FAMILY game night in Lightning Ridge is set to take on a whole new meaning of the phrase 'close to home' in a few months' time.

A former resident of the small Walgett shire township has recently unveiled a special edition of the popular board game Monopoly using locations in the community in place of the traditional spaces.

Glenda Partlett - who recently moved back to Newcastle after living in Lightning Ridge for two years - said she first had the idea to create a Monopoly board dedicated to Lightning Ridge in January 2021.

"With the community and local businesses going through COVID, I just wanted to give the community something to look forward to and bring some more tourism to the town," Ms Partlett said.

"I was thinking back to when I used to work for Bunnings in Canberra and how one year, Bunnings had their own Monopoly boards done and gave them out to staff for Christmas.

"So I knew Monopoly did special editions every now and then so I emailed Hasbro and didn't hear anything back for two months.

"They finally got back to me and said that while they weren't responsible for doing the special editions, they told me the company I did have to contact."

Over the following couple of months, Ms Partlett went through the application process - which included registering herself as a company - before finally receiving approval in May.

Then, the process of actually filling in the properties on the board began. Ms Partlett said businesses and individuals could purchase plots for a fee.

"By purchasing a plot, the people would get allocated a number of boxes of the game which they could then sell in their businesses to give them a way to get their money back and hopefully turn a small profit too," she said.

"The hope was that by the end of this, all the businesses would have prenominal advertising that virtually costs nothing.

"I'm also quite community minded when I do things, so 5 per cent of all sales will go to Lightning Ridge Rotary."

ABOVE: Former Ridge local Glenda Partlett first came up with the idea last year and is shocked by how much it's grown since then.

In addition to the properties instead being named after businesses, other parts of the board have also changed.

The four railways have been replaced by the Grawin Opal Fields, Three Mile Opal Field, Nobby's Opal Field and Coocoran Opal Field.

The Waterworks are now the local Artesian Baths and the Electricity Company has become the Opal Bin.

'Chance' and 'Community Chest' spaces are now called 'Miners' and 'Ratters', and depicts the two different sides of a 'Fire and Ice' carved opal which is on display in a local opal store.

Ms Partlett - who has since asked to make a Port Stephens version of Monopoly next - said she had been overwhelmed by how positive members of the Lightning Ridge community had been about getting on board with her board.

"I'm absolutely thrilled - I can't believe the excitement is as much as it is, it's gone from a little idea I had to so much more," she said.

"The whole town is going crazy over the game and that's what I wanted - people out here work hard in a hot climate and they deserve to be known."

One business which signed on to be on the board without hesitation was the Lightning Ridge Bowling Club.

Bowling club CEO Scott Bailey said they purchased the traditional 'Mayfair' space - the one just before 'Go' - for the club itself and 'Bond Street' for the motel in town they also manage.

"Lightning Ridge is a very unique place and to have it represented on something as iconic as Monopoly sounded like a spectacular idea," Mr Bailey said.

"In a perverse sense, it's almost like a map to follow around the community - from the old version of Monopoly I remember, it displayed all the significant places in London and this board is instead showing all the significant places in Lightning Ridge.

"I wouldn't be surprised if people passing through town are now more likely to visit opal shops and other attractions around town after them seeing on the board."

The bowling club is also displaying a special framed version of the board - which has tokens also uniquely designed and accessorised with real opal - to be put up for auction at a later date.

The playing editions will meanwhile be officially launched on Easter Saturday. Mr Bailey said he hoped the community interest around the boards would remain high in the meantime.

"I've got a couple hundred sitting within 10m of my office but we're not able to sell them until the launch date which is still so far away.

"At the moment there's a tremendous buzz around the boards, so I hope after all that time, that interest is maintained."