest earthquake risk in Queensland is in Central Queensland.

A fault line just 30 kilometres west of Bundaberg ( the origin of a quake at least 5.4 in magnitude in 1935 ) has the potential for another large earthquake.

According to Seismologist Dr Kevin McCue of Central Queensland University in Rockhampton, the Australian continent is hit by a magnitude 6 earthquake every five to six years and currently, one is overdue, " so we're just waiting to see what will happen in Victoria ", and he thinks that it is just luck we haven't had an earthquakes under Melbourne and Sydney.

On December 28, 1989, a magnitude 5.6 earthquake struck Newcastle N.S.W, causing extensive damage and killing 13 people.

Earthquakes frequently occur close to plate boundaries, where the plates that make up the earth's crust push and slide against each other.

Despite sitting in the middle of a tectonic plate, scientists say Australia is subjected to the stresses and strains from movements at the edges of plate boundaries. "Compared to Canada, US, South Africa, central Africa and India, Australia is more active.

The warning comes after two moderate-sized earthquakes recently struck the Gippsland town of Korumburra in southeast Victoria. 06/03/2009
Both were felt 120 kilometres away in the city of Melbourne.
The earthquakes registered magnitude 4.6 on the Richter scale, with another small earthquake felt in the area in January 2009. Both struck 15 kilometres below ground and were associated with uplift of the Strzelecki Ranges.


Australian Earthquake warning, two separate geological studies have concluded that an area from Adelaide to south-east Victoria is seismically active and the next 'big one' could endanger lives and infrastructure.

RFDS The Royal Flying Doctor Service

You know you live in a huge and bare country when the ambulance has to operate from the sky.

The Royal Flying Doctor Service is a non profit organisation relying on community support and donations.

Since their first flight in 1928 the Royal Flying Doctor Service has become an essential and iconic part of Australia’s isolated and rural areas. The early flying doctors were the first of their kind and today the RFDS covers more than 7million km2, an area larger than Western Europe.

Today,they own a fleet of 53 fully instrumented aircraft with the very latest in navigation technology. RFDS operate 21 bases across Australia. RFDS pilots annually fly the equivalent of 25 round trips to the moon and RFDS doctors and flight nurses are responsible for the care of nearly 270,000 patients! RFDS have come a long way from that first flight in 1928 which saw the Flying Doctor airborne at last.

Throughout January, the floods caused numerous operational challenges to RFDS.

RFDS was called on to help evacuate hospitals and nursing homes ahead of the floods in St George, Emerald and Goondiwindi. This was made difficult by the fact that Rockhampton airport flooded, forcing the closure of their base and maintenance facility for almost a month. The Brisbane Airport Base and Brisbane head office were also closed to non-essential staff for a short time. They were able to relocate their aircraft and crews to other bases, minimising service disruptions.

Some RFDS employees, like other locals, were isolated by the flood waters. One Bundaberg pilot required emergency services to ferry him across a flooded river so he could access the base and fly the aircraft.

Coordination involved some round-the-clock sessions in managing the availability of additional staff and the positioning of aircraft and staff to be able to respond to tasks.

As you know The Royal Flying Doctor Service is a non profit organisation relying on community support and donations.

Please Help with a small donation

Funnel Web Spiders

There are more than 40 varieties of funnel web spider in Australia, but the northern funnel web spider has the most toxic venom of them all.
The northern funnel web spider is rarely found near populated areas, so its almost as deadly cousin, the Sydney funnel web spider, is classed as the more dangerous of the two. Its venom has neurotoxins that attack the human nervous system, which in severe cases can result in death.




The funnel web spider is one of the three most dangerous spiders in the world and are regarded by some to be the most dangerous.

Funnel web spiders are medium-to-large in size, with body lengths ranging from 1 cm to 5 cm (0.4" to 2"). They are darkly coloured, ranging from black to blue-black to plum to brown, with a glossy, hairless carapace covering the front part of the body.

There have been 27 recorded deaths in Australia in the last 100 years from spider bites. Bites from Sydney funnel-web spiders have caused 13 deaths (seven in children),although since the introduction of antivenoms there have been no deaths from funnel web spider bites.

