Andamooka Opal

The Andamooka Opal, also known as the Queen's Opal, is a 203 carat opal from the Andamooka opal field in South Australia, displaying a play of color in reds, blues, and greens. It was presented to Queen Elizabeth II in 1954 and has remained associated with the British royal jewellery collection since.

Opal was discovered at Andamooka in 1930, and the field became one of South Australia's important opal producers. The stone that became the Queen's Opal was mined there in 1949. It was cut and polished by John Altmann to its finished weight of 203 carats, about 40.6 grams, and set with diamonds into an 18 karat palladium necklet.

The people of South Australia presented the opal to Queen Elizabeth II in 1954 on the occasion of her first visit to the state, part of her first tour of Australia as monarch. The gift paired one of the finest stones the Andamooka field had produced with a setting commissioned for the occasion. Published accounts of the royal jewellery report that the necklace was worn during the 1954 tour and retained afterward; the Royal Collection's own cataloguing of the piece could not be independently retrieved for this entry, so its precise current custody is stated here only as the royal collection association reported in available sources.