Lightning Ridge | Coober Pedy | Queensland Lightning Ridge The Lightning Ridge Opal fields were discovered around 1895. Since then, the area has produced some of the finest opal ever found anywhere in the world including the now famous Black Opal. Lightning Ridge was originally known as Wallangulla. Local historians report that when a terrible storm past through the area earlier this century, a drover mending his sheep with his dog attempted to shelter them by taking cover under a low ridge. The ridge was struck by lightning, killing the drover, his dog, and 600 sheep. Consequently because of the incident, the locals renamed the area Lightning ridge and the name has stuck ever since. To this day, the town of Lightning ridge has flourished with $48.5 million worth of opal being mined from the area between 1987 to 1993. In recent times, the population of the town has exceeded over 8000 in the winter months. Methods of mining opal has evolved from using simple hand tools characteristic of the early days to the use of more sophisticated equipment such as, jack hammers or small hydraulic diggers which are used in conjunction with a blower. The blower operates by drawing clay from the earth through a series of pipes, which are then deposited in an awaiting truck and then transported to a puddling sight. At the puddling sight the opal clay is fed into an agitator, which can be described as a modified concrete mixer, this serves the function of separating the clay from the opal.