New England Tours
4, Hot Springs CapitalMoree Moli Town.
Leaving the sapphire city of Inverell, along the Gwydir Highway for 142 kilometers, you will arrive at Moree, the natural hot spring capital of New South Wales. On the way, you can also visit three attractions: National Transport Museum, Cranky Rock Nature Reserve, and Stahmann Pecan Nut Farm, the largest pecan plantation in Australia (reservation required in advance). When you arrive in Moree, you must visit George, an old overseas Chinese who has lived in the area for more than 30 years. He runs a Chinese restaurant and a hot spring hotel in Moree. He is now a district councilor of Moree. Two years ago, he challenged for the mayoral election, but unfortunately lost by one vote.
Jasmine was gazetted as a town in 1862. The Weraerai and Kamilaroi Aboriginal people were the earliest inhabitants of the area and their descendants still live here today. After jailbreak convict George Clark tells a story about a great river called Kindur in 1832, Major Thomas Mitchell travels to the area at the request of the acting governor. From 1826 to 1831 Clark lived with the Kamilaros in the Southland. Soon, squatters followed Mitchell to establish ranches, and in 1851, Englishmen James and Mary Bland arrived and in 1852 built a general store on the riverbank. The following year another post office was added. In 1857 the family sold all their possessions and moved to the Hunter area, but James died in 1858, leaving Mary with six children, so she returned to open another business, and in 1861 she opened the town's first inn.
The first local petty court was established in 1863, and a severe flood occurred in 1864. The first policeman arrived, and a police station was established in 1865. The first church (Wesleyan) was built in 1867 when there were only 43 people in the town. As settlement deepened, agriculture became a prosperous industry on the fertile black soil plains. Banking began in 1876 and the first local newspaper was published in 1881, when the population was 295. The word "Moree" comes from the Kamilaroi language and is thought to mean "long puddle" or "rising sun". In 1895, the Great Artesian Basin beneath Murraytown was developed, producing more than 13 trillion litres of water per day. In order to provide water for agricultural production, the drilling depth reached 910 meters underground. And underground hot springs were discovered.
In 1897, Sydney opened rail services, and now there are daily flights and trains to Moray. The town is located at the junction of the Newell Highway and the Gwydir Highway, 626 kilometers from Sydney. In the 2018 census, Moray had a population of less than 10,000.
Jasmine is a major agricultural centre, best known for its role in Australia's cotton growing industry, which was established in the early 1960s. Jasmine is home to underground Artesian aquifer springs renowned for their therapeutic properties. Therefore, hot spring themed tourism has become the biggest feature of the area. In addition, during the cotton flowering and harvesting season from April to May every year, endless cotton fields can be seen on both sides of the road, and the cotton is blown by the wind like snow. However, due to the confrontational relationship between Australian Aborigines and the government, local security is a major problem. Especially at night, you must pay attention to safety and do not park your car outside the hotel.
The largest and best-equipped spa in the area is Artesian Aquatic Centre.
Admission fee is $9 per person, no time limit. In addition to the natural hot spring, there are also saunas, gyms, massage spas, water parks, etc. The opening hours are from 6:00 am to 7:00 pm every day, with a break from 12-2:00 pm. For more information, please visit the official website: www.maacltd.com
In addition, there are some old buildings in the town, such as the Bank Art Museum, the largest wetland bird watching park in New South Wales, Gwydir Wetland, the Big Plane Amaroo Tavern (a real plane given to New Guinea by the Australian government in 1975), Mary Brand Memorial Park, Moree Information Centre, which sells local specialty agricultural products and pecan nut sightseeing tours, etc.
New England Tours 5, Lightning Ridge Lightning Ridge
Lightning Ridge, the world-famous home of black opals, is one of the three major opal producing areas in Australia. Commercial mining began in 1905, and the world's highest quality black opals all come from here. Opals have become the biggest economic lifeline of Lightning Ridge, and the annual Opal Festival has become a local gem culture feast, attracting the attention of gem lovers from all over the world.
Lightning Ridge is the most famous opal producing area in the world. It was not until the end of the 19th century that Europeans discovered the huge mining potential of opal ore here. With the opening of the first mines in 1905, the unique black opal soon attracted the attention of people in old mining towns such as Whitecliffs in New South Wales, the main home of white opal. Charlie Nettleton, an early pioneer of the region, walked 700 kilometres from Whitecliffs to see the black opals. After returning to Whitecliffs from Tulton, he established the market the following year and sold black opals to Ted Murphy, who later became the first permanent buyer of opal ore in Lightning Ridge.
The famous Lightning Ridge is a small town 768 kilometers from the center of Sydney. The earliest discovered black opal mine was in the center of Lightning Ridge town, which has a history of about 100 years. Now, after a hundred years of continuous expansion and mining, the mining areas are getting farther and farther away. At present, the nearest old mine is more than 10 kilometers away from Lightning Ridge Town. The farther mining areas are close to the border between New South Wales and Queensland, about 60 kilometers away from the center of Lightning Ridge Town. The town has a permanent population of more than 2,000 people with an average age of 51, of which about 201,000 are Australian Aboriginals. Many families rely on opals as their main or sideline business.
After nearly a century of development, the development of Lightning Ridge reached its most glorious period from the 1980s to the 1990s. At that time, there were about 6,000 mining areas, and the specifications of each mine were 50 meters x 50 meters. However, with people's continuous excavation and mining, the once rich opal resources are now becoming less and less. In addition, there is currently no high-tech detector to explore the storage of opal ore under the surface. Miners can only reap the harvest by constantly digging, cleaning and working hard. Therefore, it is indeed becoming increasingly difficult to dig out Lightning Ridge opals today, especially high-quality gem-grade opals, which have basically not been dug out in recent years. Although the black opal resources in Lightning Ridge are decreasing year by year, today, there are still about 800 mines still in operation. To be continued in the next episode
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