Lightning Ridge Bore Baths

In the opal-mining town of Lightning Ridge, hot artesian water rises from deep beneath the Great Artesian Basin into a circular open-air pool that steams gently under the outback sky. Free and open around the clock, the baths draw a nightly crowd of miners, travellers and locals who come to soak in the mineral-rich forty-degree water, spectacular beneath the stars. After a dusty day on the opal fields there is no better place to ease the bones. The bath is a fixture of Lightning Ridge life, and one of the great free pleasures of the far north-west.