Having Faith in the Ridge

When Madeleine Lenz (1917-2009) first visited Lightning Ridge in the 1950s, it was a rough, remote outpost with just 64 residents. The settlement had no town water, power or police—just a pub, a small store, and dirt roads riddled with potholes. The nearest doctor was fifty miles away at Walgett.

Despite its harsh conditions, Madeleine was drawn to the Ridge by stories told by her great uncle, Jim Denis, who arrived in the town to mine opal in 1905. A devout Catholic, she saw a need for her nursing experience and decided to make a fresh start there after selling her private hospital in Sydney.

In 1958, Madeleine set up a modest camp on the opal fields, enduring floods, basic living conditions, and the hostility and scepticism of the locals, who referred to her as ‘The Old German Bastard from the Three Mile.’

Life at the Ridge was challenging. Madeleine’s camp was a mix of corrugated iron, plastic sheeting, and wire netting, with only candles, torches and kerosene lamps for light. Her food was kept cool in a makeshift safe until she bought a kerosene refrigerator. Isolated but never alone, Madeleine kept a menagerie of unconventional companions: a Cairn terrier named Paddy McGinty, two lovebirds named Opal and Sweete, and Josephine the kangaroo.

Madeleine played a vital role in the community, using her nursing skills to care for local miners and graziers, including the malcontents determined to run her out of town. She balanced her nursing with mining and was the first to use machines to improve efficiency at mining. It was a bold move, sparking immediate resentment in an already hostile environment.

The miners held a meeting at the pub to try to oust her, but she secretly attended and bravely stood her ground. It’s not hard to imagine her with the prayer medallion in a pocket, running her fingers across the Lord’s Prayer as she stood up alone in the pub and faced the horde of enraged miners. Sabotage soon followed, and her tractor was blown up, but Madeleine persevered undaunted.

Although seldom acknowledged, Madeleine’s community spirit helped shape the town. Seeing a need for entertainment beyond the pub, in 1965, she established the Lightning Ridge Bowling Club, lending £64,000 to fund its construction. In the 1960s, she built a house; an opal souvenir shop; and installed a petrol bowser, bringing modernity to the town.

Madeleine died in Brisbane in 2009. Although she may not have been missed by some, throughout her time at Lightning Ridge her unwavering faith, grit and sense of adventure had shone through, and the town was undeniably better for it.