Opal mining communities in north-western New South Wales are petitioning to rename one of the region’s main roads after a volunteer firefighter who died trying to save homes from bushfires.
Leo Fransen, the captain of the Diamond Beach rural fire service, almost 700km south-east of the opal mining town, died in the Hudson fire which burned through 22,000 hectares and destroyed 12 homes in the area around Lightning Ridge in November last year.
