From Nettleton
Letters Sent From a Ghost Town
Found at the former settlement of Nettleton near Lightning Ridge in north-west NSW, this brass seal was used at the local post office from 1912 when the area was bustling with opal miners and their families.
As well as the post office, Nettleton once boasted a school, boarding house, and shops selling flour and tea, as well as picks, shovels and ropes used to mine opal. Originally called Three Mile Flat, Nettleton was re-named after Charlie Nettleton (1862-1946), the determined miner who first recognised the potential of black opal.
The area was the most productive opal field in Lightning Ridge but, in 1913, the government cancelled commercial leases at Nettleton to encourage people to move to the New Town. Businesses were ordered to wind up. The settlement’s name change, to Lightning Ridge, followed well after the move – in 1963.
With the move the Nettleton seal, like the once-thriving town, was abandoned. It lay forgotten, except by the termites that devoured its wooden handle, until the 1980s when it was found and purchased by the Lightning Ridge Historical Society. Delighted to have the seal in the Society’s collection, a new handle was made from Needle wood.
The seal pre-dated Australian postage stamps and was used at Nettleton to seal envelopes with wax. The F.B. stands for ‘Foreign Branch’ and indicates it was used on mail destined for overseas which, at the time, would have been sent by ship. It was carefully made by Miller & Sons Ltd, Sydney, a company started in 1900 by Gustav Miller, a Swedish-born craftsman, the same business continues to manufacture badges and medals today.
Made in 1912, the seal is one of the few tangible items that hint at the flourishing history of this now deserted area.