The Funnel web spider makes its burrows in moist, cool, sheltered habitats—under rocks, in and under rotting logs, some in rough-barked trees (occasionally metres above ground).

They are commonly found in suburban rockeries and shrubberies, rarely in lawns or other open terrain. A funnel web spider burrow characteristically has irregular silk trip-lines radiating from the entrance. Unlike some related trapdoor spiders, the funnel web spider do not build lids to their burrows.

Australian Reptile Park is the only place in the world where the Sydney funnel web spider is milked. The venom is then sent off to the Commonwealth Serum Labs to become antivenom. Besides the daily funnel web spider milking show put on by the park, a large window displays feeding and venom extraction in the spider lab.

Saltwater Crocodile Attacks

Saltwater Crocodile Attacks !
A backpacker in Australia got the fright of his life when a massive crocodile he was "teasing" suddenly exploded from the water and nearly sank its teeth into him.

Quokka Rottnest Island

The name 'quokka' comes from the name the Aboriginal people of that part of the southwest called it. Naturalist, John Gilbert in 1840,noted the Aboriginal name 'quokka' when he witnessed a 'quokka hunt` being carried out by traditional owners of the region, the Bibbulmum people.

Blob fish save the blobfish

He may not be from the Outback, but this weird little critter had to get a mention!

Australia Uluru Ayers Rock

Uluru is one of Australia's most recognisable natural icons. The world-renowned sandstone formation stands 348 m (1,142 ft) high and measures 9.4 km (5.8 mi) in circumference.

Australian Aboriginal Art

Australian Indigenous cultures are rich and diverse, as is the artwork they produce which can involve a wide range of media including painting on leaves, wood carving, rock carving, sculpture, ceremonial clothing and sand painting. Missionary colonists first promoted the creation and sales of authentic aboriginal art

as a way for Aboriginals to earn monetary support.

What began as a tourist trade has evolved into the creation of an art genre lauded by critics and embraced by art patrons. .

Authentic Aboriginal Art

Internationally recognized as a unique form of art, it is welcomed overseas and respected and admired by art critics everywhere. Of late, it has also come to the attention of not only art investors but also to the wider audience, as astute buyers realize its potential in the marketplace. Hailed as arguably the last great art movement, works produced emanate from a 40,000 year Culture and Tradition. Whilst steeped in what was originally viewed as ethnographic historics, the  authentic aboriginal art produced are very often amazingly modern in design and colour and therefore aesthetically pleasing.

The imagery of the Aboriginal culture, as can be seen in many of the sacred sites, rock and cave paintings, used few colours as they were often made from what was available locally. Some colours were mined from ‘ochre pits’, being used for both painting and ceremonies, with ochre also traded between clans and at one time could only be collected by specific men within the clan. Other pigments were made from clay, wood ash or animal blood.

Authentic Aboriginal Art

Exploitation
There have been cases of some exploitative dealers (known as carpetbaggers) that have sought to profit from the success of the Aboriginal art movements. Since Geoffrey Bardon's time and in the early years of the Papunya movement, there has been concerns about the exploitation of the largely illiterate and non-English speaking artists.

"People are clearly taking advantage...Especially the elderly people. I mean, these are people that, they're not educated; they haven't had a lot of contact with white people. They've got no real basic understanding, you know, of the law and even business law. Obviously they've got no real business sense. A dollar doesn't really have much of a meaning to them, and I think to treat anybody like that is just… it's just not on in this country."Call for ACCC to investigate Aboriginal Art industry

Authentic Aboriginal Art,Tommy Carroll painting  Nowanns – Doon Doon




Australian Senate Inquiry
In August 2006, following concerns raised about unethical practices in the Indigenous art sector, the Australian Senate initiated an inquiry into issues in the sector.

