TOD Tour 2.0 Day 3 - Amigo’s Castle & First Shaft Lookout

Look, we did other things as well - shopping, precautionary visit to the GP, coffee - but there is no doubt, finally getting an inside view of Amigo’s Castle was a definite highlight of our last day in Lightning Ridge.

We had seen it from the outside twice previously but swung by again today on the off chance. Sure enough, the informative and engaging Anita was on hand to give us the history of the building and its creator, Vittorio Steffanato aka Amigo. How did this very shy man build this very loud building? How did he come to be at the centre of a controversy and how did his now 27 year old building, still unfinished, come to achieve heritage listing?

Vittorio came to Lightning Ridge in the early seventies, pegged out his 50 x 50 metre claim and dug his first well in search of black opal, right in the forecourt of what is now his castle. As with the three that followed, the well was dug 30 feet (about 9.1 metres) without mechanical aid. None of them returned success and by the mid 1980’s, Amigo, as he was now known, had become disenchanted with mining. As a result, he would mine in the morning and started to build with the ironstone in his and others slag heaps in the afternoon. Once he started, he could not stop and as the height of the walls increased he used planks on 44 gallon drums, on planks on 44 gallon drums, on planks on 44 gallon drums ...

By the early 2000’s, the world had changed and Green group began a movement that would end in court, claiming Amigo was changing the environment for little critters, by removing iron stone rocks from across the district and relocating them to his castle. The complaint was dismissed when the judge found in favour of Amigo, ruling that he had not removed the rocks, just relocated them. Next came the council, who discovered Amigo had built a dwelling where he should have just mined but there case was complicated in that the council boundary ran straight through the middle of the property. Regardless, they announced the intention to bring in the dozers. The residents of Lightning Ridge would not hear of it and in a fiery public meeting at which Amigo sate quietly while others did the talking, a compromise was worked out. To save the property, the council applied a heritage listing over it, which would Amigo from building further but would preserve what he had done. It must be the youngest heritage listed building in Australia!

Amigo lives out the back, where he is slowly building a more conventional and approved dwelling, while visitors speak with Anita. He wants only to live in peace.

How did Vittorio become Amigo? In his early days, he would attend dance looking for a companion and would always where a Mexican sombrero. Ridge locals tagged him Amigo and it stuck.

The castle itself is a fascinating building, reminiscent in its romantic intentions to Paranella’s madness outside of Innisfail in Qld but using much better construction techniques. Probably the most interesting thing to see in Lightning Ridge, it reflects both the unusual character who have come here and the manner in which they band together when authority threatens.

The first shaft

Late in the afternoon, we followed Green Car Door trail up to the First Shaft Lookout, back to the west of the Ridge. It marks the spot where Charlie Nettleton sunk the first shaft, up in the hill to the east of what is now the Castlereagh Highway. There are lots of shafts in the area but few active claims and none of the infrastructure characteristic of the rest of the are. There are few of the ramshackle dwellings or the discarded, broken machinery. Nearby is tin can house, started by Gary Holms in 1977 and made largely of cans. The initial stages of the walls were large rocks but these proved too heavy for his young children to cart so Gary reverted to cans. To provide light, bottles were placed in "windows". It was never finished but several have attempted restorations, including Pete Gizinski, who has owned it for 15 years. Judging by appearance, its a long haul job.

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We've learned a lot in this interesting, far corner of the state. Its been a good place to start and has set the tone for the TOD Tour 2.0.

TOD Tour 2.0 Days 1 & 2 - Lightning Ridge

25th July: 410 kms (cum. 410 kms)

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We spent most of the day driving the 424kms from home to Lightning Ridge. Stops in Gunnedah, Narrabri (for lunch) and then on to The Ridge. Our digs are at Lorne Station, which sound more romantic and rustic than the more commercial parks in town. Unfortunately, they were more on the rustic side - all dirt sites (which you expect out here), very dated toilets and not a lot else. Still the folks who run it are friendly, its cheap and the other guests are pretty laid back. We have discovered we have arrived for the International Opal Festival. Our anticipation is palpable.

26th July

After a good night’s sleep - not always a given on the first night of a tour - we eventually made our way into town by mid morning and slap bang into the middle of the annual opal festival. Trip Advisor were spot on with their recommendation of the Morilla's Cafe, where despite a packed clientele who were fighting each other for seats and tables, delivered an excellent coffee in a remarkably short time given the circumstances.

Armed with pamphlets we had gathered at the tourist information centre prior to coffee and a plan which stemmed from them, we started the tourist part of the day with a wander around town on foot … essentially up and back along Morilla St.

Prize for the most amusing sign belonged to the Wallangulla Motel, who were offering a “rough and rub” in room 22. Lawrence was your man. It transpired that was a description of the state of an opal.

