Adelaide’s Lady Mayoress, a gold necklace and a 30-year mystery over a ‘missing’ opal given to Austin, Texas as a sister city gift
THE mystery of the Lady Mayoress’ opal is a story of splendour, superstition and a bitter feud in the corridors of the Adelaide Town Hall - and after more than 30 years it can be revealed.
THE mystery of the Lady Mayoress’s missing opal is a story of splendour, superstition and a bitter feud among city leaders in the corridors of the Adelaide Town Hall, and after more than 30 years it can be revealed.
At its centre is a gloriously beautiful and precious South Australian-mined stone that cost Adelaide City Council a small fortune in the opulent 1980s, but which was banished from Australia over a fear it would bring bad luck, and hasn’t been seen since.
The council is now investigating the mysterious circumstances of its journey to America to celebrate a new sister city initiative.
Current Lady Mayoress Genevieve Theseira-Haese has asked the council’s archival team to review the mystery in the hope the jewel could return to South Australia.
“It is like an heirloom,” she said. “I want to know whether it is sentimental to Adelaide.”
The opal was originally set, with diamonds, in a gold chain and the jewellery was commissioned by the council in 1980 as a ceremonial piece to be worn by the lady mayoress. It cost $10,000 at the time, and would be worth $50,000 today.
It had been suggested to then lord mayor James Vincent Seaton Bowen that his wife, Natalie, should wear something similar to his ceremonial gold chains.
A fellow councillor, Constantine Bambacas, who owned a jewellery store near the Central Market, had obtained the “top class” opal from a Coober Pedy dealer at a heavily discounted price.
The gem was the showpiece of the 18ct yellow gold necklace, along with eight “brilliant” diamonds.
But three years later, lady mayoress Diana Watson, the wife of Mr Bowen’s successor, Arthur John Watson, would not wear it because of an ancient superstition. Thought since the time of the ancient Egyptians to have magical qualities, opals have also often been associated with bad luck and their brilliant colours likened to the “evil eye” of cats.
Dr Watson then ordered it be removed from the chain and gifted to Austin, the capital of Texas, during an official sister city signing, but his move provoked a bitter council split.
A two-page memo, dated July 1, 1983, and released from the council’s archive, records a heated conversation in an office corridor between Mr Bowen and acting town clerk John Williams.
Mr Bowen argued that a council resolution was “invalid” and needed ministerial approval. He told the council boss it “may be necessary for him to take out an injunction to prevent the Lady Mayoress Insignia being broken up”.
An angry phone call followed to Local Government department official R.G. Lewis, but the archive note — the only record of the dispute — states there was little further discussion.
The stone was eventually handed to Austin Mayor Ron Mullen. A large brass bull sculpture was given in return.
Mr Bowen, 92, of College Park, remains “very unhappy” about the incident, which his family only learned about on Thursday.
“The whole episode at the time, and the way it was done, was extremely disappointing to my wife and myself,” he said from his hospital bed, where he is recovering from a fall.
The row never leaked and remained largely forgotten until this week when details emerged at an official Lady Mayoress function and the chain — sans opal — unveiled from the archives.
The stone’s whereabouts remain a mystery. Former lord mayor Steve Condous, now 79, failed to find it on an American trip in 1989 when he was in office.
“There were strong feelings about it,” he said.
Mr Bowen, who established Chesser Cellar restaurant in 1964, said his former wife, who died in 2012 aged 85, would have been “overjoyed” if the opal returned. “If something nice can be done for the city that would be very good,” he said.
Dr Watson died in 1991 aged in his mid-60s. His wife declined to comment.