Please Note: In the photos where the three panels are lined up horizontally, as above the showcase, the "SLICED OPAL" panels are at each end and the "ROUGH OPAL" panel is in the middle.
These wall panels can easily be converted into UNIQUE DINING tables seating 6 persons or made into large COFFEE tables!
This is done by simply removing the glass top of an existing glass topped table and replace it with one panel and then place the glass on top of the Opal panel.
Ideally the glass top would be somewhat larger than the panel, so that plates and cutlery would not cover too much of the opals.
Putting the two sliced opal panels together, could make one long table or a large square table seating 12 persons.
These are the original full sized panels; many panels were cut into two, even four pieces.
These Boulder Opal Panels were made in the 1970's.
They were made by an Opal miner in Quilpie, Des Burton, who had hit the jackpot and were digging out more Opal than he knew what to do with.
One solution was to make 100 of these Opal panels, most of which were sold with some ending up in the USA.
One Opal shop back in those days had an entire wall of panels, placed in a vertical position (1.8m high) and with water trickling down them; quite a feature and a bit of a tourist attraction.
I am quite sure they didn't, but it would certainly have added another dimension to the feature wall, if at the bottom of the panels the water would trickle into a tank full of gold fish...
How many out of the 100 that he made are still "alive and thriving" as a feature in some home or office, is anyone's guess.
Boulder Opal was relatively inexpensive in the 1970's, but not so any longer, and over the years many of these panels were broken apart and the Opal cut and polished into proper stones for jewellery.
With Boulder Opal continuously increasing in value over the years, such stones could be worth anything from some tens of dollars and up into many thousands of dollars each returning a profit over and above what a panel could be sold for.
And, with the production of Boulder Opal having decreased over the last decades, and keep on doing so as less and less people are mining and finding less and less Opal, these panels are not only something quite special to have and enjoy, but without doubt also a good investment and, as they say these days; a win-win acquisition.
Each panel is 1,800 mm x 900 mm x 30 mm.
The base of the panel is a concrete slab.
The estimated weight of the two panels at each end with the sliced Boulder Opal is around 110 Kg - 120 Kg each.
The panel with the rough Boulder Opal in the middle is estimated to be around 120 Kg - 130 Kg.
We do not import, promote or sell Synthetic or Man Made Opal, nor any non-Australian mined Opal.
On 27 July, 1993, The Australian Government proclaimed Opal as the National Gemstone of Australia!