We visited the Opal Cave, a business which sells opals in all their varieties and qualities. It’s a big shed but the interior has been stylised into a cave. The lady there was extremely helpful, explaining the black opal in its varying forms. There were some stunning examples.

Just when we thought we had seen everything opal, we reached the car park and shed space that is the heart of the opal festival. Think the biggest market you have ever seen but all the jewellery is expensive and high quality. I soon bored of looking at trinkets and instead struck up conversations with some of the friendly vendors.

Kerry Chappell from Yowah Opal, is based in Newcastle and travels eight or nine months of the year selling black opal but not just in Australia. The Yanks can’t get enough of her product so she keep stock in safety deposit boxes on the west coast of USA and travels there a couple of times to secure sales. Today, her mum was assisting her and was happy to spruik her daughter’s achievements.

Deborah de Dragon of d.d.dragon dezigns is a glass artist but not in the same was as Anthony Mundine and his glass jaw. She was a creator of lead light work before switching to the glass pendants she now designs and creates. Her pendants are marked by how bright they colours are and the angular designs which reminded me of the sort of identity pendants Dr Who villains all stemmed to wear in the 1970’s. she is proud of the fact that no two are the same; the difference she says means what she does is art, not craft.

I also spoke with a lovely older lady from Gulgong who grows lavender and then packages it in many interesting ways. We had had an extensive gas bag about Gulgong because as she says, she rarely meets people who know where it is, let alone what’s in it. Like probably all of the vendors, she tours on a circuit every year. I’ll freely admit, I don’t understand the attraction of the opal festival, nor how folks make a living selling it but whatever floats your boat takes you over the ocean and that’s a good thing. It’s certainly better than sitting in our home port dreaming and not acting.

After lunch, we wandered, largely filling in time to see two attractions which we eventually decided to pass on. There are several self drive tours, called the Car Door Tours, each a different colour. They are supported with sheet of information, some of which is a little strange. For instance “door 8 - keep driving until door 9”. Is it just me? We went to one attraction said to be the 2nd best attraction in the outback, which seems both a bold and yet slightly underwhelming claim. It was open everyday until 5pm but was closed at 2pm, next tour at three. It seemed as though it would have been interesting but the price of interesting and the difficulty following advertised opening time somehow deterred us.

Swapping door colours and driving through derelict Warrangulla which is the original town section of Lightning Ridge (although it was originally called Nettleton's Hill after it's white founder) we pulled up at a mine tour which was highly regarded and open and … we realised we had seen it before. Eagerly, we went on to our third anticipation, Amigo's Castle, anticipated largely because previous you could not tour inside the castle walls - yes castle … I know, I know … it’s not France, get a grip - but hard to imagine, open daily 10 till 4 seven days, actually meant closed at 2:30 on a Friday. We did what we did last time and took pictures of the bizarre creation of towers and castle walls from a man, who at your kindest, you could say had a furtive imagination.

On to the Bottle House: one of the first in Australia to be constructed using bottles made into walls and fixed with mud mixtures. Started in the 1950 by a German immigrant, it’s two rooms were expanded in the 1980’s. A one bedroom construction - it has some mezzanine boards in the steep roofed original sectionals which held a bed - the construction is natty but these days, 90% of the museum pieces need removal to the local tip or at the very least, a bloody good clean. Admittedly, there are a few idiosyncratic items but in the main, this is a very old, very tired attraction which is even over priced at $10 a head. The decaying, five metre high, giant kangaroo in the car park, now more mange than macropod, probably sums things up.

David Badcock'c iconic gallery

Shining highlight for the day were visits to two art galleries: David Badcock’s outdoor art gallery and John Murray’s stylish gallery in town. With pieces featuring outback scenes - trees, birdies, old trucks - many of which were painted on sheets of tin, Badcock’s gallery is delightful and speaks to the character of he and his partner, who greeted us and hovered as we appreciated. Badcock is very much art for art’s sake. Murray is a different but no less talented artist. Many would consider his work too commercial, a term I despise. His artwork appears sharply drawn and crisp and it is marked by a quirky sense of humour, so a portrait of Tony Abbott in his red swimmers has a pronounced bulge where a budgie has curled into the crotch. Emus, dogs and cows all have distinctive personalities. Personally, I loved the light in his works and the cheeky manner in which he expresses it. It appears obvious but there are always other things to find in his pieces and it is these small things which often speak loudest. On the other side of his gallery, the exquisite photographic stories of Viki Murray, wife of John. These are serious artworks, many of them photographs on brushed metal. Impressive.

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Late in the day, we went to the most amazing hardware story either of us has ever walked through. Mr Cheap’s Hardware Store and most of it in quality brands. Where else would you find fine art supplies and teats for feeding puppies? Not only that, they have so much product on the footpath in front of the store that it takes half an hour to bring it all in at the end of each day. Only at The Ridge.