Lumieres – images by Australian landscape photographer Simon Bayliss

Lightning Ridge

Outback NSW - Australia

You can read all there is to know about ‘The Ridge’ and even hear stories, but that will give you as much understanding as trying to smell a color.

The Black Opal is allusive but Lightning Ridge, its character and hospitality certainly are not. There is a wonderful welcome from the time you arrive – you can understand why some travelers stay. It is a wonderfully eccentric place and the eccentricity is comforting in this day of conformity.

You can experience sculptures underground, bottle-houses, castles, astronomy monuments, hills named ‘Lunatic’, ‘Pig’ and ‘Bald’, and even a pub crawl to ‘The Pub in the Srub’, ‘The Glengarry Hilton’ and ‘Sheepyard’ . And how do you find all these thing?.. look out for a colored car door. Make sense? Thought not… it will when you go though….
(Below is a selection of images, the Lumieres gallery contains more images of Lightning Ridge)