Chambers of the Black Hand Lightning Ridge, New South Wales, Australia
By whitewebbs on 01-May-18. Waypoint GA12244

Cache Details

Difficulty:
Terrain:
Type:	Virtual
Container:	Virtual
Coordinates:	S29° 27.592' E147° 57.858' (WGS 84)
	55J 593506E 6740676N (UTM)
Elevation:	167 m
Local Government Area:	Walgett

Map

Whodunit State

Description

Another spot for a photo opportunity

While on the big isle attending the OzGeoMuster over Easter 2018 we continued on and visited Lightning Ridge. Lightning Ridge was the furtherst point north we travelled before turning around to head back home to Tasmania.

Lightning Ridge is famous for its black opals mined from the surrounding plains. It is also known for its Artesian Bore Baths, the John Murray Art Gallery and lots of other interesting places.

A must place to visit is the Chambers of the Black Hand Mine. Here, 11 metres below the surface are carvings in the sandstone walls and pillars by Ron Canlin. Ron started the Chambers of the Black Hand in 1996 and hasn't stopped carving. There are over 800 carvings of everything you can possibly imagine including dinosaurs, goblins, wizards, an Egyptian room, Disney characters, Australian Politicians etc. Ron begins the carvings by digging out a new space with a jackhammer, renders a wall and then begins carving with a small pick. The finer work is done with kitchen cutlery.

PLEASE NOTE THERE IS A CHARGE PER PERSON TO ENTER THIS AREA AND THERE ARE STEEP STEPS TO NEGOTIATE IN AND OUT.

To log a claim, please take a photo of your favourite sandstone carving, GPSr not required in the shot. My favourite was the gnome.

If you have a genuine photo of a carving already from a visit (not from the internet), please feel free to log a claim, as it is a long way to return.

If you arrive at GZ and do not wish to go underground or it is closed, please take a selfie at the coordinates or a photo of your GPSr in the shot above ground.

Hints

Rawbl

ROT 13:	ABCDEFGHIJKLM
	NOPQRSTUVWXYZ

Decode

Logs

02-Nov-24

wayn0

Great location! We combined the sculpture and mine tours. Our guide was very good and included some mesmerising stories. Also, we arrived in town during a heatwave so it was nice to wander around in 17 degrees!
Thanks for the cache Smile

Rated: for Overall Experience

02-Nov-24

C○3 ♀ Ɛ○<<○3

This was amazing! I'd seen it a while ago on TV and knew I wanted to visit it. Was a bonus to have a gca virtual cache there also. We did the full mine and gallery tour. It was hard to narrow down to my favourite piece but here it is attached. It had real feeling with it. And it's not David... he was a close second. Haha.

Thanks for the virtual.
I highly recommend this tour.

Rated: for Overall Experience

08-Oct-24

BigMatDozer

Another unique spot on our exploration of Lightning Ridge. The chambers of the black hand has such a mysterious and culty feel to it, which is great.

Thanks for the virtual cache highlighting another interesting place.

01-Oct-24

Shifter Brains

Visiting here again after 10 years and there are so many more carvings than last time.
The favourite one is the dragon that was just started when we were here last time.

Rated: for Overall Experience

18-Jun-24

Goldenwattle

I failed to find a GC cache here, but I could log this one. TFTC whitewebbs.

Rated: for Overall Experience

31-Aug-23

Dworley771

thanks found it easy, my first cache
DW
TFTC

22-Apr-23

Gullivers Travels54

Hi whitewebs we are staying in the area for a few days and just had to come and do your virtual cache TFT C

05-Oct-22

SpikeyMikey

I visited this place today and was totally spellbound. I'm in awe of the talent of Ron.
My favourite was the wounded lion...............so life-like.

19-Jul-22

Team737

We didn't do the usual touristy stuff today, just went caching, and saw more than the tour yesterday.... no surprise to me though!
My wife asked here - 'what do we have to do here?' - 'just get a photo of a sculpture...' - OK....
More than we expected, but in a good way, so after handing over $100-odd we descended into the mine/caves, and were pretty impressed. Definitely worth a look if you are around....
I liked the ANZAC memorial, but also the Egyptian tomb cave....

Rated: for Overall Experience

27-Jun-22

Snap Happy

To be honest, this cache wasn't loaded onto my GPS and only after logging another nearby cache did I see this virtual. However I did stop and take photos (as I do of most unique things) but did not have my nametag or GPS in the photo. Doh Well worth a visit.

The thing I love about caching is the interesting stories, the extra interest and attention you take when travelling, the sight-seeing, the history, the interests of the individual CO’s, the fantastic photo opportunities and sometimes finding places that even some locals don’t know about. I, like most cachers, look for more than a mint tin or a container under a bush. I appreciate the time that most CO’s take to construct a cache and write up a comprehensive listing and to create an interesting cache. I love travelling this big land of ours. I love taking the roads less travelled seeing the sights, the amazing colours, the natural beauty. I love the diversity of the land, the different scenes in the different seasons, the fresh air, the open plains, the lofty vistas and the magnificent waters. Dancing
I love the different coffee shops I find. I love every unique thing I photograph. I enjoy the times I cache with others but I usually cache on my own. I enjoy taking my time and meandering around rather than going from one cache to the next and so on… The geocaches are a great bonus of my travels. It's amazing to see the country in the eyes of a Geocacher. Thank you for adding this virtual cache to my real-life treasure hunt. I appreciate your efforts virtual whitewebbs. Clapping

Rated: for Overall Experience

04-Jun-21

Smittengranny

Pa brought me out here this afternoon collecting a variety of different caches. This was one that I found but he turned shy. TFTC Whitewebbs. Smile

Rated: for Overall Experience

18-Apr-21

Lis + Pete

On a tour of the Opal fields and a couple of Caches.

13-Apr-21

Opa Shrek

We're staying in Lightning Ridge for a few days and now that I've knocked over the GC cachers here, it's time to turn my attention to the GA ones. We visited the Chamber of the Black Hand on Sunday, and it's really too hard to pick my favourite as there was just so many that I loved ... but I'll go with this Star Wars one ...

Thanks for this great virtual whitewebbs.

06-Oct-20

Cosmonaut97

Found during day 9 of our family trip from Canberra to Broken Hill to Lightning Ridge to Canberra. We had been to Lightning Ridge back in ~17, but we weren't too into GCA then. Therefore this trip was full of GCA caches Smile

The tour wasn't on when we were here so has to go for the GPS puc instead. TFTVC.

Rated: for Overall Experience

07-Oct-18

Cybergran V

Thanks for bringing us here. Unfortunately we were too early in the morning to do the tour, but pfound plenty to look at elsewhere.

Rated: for Overall Experience

02-May-18

geono.

We visited the Chambers of the Black Hand before this virtual was published but with the generous logging rules, woohoo, {FTF}! Clapping

The carvings are mind blowing ........the quality, amount and location are so unexpected. The hardest part of this cache is picking a favourite. We took a lot of photos and didn't have a clear winner. They're all amazing but for the sake of this cache maybe the lighting helped the photography of the one we've included. Very Happy