Beyond the open plains of Walgett, in the land where any person can strike it rich, a local Lightning Ridge café is paying-it-forward.

The Opal Street Café was only established this year but has proven itself to be an invaluable asset to the community, with their Hidden Gems initiative allowing the community to truly shine.

In addition to the regular menu, locals can purchase a post-it note of any value, whether it’s worth one small coffee or a whole meal, as a donation to anyone who might be doing it tough, or simply in need of a pick me up. 

Owned by three proud local siblings - Natasha Turnbull, Robert Martinez and Priscilla Martinez – the café was started as a collaboration of their expertise, each bringing their own skills from their careers as pharmacist, physiotherapist and visual arts teacher to the table. 

“Although we are quite different, we are united in our love for community spirit, shared passion for quality products, and our dream to add to the many amazing experiences Lightning Ridge has to offer,” says Ms Martinez.

The Hidden Gems project was started after the region was plunged into lockdown, the stay-at-home orders creating a web of cancelled plans, lost work and lonely periods for everyone.

*The team from the Opal Street Cafe in Lightning Ridge. [L to R] Timothy Mizzi, Max McMaster, Natasha Turnbull, Priscilla Martinez, Robert Martinez.

For the café, it meant overwhelming amounts of food that even Mr Martinez’s students couldn’t conquer. Hungry to help the community, they announced that the café was giving away free food to anyone who was doing it tough.

“We were overwhelmed at the response. We had so many people come down to get something to eat. We also had so many people asking how they could contribute,” Ms Martinez said.

The buzz of providing happiness to the community was one that the café owners couldn’t let go of, sowing the seeds for the ‘Pay with a post-it’ idea, which they implemented the next day.

“There’s no judgement, no questions asked. You just grab a post-it and pay with that. It is the best currency,” she said.

While the owners donated the first few hidden gems – the aptly named post-it notes offering treats for opal mining town residents to redeem - within the first day hundreds of customers headed to the shop to either purchase a post-it or to cash one in.

“We hope that the hidden gems will continue to thrive, fill lots of bellies and put lots of smiles on the faces of the community.”