Alan Bartram OAM
Alan Bartram OAM. Alan Bartram has recently been awarded the “medal of the order of Australia in the Kings birthday honours list for June 2025. The award is for service to the opal mining industry and the community.
Alan Bartram OAM
SOME FAMILY BACKGROUND
Alan Bartram, is the son of Harry Bartram, who was the son of John Walter Bartram, known in the industry as Pop Bartram.
Pop Bartram was originally a pastoralist in south eastern South Australia. In 1936 he drove to Andamooka with a friend, mined there for the next eight years. Later other family members joined him and also moved to Coober Pedy to mine opal.
The family history is well documented by Don Bartram in his book:
“Opal Hunters, The Bartrams on the opal fields 1936-2021'“
You can read an excerpt about the Bartram’s family members here:
A discovery at the eight mile coober pedy.
In 1945 mining in Coober Pedy was almost dormant until an on field aboriginal woman Tottie Byrant, discovered opal in a shallow mine at what was to become the Eight Mile field.
Don Bartram relates Tottie and her white husband managed to disguise their find until January 1946, and they secretly sold five parcels of this magnificent opal to Jack Kemp, Ernie Sherman’ field agent at Coober Pedy. Among the first to rush to the new field were the Bartram’s. The families involvement in opal mining had begun.
Editors Note:
Within days of receiving the aforementioned parcel of opal parcel, Ernie Sherman and Greg Sherman arrived on the opal field. More information is contained in the life of Greg Sherman in a separate post about the buying stories in the Sherman archives.
alan bartram and the family buisness
Alan began cutting and processing opal in 1961 for his uncles Snow and Syd and he started an apprenticeship with them for four years which allowed Alan to develop his industry involvement. After a stint in the Vietnam War he returned and took up a partnership with his father in the opal business. The business continued to grow, and Alan and his father expanded their buying and trading.
Later in1977, the business evolved to include a high end jewellery business in Adelaide CBD. “The Opal Mine” jewellery boutique in 30 Gawler Place.
Bartram Opals Group and the Opal Mine, Adelaide, SA 1976 – 2021
Alan Bartram - CEO and Managing Director
· Responsibility for success of wholesale and export opal marketing operations
· Responsibility for all purchasing of opal rough from the opal fields and processing into finished gems
· Creation and organisation of Internet site
· Eight years of administration and participation in Group opal mining operations in White Cliffs, Lightning Ridge, Coober Pedy, and Andamooka
Alan Bartram’s business “The Opal Mine” won the number one tourism retail award in 1999 for tourism retailing. Here are some of the highlights of the announcement of the award:
On Friday 9th July at a gala Tourism Industry dinner for 600 guests in the Convention Centre, the Premier of South Australia, Mr John Olsen announced The Opal Mine Jewellery Boutique of 30 Gawler Place in Adelaide’s central shopping precinct as the winner of the Yellow Pages South Australian Tourism Award for Tourism Retailing.
This award recognises outstanding Service and Marketing initiatives attracting tourism dollars within our State.
Accepting the award Mr Alan Bartram, Managing Director of The Opal Mine, said ‘It is an honour to accept this award and be recognised by our peers as the number one Tourism Retail business within South Australia.
I am proud of our dedicated staff. Success comes through teamwork. Our clients will be as delighted with this award as we are. We will utilise this to promote Opals and South Australia at every opportunity in the future’.
Other outstanding achievements of the Opal Mine include
· Winner of the Jewel of Adelaide National Jewellery Design Competition in the Gemstone category
Accredited Aussie Host Gold Business through the Inbound Tourism Organisation of Australia
· Tourism Industry Accreditation by the Tourism Council of Australia.
International Exhibitions of Opal and South Sea Pearl Jewellery in Orlando, Florida and New York in North America and on three occasions in Singapore. These resulted in excellent publicity for both opal and opal jewellery, and were featured in some of the world’s leading jewellery magazines.
