Lightning Ridge – Pub in the scrub crawl

Chris’ history lesson on the opal mining at Lightning Ridge, highlighted the number of displaced persons, including Vietnam vets, who have made the Ridge their home. But they have not lost their sense of humour. Everywhere we travelled, there were whacky signs, gardens with old tyres painted in bright colours, pieces of machinery and household items left abandoned and recycled and used for decorating pieces.

Chris took us on a pub crawl through the scrub. The closer we got to an establishment that catered for its patrons, who favoured a little or a lot of refreshments, we found we were being informed of the attributes of the watering hole with an assortment of colourful, artistic signs, all made from old vehicle parts. Car bonnets, boots, doors and anything that could be painted, and decorated was used to lure the weary traveller through the doors of the establishment.

The Grawin Club in the Scrub, was our first port of call. It boasted a nine hole golf course,with gravel fairways and sand greens, it being highly decorated and being patronised by golfers during our visit. The fairways wound through the forest trees and if you could hit around corners, your ball would bound along on the dry clay, but inevitably a tree would find you ball to put a stop to it. The Club house is constructed of cut timber poles and corrugated iron

Our next location was Sheepyard Inn, where the locals were gathering on the back verandah telling yarns and sharing jokes.

Inside there is a war vets wall, with names, service numbers and years of service of our veterans who served their country during World War 11, Korea, Vietnam, Afghanistan, The Falkland Islands and recent conflicts. This was of particular interest to us as Woolly had done National Service.

However, after our huge lunch at the Club in the Scrub, we just wandered around fascinated