who generously donated the sparkly specimen to the Australian Opal Center after he discovered it, miraculously, in a bag of rough opal purchased from miners from the Wee Warra opal field.

The world’s finest uncut opal, a 998-gram gem called the Fire of Australia, has gone on permanent public display for the first time since its discovery more than 60 years ago. Valued at more ...

Away from the rough mining camps of inland Australia, the opal trade is also struggling on the tourist glitter strips of the coast. Marketed as Australia's national gemstone, opals have always ...

Also on show is the Fire of Australia, the finest rough cut opal in the world weighing 988 grammes. Oldman described the pieces as an “unmatched spectacle of ever-changing colours.” ...

The opal fields of Queensland, New South Wales and South Australia are spots to fossick for hard-won flecks of treasure and explore fascinating history. Opal – stunningly beautiful and ...

Photographer Tamara Merino and her boyfriend were driving through the desert in Australia in November 2015 ... a partly subterranean community and the opal capital of the world.

The bones, which were encrusted with sparkling opal, were taken back to the Australian Museum for public display. Two decades later, Foster took the fossils back and donated them to the Australian ...

The fossils were all found in a former opal mine and show glimmers of the brilliantly colored gemstone. Photograph by Robert A Smith, courtesy of the Australian Opal Centre This fossil is part of ...