Industry Positions Summary
1973 - 1994 Australian Opal & Gem Industry Association Ltd
Continuously President or Vice President of the National Association (1974-1994)
Awarded Life Membership (1994)
1974 – 1979 South Australian Gemstone Industry Advisory Council
Inaugural member of the State Government/Industry body
1993 – 2001 Australian Jewellery and Gemstone Industry Council
Inaugural Member of Federal Government/Industry body
An extract from the Summer 1993 issue Volume 3 of Gemline, the magazine of the Australian Gemstone Industry Association
South Australian Museum 1983 - 2021
Exhibitions
During the 1980s, Alan Bartram assisted in the staging of three major exhibitions with the SA Museum, which were called Opal and Jade exhibitions. Knowing so many of the opal miners on many of the fields, Alan was able to encourage them to make their various privately held major specimens available to the SA Museum for these exhibitions.
Alan was also a major contributor to the organisation of the South Australian Museum’s Opal Exhibition which ran from September 2015 until February 2016, and which was the Museum’s most ever visited exhibition.
At that exhibition Alan also made the Fire of Australia available to the SA Museum as a major highlight.
philanthropy
Fire of Australia
In a major exhibition a few years ago in which it was exhibited, the statement about the ‘Fire of Australia’ read ‘This single piece of rough light opal weighing approximately 5,000 carats is the most valuable piece of light opal for its size in the world’. Further information read that; There is no known example of another stone of this size consisting entirely of gem quality opal, making it one of the most exceptional opals ever found. Originally hand mined by Walter ‘Harry’ Bartram, at the Eight Mile field in Coober Pedy, this outstanding gemstone has remained in the family’s possession since its discovery in 1946. It can be compared in size to two cricket balls, side-by-side.
While the piece was valued at well over one million dollars, following a discussion with the Museum, Alan persuaded the Bartram family to offer the Fire of Australia to the Museum at a substantially reduced price, as Alan felt that the likely outcome of selling it on the open market would be that it would be processed into individual gems for jewellery. He did this so that this magnificent rough opal would be retained as a single piece, and by so doing ensured that it would be held in the Museum’s collection for all visitors to appreciate and enjoy. It is unlikely that such a large piece of this exceptional quality opal will ever be unearthed again and it was the family’s desire to see that this important piece of Australian heritage would remain in the public domain.
The Fire of Australia Mined by Harry Bartram at the eight mile field in 1946 weighing approximately 5000 carats.
At the unveiling ceremony in the museum’s front foyer, the SA Museum chair Jane Lomax-Smith lauded the Fire of Australia as the ‘finest uncut opal in existence’. The Federal Minister for the Arts, Mitch Fifield, announced that a federal government grant had allowed the SA Museum to acquire this gemstone from the Bartram family.
The Director of the Museum, Mr. Brian Oldman, said in a recent interview that the rarity of this opal could not be overestimated. He went on to say that when the inland sea evaporated many millions of years ago, it provided a unique silica-rich environment for the creation of precious opal. These exceptional conditions created the Fire of Australia. He stated that he was grateful that the Bartram family had enabled this fabulous specimen to remain in South Australia, making the opal collection of the Museum now the best in the world.
Still in its original condition, the opal has two polished faces to reveal the gem’s quality. The colour which rolls across the surface changes from green to yellow to red, depending from which angle it is viewed. Mr Oldman also stated that it is a significant acquisition for South Australia and the nation’s heritage, for its rarity and its links to early resource exploration and mining.
Heaven’s Gate opal
heaven’s Gate
In 2021, Alan, on behalf of the Bartram family, began negotiations with the SA Museum for their acquisition of another large fabulous opal specimen named Heaven’s Gate to their collection.
Alan also has, for many decades, encouraged other miners to contribute specimens to the SA Museum, and he hopes that the Bartram family example will result in more opal specimens becoming available to the Museum in the coming years.
An opal pineapple
In 2020, Alan Bartram made a beautiful specimen of an opal pineapple available to the SA Museum for their collection. This specimen came from Alan’s personal specimen collection.
references
Bartram, DK., (2021) Opal Hunters, the Bartram’s on the opal fields 1936-2021.Peacock Publications. ISBN 978-1-925236-54-1
Cram, L. (2006) A Journey with Colour-A History of South Australian opal 1840-2005. ISBN 0-9757214-0-2
Wake, PV. (1969) Opal Men. AH & AW Reed. National Library of Australia No. AUS 69-544.