"The material they call Aboriginal art is almost exclusively the work of fakers, forgers and fraudsters. Their work hides behind false descriptions and dubious designs. The overwhelming majority of the ones you see in shops throughout the country, not to mention Darling, are fakes, pure and simple. There is some anecdotal evidence here in Darwin at least, they have been painted by backpackers working on industrial scale wood production."Sydney Morning Herald (2007) Backpackers fake Aboriginal art, Senate told

The inquiry's final report, handed down on 21 June 2007, made 29 recommendations, including:



Greater public funding for infrastructure in the sector.

More intensive policing efforts to try and eliminate unethical business practices.

Adoption of a code of practice across the sector.

Government agencies and collecting institutions to implement a code when dealing with Indigenous visual art.

The report also raised the prospect of law reforms if necessary to change the way the industry was regulated.



Authentic Aboriginal Art

Artlandish Aboriginal Art Gallery is showcasing to the World, one of the largest and most comprehensive on line Galleries of Authentic Australian Aboriginal Art and Artefact's.


Enjoy the wonderful talent of the artists presented, which reflects their country and a culture which is timeless.

Authentic paintings such as Rusty Peters and Tommy Carroll  are available from Artlandish see their collection

List of Australian Opals

 

Some say you have to be a bit crazy to mine opal, the heat, the flies, the isolation, but the sacrifices made can be very rewarding.

All the Australian opal fields are situated in arid inland areas of the Outback, and the opal is found at shallow depths, normally less than 30 metres, in deeply weathered rock in which there has been considerable silica movement.

What is opal?

Australian Opal is an amorphous form of silica related to quartz, a mineraloid form, not a mineral. 3% to 21% of the total weight is water, but the content is usually between 6% to 10%. It is deposited at a relatively low
temperature and may occur in the fissures of almost any kind of rock, being most commonly found with limonite, sandstone, rhyolite, marl and basalt. 97% of opal is produced in Australia.
Australian Opal ranges from clear through white, gray, red, orange, yellow, green, blue, magenta, rose, pink, slate, olive, brown, and black. Of these hues, the reds against black are the most rare, whereas white and greens are the most common.

Worlds Largest
The town of Coober Pedy in South Australia is a major source of opal. The world's largest and most valuable gem opal "Olympic Australis" was found in August 1956 at the "Eight Mile" opal field in Coober Pedy. It weighs 17,000 carats (3450 grams) and is 11 inches long (280 mm), with a height of 4¾ inches (120 mm) and a width of 4½ inches (115 mm). It is valued at AUD$2,500,000

Sinking A Shaft



Although this is one of the most effective ways of finding opal, it is really hard work. The length of the shaft could be as little as three metres or as long as 20 metres. A drilling rig with a large bucket auger would save a miner several days of hard hand digging.


A variety of miner's tools are needed, including a hand windlass or motorised winch that is placed over the hole to lift dirt to the surface or by using large Vacuum machinery.

 Puddling And Rumbling


This technique is used particularly at Lightning Ridge. Once the opal dirt has been transported from the shaft by trucks, puddling is performed at specially constructed dams.
A puddler is a large mesh-lined drum attached to a motor. This device rotates and turns the clay into sludge as water is pumped into the drum. The sludge escapes through the mesh. Only the hard pieces - rocks, stones and 'opal nobbies'- are captured in the mesh.



Open-cut Mining


This mining technique is created by running over a large area with a bulldozer, slicing through thin layers of sandstone until the opal level is reached. Although this method is more expensive than shaft mining, the chances of finding opal are increased because such a large area is being covered.

Noodling


In simple terms, a noodler is a person who goes over what other miners have discarded as 'dud' mullock heaps. All that is needed is a sieve and a very keen eye. An abandoned open-cut mine is another good place for a noodler, using a rake and sieve for tools.

Living Underground

 

Like the locals that live in the opal town of Coober Pedy South Australia, visitors can stay underground, at The Desert Cave Hotel.

Sleeping underground is a unique experience. Quiet, cool, dark and airy - the rooms are spacious with high ceilings. Most visitors say that sleeping underground gives them the best night's sleep they have ever had. It is an experience not to miss. The Desert Cave Hotel also has underground shops, a cafe, an opal interpretive centre, and an underground bar and gaming room. The hotel offers visitors the best opportunity to experience Coober Pedy 'dugout' living.

