Support the most exciting project in Australia!
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At Lightning Ridge in outback NSW, we're going to construct an extraordinary building filled with glittering treasures from the earth. At the Australian Opal Centre you will marvel at precious opal gemstones in every colour of the rainbow and the world's greatest public collection of fossils made of opal - rare and valuable relics from the Age of Dinosaurs. And you'll share in the stories of resilience, ingenuity, mateship and humour for which people of the opal fields are famous.

All of this, in a groundbreaking, sustainable building that is the long-awaited masterwork of renowned Australian architects Glenn Murcutt and Wendy Lewin.

This remarkable community project is managed by Lightning Ridge Opal and Fossil Centre Incorporated, a not-for-profit group with supporters across Australia and in eight other countries. The people of the opal fields have so far donated items worth more than $2.4 million to our national collection, over $850,000 in cash and countlesss hours of work. With support from local, state and Australian governments they have developed a magnificent national collection and acquired a beautiful and historic site on the famous Three Mile opal field.

The Australian Opal Centre is a gift to the world from the people of the Australian opal fields. Now, we need your help to achieve our magnificent building. You can build a 21st century architectural icon and set a world record for the biggest crowdfunded project ever.

$28.5 million is required to construct the Australian Opal Centre. All we need is a million people to give $30 each, or 300,000 people to give $100 each. We can do it!

Give what you can, and we'll create a priceless treasure for you, your family, friends and generations to come. And we will record your name in a magnificent book dedicated to the people who brought the Australian Opal Centre into being. This book will be displayed at the Centre and you will be invited to come and sign it beside your name.

The Australian Opal Centre will be a global focus for research and promotion of Australia's National Gemstone, an international tourism asset, world class architectural icon and a dynamic stimulus to economic and cultural development in Australia's opal producing states of NSW, Queensland and South Australia – and beyond.

GIVE NOW
•  Click DONATE NOW. Donations over $2 are tax deductible in Australia. Make your
   donation, watch our total grow and leave a message to appear at the bottom of this
   page. (Shy types: you can choose to be anonymous.)

•  Tell everyone you know. Spread the news using email, facebook, twitter or other
   social networks. Or (radical!) tell someone face to face. Let's send this VIRAL!

•  Do you have a web site, blog, online or offline newsletter? contact us to request
   a link from your site to this page, or a promotional banner to direct your readers to us.

•  Raise funds for the Australian Opal Centre - set up your own fabulous fundraising web page in a few easy steps! Just click on 
FUNDRAISE FOR THE AOC and follow the instructions. Need a hand? Contact us!


Thank you for helping to build the Australian Opal Centre!

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GET YOUR EXCLUSIVE

DINO CLAY MEDALLION

Donate $30 or more and

 we'll send you a 

 Dinosaur Clay Medallion,

hand made exclusively

for donors to the 

Australian Opal Centre

Building Fund

using clay from the

Lightning Ridge

opal mines.

 

Each medallion has a year date

and has a unique serial number.

 

An AOC dino clay medallion

is a badge of honour - 

 

AND every medallion

gives you chance to WIN 

in AOC prize draws! 

 

Start collecting them now.

Start collecting them now!

* * *

 

 

 

 

 

 

Want to know more about the Australian Opal Centre? Visit http://www.australianopalcentre.com

Recent Donations

  • Anonymous Had the best time visiting lightening ridge, happy to support the town :) $21.80 24/08/2024
  • Tayyab Shoukat Support for regional community $272.50 31/05/2024
  • Cathy Colthorpe I visited the AOC in September during a work trip and was impressed with what they have achieved thus far. I look forward to bringing my family to see the new faculties when they get built. $272.50 26/01/2023

Top Donations

  • Sue and David Reardon and Family Time to change up a gear - let's get going... $2,000.00
  • The Gem Garden $1,060.00
  • Lomax Opals I wish the Australian Opal Centre every success. $1,000.00

 



