00:03I believe I was directed to Opal.
00:06There are things that guide you to a certain place.
00:09Barb Moritz feels she was always meant to be in Lightning Ridge.
00:13A long way from where she grew up in the cornfields of Iowa in the American Midwest,
00:18Ms. Moritz has dedicated her life to researching and sharing the history of a place she has
00:23called home for more than 35 years.
00:26If you're moving to a new community, you need to know what makes up the community.
00:32And with luck, you'll contribute your little bit to it.
00:35Using original miners' ledges and other records, Barb and the local historical society pieced
00:40together their version of the town's past, painting it onto car doors which punctuate
00:45the winding dirt tracks that stitch together a patchwork of residential claims and opal fields.
00:51People lock their car doors because they're afraid maybe one will go missing, because
00:55we're always on the scrounge for car doors.
00:59The tours navigate visitors to locations the society has deemed most important to Lightning
01:05Ridge's history.
01:06One of those sites is the place where Charles Nettleton first dug for opals.
01:11And he was the first professional opal miner who came to this country.
01:15It's always been common knowledge to the locals that Jack Murray was the first miner here.
01:19In a small place like Lightning Ridge, defending the town's reputation is close to the hearts
01:25of many, and history has become a point of contention for some.
01:30Seven or eight other miners here before Nettleton turned up, but for some reason the historical
01:35society have fixated on Charlie Nettleton.
01:37Ms Moritz believes Murray's discovery was more of a lucky coincidence.
01:41He was out setting rabbit traps when he picked up pretty rocks.
01:45He may not even have sunk a shaft.
01:46We don't know that.
01:47Their debate over various details in town has led Pete to stake his own claim on history
01:53with a rival car bonnet tour.
01:56I thought I'd try and inform visitors to Lightning Ridge where the very early discoveries of opal
02:02were made.
02:03Since then, several have sprouted along the town's historical fault lines in an attempt
02:08to set the record straight.
02:09I'm trying to clarify the story.
02:12They are clouding the issue by not telling the full story.
02:17Nettleton's monument may have been built to honour the beginning of one version of history,
02:21but from atop the lookout, the Gamilaray Yawalari woman, Aunty Rhonda Ashby, sees an ancient
02:27path stretching beyond the horizon.
02:29Dreaming story, or Borogoo.
02:32These ridges were created by our creator so he could look out over country.
02:36So our creator came down from the north.
02:39For her, not enough has been done to understand the stories that cannot be found in miners'
02:44ledges or painted onto a car door.
02:47You know, there's a voice there for our mob, an Indigenous-led tourism here in Lightning Ridge.
02:52There's place names still in language and narratives.
02:56You have to talk to First Nation people or Indigenous people to get that deeper meaning
03:01and stories.
03:02A town with a history that has more than one author.