Get Rich

Tours are also available in Coober Pedy, where you will be supplied with a hard hat, torch and handpick, so you can get down and dirty, fossicking for your own fortune of opal.








TYPES OF OPAL

Agate Opal. Banded variety of Opal.



Amatite. Opal in the form of thick mounds, formed from hot silica-rich springs. See also Geyserite.



Amber Opal. Opal with a brownish to yellowish background colour, resembling Amber.



Andamooka Opal. Opal from Andamooka, South Australia.



Banded Opal. Form of common opal with colour bands. Synonym of Agate Opal.



Bandfire Opal. Precious Opal with play of colours in wavy bands.



Black Opal. Precious Opal with a black, dark blue, dark green, dark grey or similar darkly coloured background or base



colour. Black Opal is the most valuable form of Opal.



Bone Opal. Opal pseudomorph after a bone.



Boulder Opal. Precious Opal from Queensland, Australia, found in the cracks of, or as coatings on, ironstone or sandstone boulders.



Cachalong Opal. Opaque, highly porous type of Common Opal.



Cherry Opal. Orange-red to bright red variety of Mexican Fire Opal.



Chloropal. Common Opal similar to Prase Opal, but with a lighter green hue.



Chrysopal. Common Opal similar to Prase Opal, but with a golden-green colour.



Claro Opal. Transparent Precious Opal from Mexico with an intense red, green, blue, and yellow play of colour.



Common Opal. Any Opal lacking play of colour.



Contra Luz Opal. Precious Opal where the play of colour is visible only when a light source is behind the stone. Coober Pedy Opal. High quality Precious Opal from Coober Pedy, South Australia.



Crystal Opal. Transparent to translucent Precious Opal where play of colour is visible on the surface and in the interior of the stone.



Dark Opal. Synonym of Black Opal.



Diatomite. Opal replacement of microscopic shells of diatoms (type of microscopic organism) clustered together. It is white, opaque, and chalky in texture. Synonym of Tripolite, Fuller's Earth, and Diatomaceous Opal.



Ethiopian opal form welo and Gondar ,new ly discovered opal fields dierect from opal wholesalers and miners



Fire Opal. Fire Opal is incorrectly used to describe Precious Opal, or Opal with play of colour. The true definition of Fire Opal is Opal with an orange to red colour. If the Fire Opal displays play of colour, it is more correctly known as Precious Fire Opal.



Flame Opal. Precious Opal where the play of colour consists of red streaks or bands that flicker like a flame when the stone is rotated.



Flash Opal. Precious Opal with large schillers that abruptly appear and disappear as the stone is rotated.



Flashfire Opal. Synonym of Flash Opal (above)



Fossil Opal. Opal pseudomorph of organic matter such as shell, bone, and trees.



Gelite. Opal (or Chalcedony) as an accessory mineral that acts as the bonding agent of Sandstone or other cemented rock fragments.



Geyserite. Opal formed from deposition of hot water springs. Also called Perlite, Fiorite, or Geyser Opal. See also Amatite.



Gilson Opal. Synthetically produced Opal.



Girasol. Yellow or orange variety of Precious Opal in which the play of colour seems to follow the sun as the stone is rotated.



Glass Opal. Synonym of Hyalite



Gold Opal. Common Opal with a golden hue.



Harlequin Opal. Precious Opal in which the play of colour is arranged in a consistent harlequin, diamond-shaped, or rectangular-shaped pattern that is very vivid. Harlequin Opal is one of the rarest and most prized forms of Opal.



Honey Opal. Transparent to translucent Opal with an orange to orange-brown, honey-coloured background. It may or may not display play of colour.



Hungarian Opal. Any Precious Opal from Europe. However, nowadays this term often refers to any White Opal, regardless of where it was found.



Hyacinth Opal. Synonym of Girasol



Hyalite. Colourless, misty-blue, or sky-blue transparent variety of Common Opal. Usually forms botryoidal masses as well as strange and unusual forms. All Hyalite fluoresces green.



Hydrophane. White, opaque, highly porous Opal, that, when placed in water, allows the water to seep into it. This causes the stone to become transparent and almost invisible while in the water.