Supporters Amount Message
Anonymous $21.80 Had the best time visiting lightening ridge, happy to support the town :)
Tayyab Shoukat $272.50 Support for regional community
Cathy Colthorpe $272.50 I visited the AOC in September during a work trip and was impressed with what they have achieved thus far. I look forward to bringing my family to see the new faculties when they get built.
James Scanlan $54.50 Looking forward
Pamela McGilvary $500.00
jamie joseph $272.50 We can't wait to come visit someday!!
Beau Kaph-Fancourt $54.50
Anonymous $59.40 Scientifically interesting fossils, replaced by an eye-catching mineral form, always an attraction. Great that these have not been purely scattered throughout the world as investments.
Dorothy McLaren $109.00
Lynne Jenkins $218.00
Marianne Webb $109.00
Joseph Welstand $54.50 I am renewing my membership In the AOC. I am at least one year behind in my dues. Apply this donation to a three year membership for Joseph Welstand,, 2675 Tamalpais Drive, Pinole, CA 94564 USA.. You should send me your newsletter by email. You would save a lot of money in postage..
Alice Cascorbi $109.00 I'm in the U.S. and love Australian opals, plus I love fossils. Just learned today in UnDark Magazine about this campaign to build the museum. Such a wonderful idea!!
Mike Wright $54.50
Penelope Brown $54.50
OPALINA PTY LTD $654.00 Wish AOC a very bright and successful future !! --Opalina Pty Ltd
Lifetime Jewelers, LLC $109.00 We are excited to visit your facility the week of February, 17 2019.
Dianne Mackey $54.50
Murray Doyle $250.00
Anonymous $54.50
Scott Robertson $54.50 I want to support this great cause because of my love and fascination with Australian Opal, especially the "fossils" from Lightning Ridge! We must preserve as many of them as possible, for future generations.
Ann Curthoys $265.00 A wonderful project.
Lise Jensen $31.80 I wish to contribute for the future generations to enjoy Opal, as this is a beautiful gem.
Les Field $26.50 Opals are entirely amazing and utterly remarkable. Black opals are over the top! Now combine that with dinosaur fossils, and there really isn't anything better in the world, now is there?!
Dianne Mackey $55.00
Mike Wright $53.00
RICHARD LONG $265.00
Vincent Pardieu $265.00
The Gem Garden $1,060.00
Jarvis Wei $30.00 Lightning Ridge deserves this!
Douglas Kesteven $344.50 best wishes to a project worth doing
Nola Hill $106.00 This donation comes from Dr Brian & Mrs Nola Hill Place in Brougham, Apt 610, 62 Brougham Place, NORTH ADELAIDE .SA 5006
Manning Opal Company, Incorporated $530.00 Manning Opal started in Australia in 1938. My dad, George T Manning arrived from Hungary, thanks to the good graces if the Australian immigration authorities. He began what was to be the most important opal cutting, marketing and trading company in the USA, from 1940 onward. I'm Gerry Manning. I grew up in the business and remain active today. Many of you, old-timers only by now, will remember my father and me. I hope so. It is wonderful that the younger opal community is carrying the opal torch well into the future. So, for my Dad (passed in 1977), for me, for my brother John (now passed) and for the wonderful life that gem opal has provided our family...a small contribution to the future. Many thanks for your hard work.
Isabella Lowe $106.00 I attended the 2016 week 1 dig through you guys. It changed my life! I'm pursing my dreams in palaeontology and I will be back to do more! This is the least I could do, thank you
Les Field $31.80
Mike Wright $31.80
Anonymous $2.12 here's hoping you'll find the skull of that enigmatic Lightning Ridge Theropod!!!
Lillian Bullard $200.00
Patricia Walters $31.80 We have fond memories of Lightning Ridge which we last visited 35 years ago with our children. Hope that AOC raises all the funds necessary for such an innovative project. Patricia and George Walters
Dot Crane $31.80
Mike Wright $31.80
Karol Doktor $53.00
Dean Utian $53.00
Susie Marosszeky $31.80 I hope this great idea becomes reality in my lifetime - would love to see it.
Lillian Bullard $250.00
Caitlin Carte $31.80
Ian James $106.00
Kay Jarrett $31.80
Noelle Dean $53.00
Bruce Cook $30.00
Roland Beckett $35.00
Heather Hooper $30.00
Jane Clain $30.00
June Cooper $30.00
Eva Knysz $30.00
Mark John Fitzpatrick $30.00
Robina Boardman $30.00
Peter Woodbridge $30.00
Tom Fauske $50.00
Elena Vitale $30.00
Judith O'Connor $30.00
Grae Meyer-Gleaves $50.00
Theresa Fox $30.00
Karen Webster $30.00
John Carter $30.00
Norma Thorburn $30.00
Diane Temple $30.00
Isabella Watt $30.00
Helen Croft $30.00
Alison & Richard Binns $60.00
Kevin Squires $30.00
Patrick Cairney $30.00
Kevin Williams $30.00
Thomas Thorburn $30.00
Thomas Thorburn $30.00
Kim Thorpe $30.00
Diane Worland $30.00
Janet Town $85.00
Dianne Barnes $35.00
Margaret Saunders $30.00
Stephen Allan $30.00
Terry Blanch $30.00
Museum Appreciation Society $100.00
John Watkins $30.00
Jan Grant $30.00
Garry Burton $30.00
David Traudt $171.00
Roddy, Ken & Phoebe Bell $100.00
Leonie Smith $30.00
Catherine Bye $106.00
John T. Thomas $50.00
Jodie Saville $30.00
Mike Wright $30.00
Philip Washington $30.00
Susan Dickenson $30.00
Frank Petersson $30.00
Sandra Amoore $100.00 October is my birthday thus opals are my stone. Just love the colours. Hope the fundraising goes well.
Kelly Gould $30.00
Heather Beames $30.00
Sebastian & Hanna Deisenberger $100.00 Good Luck with the Opal center