Mintabie was once thriving, flowing with booze, drugs, cash and some of the world’s best opals. Now it’s a smashed-up ghost town left to rot. Why? Locals and Traditional Owners demand a path forward?

HE walks down into the belly of the mine with his eyes fixed on its floor, scanning for the stone he hopes will make him rich. The heat would be enough to keep most men indoors and the glare from the ...

In the dead heart of Australia, a once-thriving opal mining town which became plagued by drugs and violence has been completely wiped off the map - like it never even existed. Mintabie stood on baked ...

In the baked centre of the Australian outback a once-thriving - and wild - opal mining town stands abandoned in the red dirt, four years after it was forcibly shut down. Mintabie is about 1120km north ...

Mintabie is a small place and Davies says he has confronted the person he suspects of lighting the fire a couple of times but he says no charges have been laid. Nor have they over the pub fire. The ...