Iridot. Old name given to Opal for a short period of time when Opal had a reputation of causing bad luck.



Isopyre. Impure, dark red form of Opal. Isopyre was once thought to be a separate mineral.



Jasper Opal. Brecciated Jasper in which the cementing material is Opal.



Jelly Opal. A transparent Precious Opal with a gelatinous appearance and a bluish sheen. Jelly Opal may also refer to a colourless, transparent Common Opal.


Lechosos Opal. Precious Opal with a milky-white background colour displaying a strong play of colour. May also refer to Opal with a strong green schiller.



Lemon Opal. Common Opal with a lemon-yellow colour.



Levin Opal. Precious Opal with long and thin, lightning-like flashes.



Light Opal. Synonym of White Opal.



Lightning Ridge Opal. Opal from Lightning Ridge, New South Wales Australia. Although different forms of Opal are found there, this term usually represents the high quality Black Opal found there.



Lithoxyl Opal. Wood Opal where the original structure of the tree is very apparent.



Liver Opal. Synonym of Menilite (below)



Myrickite black glass. A yellow-green Common Opal with black inclusions an imitation Opal produced from resin




Menilite. Opaque, greyish-brown form of Common Opal. Also known as Liver Opal.



Mexican Fire Opal. Form of transparent Opal from Mexico, usually with an orange or red colour, highly desired as a gem. Although scientifically considered a Common Opal, it is rather rare and much sought after. If it exhibits a play of colour, it is known as Precious Fire Opal.



Milk Opal. Opal with a milky-white colour. Controversy exists whether the name Milky Opal is coined for a milky white Common Opal or a milky white Precious Opal.



Moss Opal. Common Opal containing inclusions resembling moss.



Mother of Opal. Precious Opal with bright colour specks filling the pores of sandstone or ironstone.



Mother of Pearl Opal. Banded Opal used as cameos.



Mountain Opal. Opal from igneous environments. Also called Volcanic Opal.



Neslite. Common Opal similar to Menilite, but darker grey in colour. It was once a popular material for sword handles.



Nevada Opal. Opal from the Virgin Valley (Humboldt Co.), Nevada.



Onyx Opal. Common Opal resembling banded Onyx.



Opal Matrix. Thin layer of Precious Opal on host rock. Small rock fragments are used in jewellery.



Opaline. Opaline is synonymous with Opal Matrix (above), but was also an old term used to describe Opal from Australia.



Opalite. Opalite has many connotations. It may refer to an impure form of Opal



Opalized Bone. Synonym of Bone Opal



Opalized Fossil. Synonym of Fossil Opal



Opalized Shell. Synonym of Shell Opal



Opalized Wood. Synonym of Wood Opal



Painted Boulder. Sandstone boulders with a coating of Precious Opal. When used in jewellery, this term is synonymous with Opal Matrix.



Pearl Opal. Synonym of Tabasheer



Pineapple Opal. Opal pseudomorph after Ikaite that resembles a pineapple. It is found only in White Cliffs (New South Wales), Australia. The pseudomorphed mineral was originally thought to be Glauberite, but studies now prove it to be Ikaite.



Pinfire Opal. Precious Opal with very small, pinhead-size colour flashes.



Pinpoint Opal. Australian synonym of Pinfire Opal



Pipe Opal. Opal formed as a filling of long, cylindrical cavities in rock. Pipe Opals range in size from several inches to many feet.



Pitch Opal. Yellow to brown Common Opal with a pitchy lustre.



Potch. Australian term for Common Opal.



Prase Opal. Green to dark green form of Common Opal.



Precious Fire Opal. Fire Opal displaying play of colour.



Precious Opal. Any Opal exhibiting a play of colour.



Prime d'Opal. Synonym of Mother of Opal



Pyrophane. Precious Opal in which the play of colour wanders about and reappears at random. This term is sometimes incorrectly used to describe Girasol.



Queensland Opal. Synonym of Boulder Opal



Quinzite Opal. Rose to pink coloured Opal. It is usually without play of colour, but a few examples displaying play of colour are known. Quinzite Opal is synonymous with Quinzite, Quincite, Quincite Opal, and Rose Opal.



