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<\/p>\nA $37 million monument being built to celebrate Australia’s national gemstone risks becoming a “white elephant” with work on the site indefinitely stalled in the face of severe financial losses.<\/p>\n
The new Australian Opal Centre in Lightning Ridge is about 85 per cent finished and was due to open last year as a showcase of the world’s greatest public collection of opalised dinosaur fossils and an array of valuable gems.<\/p>\n
It was pitched as a major tourist attraction for the north-western New South Wales town and attracted $29 million in government funding.<\/p>\n
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The Australian Opal Centre was set to showcase opalised dinosaur bone fossils, like these found in Lightning Ridge. (Supplied: Bob Smith)<\/p>\n
However, an independent audit last month warned that the not-for-profit organisation behind the project, Australian Opal Centre Limited (AOCL), could collapse.<\/p>\n
“A material uncertainty exists that may cast significant doubt on the [AOCL’s] ability to continue as a going concern,” the audit report said.<\/p>\n
“Unfortunately, at this stage, there is not the money available to continue with the build,” recently-appointed AOCL chairperson David Lane told ABC Western Plains Breakfast.<\/p>\n
He estimated the resumption of construction “could be a couple of years” away.<\/p>\n
“So, that will be put on ice for a time.”Construction stalls<\/p>\n
Construction at the site stopped last May, before the AOCL posted a $5.4 million cash loss for the 2024-25 financial year.<\/p>\n
“The project suffered cost overruns and inflation overruns,” Mr Lane said.<\/p>\n
Since May, AOCL has also been paying the builder a monthly site maintenance fee of “tens of thousands” of dollars, according to Mr Lane.<\/p>\n
“That has been an ongoing drain on the company’s resources.”<\/p>\n
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An aerial view of the centre in January 2025 shows the soaring ceiling that uses natural light to illuminate the interior. (Supplied: Australian Opal Centre)<\/p>\n
He said the AOCL’s new board, appointed in November, had resolved to end the builder contract, but an outstanding payment to the builder was still being negotiated.<\/p>\n
“There’s still a risk we may be insolvent,” he said.<\/p>\n
“But once we’ve got [the builder] paid out, then we’ll figure out how much we need and start rebuilding the business.”<\/p>\n
Finding ‘a way forward’<\/p>\n
The project was billed on its website as an energy-efficient “architectural icon” with a semi-underground design filled with natural light, “using ancient and cutting-edge modern technologies”.<\/p>\n
It has received $9.5 million from the Australian government, $17.5 million from the NSW government, and $2 million from Walgett Shire Council, alongside $1.8 million raised from community donors and benefactors.<\/p>\n
“It’s a significant investment, so it can’t be just left there as a white elephant,” Mr Lane said.<\/p>\n
“We just have to find a way forward, and that’s what the board’s committed to do.”<\/p>\n
The audit by Pilot Partners warned that the “significant doubt” of the organisation’s survival was due to cash flow.<\/p>\n
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By June 2024, the centre’s foundations were ready for the installation of 12-metre high wall panels. (Supplied: Australian Opal Centre)<\/p>\n
The report highlighted the overall negative cash flow of $5.4 million, with $15 million spent on construction and $9.2 million received from government grants.<\/p>\n
Daily operations also ran at a loss of more than $230,000 for the year, mostly stemming from employee and supplier costs.<\/p>\n
The AOCL still has nearly $1 million in the bank, but 93 per cent of that is tied to building-specific grants that must be spent on construction, meaning it cannot be used to pay the bills.<\/p>\n
A vision decades in the making<\/p>\n
The construction halt has been “a great disappointment to the community and people who’ve invested so much of their own time and money”, said Jenni Brammall, a palaeontologist and gemmologist who has been AOCL principal’s representative since 2004.<\/p>\n
“But good things can take time; the Sydney Opera House, which was a comparable visionary project, took even longer.<\/p>\n
“We really are close and we just need to retain heart, to find a way to completion.”<\/p>\n
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The foundations of the partially-subterranean centre in March 2024. (ABC Western Plains: Catherine James)<\/p>\n
The idea for the new centre was sparked in the late 1990s by a local group wanting to diversify Lightning Ridge’s economy and give Australia’s iconic gemstone a global platform.<\/p>\n
Ms Brammall said it grew from a small association working from a still-existing shopfront in the town to now 380 members around Australia and abroad.<\/p>\n
It fundraised more than $1 million for the project before all three levels of government decided to invest.<\/p>\n
“This is a small community punching way above its weight, delivering a nationally significant project,” she said.<\/p>\n
Possible council takeover<\/p>\n
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