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Opal – The National Gemstone of Australia


Title: Desert Cave Tour NO SUPERS | Tourism Australia ©

Date Created: 2022

Region: Adelaide Hills | State: SA

 


Concentrated within is the spectra of colours that comprise our universe.


The variety of colours and quality of the gemstone depend on the geological richness of the place where its process occurs. The chemical conditions and combinations are very specific and difficult to find, they happen very rarely in nature.


Its origin is the factor that generates and maintains life on our planet, water.


Water deposited in clay cells that through the ages dries up, generating multiple and tiny spheres of silica dioxide, affected, and enriched by the geological conditions that participate in its evolution.

2019 Content Secondary Images - South Australia | Tourism Australia ©

COOBER PEDY DESERT CAVE HOTEL

Region: COOBER PEDY | State: SA


Opal has been found in Brazil, Mexico, Ethiopia, the United States, Canada, Peru, Indonesia, Honduras, Slovakia, and the Czech Republic. Each of these places produces a distinctive type of opal.


Australia is the largest producer of the finest, rarest, and hardest to find opal. Its main deposits are located in northern New South Wales, in Queensland and in the state of South Australia.


Opal mines familiarly known as "Monuments to the Tenacious Optimism of the Human Race".

2019 Content Secondary Images - South Australia | Tourism Australia ©

COOBER PEDY DESERT CAVE HOTEL

Region: COOBER PEDY | State: SA


According to aboriginal legends of the Dreamtime, the opal was created when the colours of the rainbow touched the earth. It is also known as the “Fire of the Desert”, the power that symbolizes Australia’s arid interior.

  • Black opal – It is considered the rarest and is highly valued. Although it is not completely black its colours are dark.

  • Light opal – Also known as white or milky opal.

  • Crystal opal – It is translucent and crystalline.

  • Boulder opal – It is extracted from a rock called ironstone.

An opal can have any range of colours organized in patterns that determine their names such as: Harlequin, Pinfire, Chinese Writing, Flower Garden, Mackerel sky, Flagstone and Rolling Flash.



Travel Notes: Latitude Z. Travel




2019 Content Images - South Australia | Tourism Australia ©

DESERT CAVE HOTEL

Region: Coober Pedy | State: SA


© Images & video by Tourism Australia

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