Radiolite Opal. Common Opal of a smoky-brown colour caused by inclusions of the exoskeletons of a unicellular marine organism known as radiolaria. May also be called Radio Opal.



Rainbow Opal. Precious Opal where the play of colour is seen in curved bands, somewhat resembling a rainbow.



Red Flash Opal. Precious Opal with red colour flashes that swiftly appear and disappear as the stone is rotated.



Resin Opal. Common Opal with a yellow-brown colour and resinous lustre.



Rumanite. Opal from Romania.



Seam Opal. Opal found in the seams or large cracks of rock. May also specifically refer to masses of white Common Opal containing bands of precious White Opal.



Semiopal. Term sometimes used to describe any type of Common Opal, but many times alludes to particular forms of Common Opal, such as Wax Opal, Prase Opal, etc. Semiopal is also written as Semi-opal, and is synonymous with Half-opal.



Shell Opal. Opal pseudomorph after a shell.



Slocum Stone. A synthetically grown Opal. Also called Slocum Opal.



Sun Opal. Name that describes several types of Opal. May refer to Fire Opal, Mexican Fire Opal, Honey Opal, or Amber Opal.



Tabasheer. Opal occurring as an organic by product. It forms by the hardening of a secretion issued from certain bamboo, forming a porous, rounded mass of Opal.



Virgin Valley Opal. Opal from the Virgin Valley (Humboldt Co.), Nevada.



Wash Opal. Waterworn Opal pebbles from alluvial deposits.



Water Opal. Synonym of Jelly Opal



Wax Opal. Yellow to brown Common Opal with a waxy lustre.



White Cliffs Opal. Opal from the White Cliffs, New South Wales, Australia



White Opal. Precious Opal with light body colours (white, yellow, cream, etc.). Differentiated from Black Opal, which has a dark background colour.



Wood Opal. Any Opal that formed a pseudomorph after wood from a tree, and retains the original shape and appearance of the wood. Wood Opal may refer to both Common Opal and Precious Opal, but the term usually refers to large pieces of Common Opal.



Yowah Nut. Small, rounded form of Boulder Opal from Yowah (Queensland), Australia in a nodules embedded in ironstone. Closely related to Boulder Opal, it occurs most often as walnut-sized ironstone nodules containing pockets, veining, or sprinklings of vivid Precious Opal.

The Australian Outback

The term "the outback" is generally used to refer to locations that are comparatively more remote than those areas named "the bush". The Outback is the vast, remote, arid area of Australia.

What Religion are aboriginals?

Aboriginal religion, like many other religions, is characterised by having a god or gods who created people and the surrounding environment during a particular creation period at the beginning of time. Aboriginal people are very religious and spiritual, but rather than praying to a single god they cannot see, each group generally believes in a number of different deities, whose image is often depicted in some tangible, recognisable form. This form may be that of a particular landscape feature, an image in a rock art shelter, or in a plant or animal form.

As opposed to Christians and believers of many other religions who go to a church or a mosque to pray, Aboriginal People express their beliefs in spiritual rituals. In the old days when they all lived traditional life, they went to their sacred mountain or any other natural feature that was believed to be their creator (different tribes had different objects), and they performed spiritual ceremonies.



Similar to other religions, there was a time in Aboriginal belief when things were created. This “Creation Period” was the time when the Ancestral Beings created landforms, such as certain animals digging, creating lagoons or pushing up mountain ranges, or the first animals or plants being made.

Many Aboriginal People have also changed their beliefs since European invasion. Early missionaries forced them to learn the Bible, so there are some Aboriginal People who are Christians. There are even some Muslims, even though they are much fewer than Christians.

But most Aboriginal People haven't given up their original beliefs, they still believe in their own creation story, although probably in a new perspective. They now know that they have been in Australia for 60,000 years, so the Dreamtime has now changed from "the beginning of the time" to 60,000 years ago.





God is either necessary or unnecessary. 
God is not unnecessary, therefore God must be necessary.


Therefore, God exists.