About Mining for Opals in Outback Australia, Coober Pedy, Part-5

This is the little property we bought, we did not have the money for a deposit but the people who lived in it had a couple of children and wanted to travel to Western Australia and do some gold prospecting while the kids were young and was after a caravan that would accommodate 2 kids and ours had a rear room with a door and 2 bunks in it for children, we were using the bunks for storage and so they took the caravan as part payment, all we had to do then was to get a mortgage for the rest and pay it off which is what we did and paid it off in just over 4 years, so now it is ours, its not much but we do not pay rent anymore and as you can see it has just rained here at the time I took this photo, does not rain here often but when it does it leaves a mess behind and the water running away normally causes a lot of damage to drive ways of dug outs around the town and to roads that are on slant like the one next to us, cuts furrows across the roads that have to be repaired after the rain has all gone with a grader from the council.

This is my friend Tom's house in Fountain Hills, Arizona, about 30 miles outside of Phoenix, we first met at the very first show we did at Tucson at the Days Inn, Tom also sells items at the show every year, he works for a airline company as a mechanic, wonderful guy and as it turned out a very good friend for an Aussie a long way form home in a strange country, well not that strange for me, but so was for my wife Pat, we had managed to talk Tom into keeping most of our equipment that we used at the shows at his house during the year while we were back here in Australia, as Tom lives by himself and so had plenty of room, here is the car that we had bought on out first trip there in 97, a Nissan Hatchback we bought near the airport in LA for $3000.00 plus, great little car.

We had a great time with it for the six months were were it the USA and traveled through 10 states with it and never had a problem after we had fixed the front end in Grand Junction, Colorado when I got up in the morning and was checking the oil and water etc, I noticed that the 2 front tires had a lot of wear on them, so I went to a tire dealership there and asked them if they could fit a couple of new ones and check out what had caused it for me as they were alright when I left LA, turns out is was the 2 front ball joints worn out and they replaced them straight away, with the two new tires and I was on my way within a couple of hours, great job, got out just as a storm was hitting there.

Anyway back to Tom, as I said he is a great guy and we put most of our stuff in his spare bedroom where it stayed until the next year when we came back to do the show/s again, and every year we seemed to accumulate more gear as we did the show, we have not been back since 2001 and look forward to visiting out friends over there again, we have another pair that live in Tucson, a Bill and Maureen Flanagan, more great people that we met doing the shows.

This would have been first show at the Congress Street Expo show in Tucson, so if any of you that read this have been to the Gem Shows in Tucson and have also been to the Congress Street Expo show in Tucson, you would remember us as we used to right across for Kent Tools and were called Australian Colored Opals, my wife was mainly the sales person and I answered nay questions that I knew the answer to, also the rough opal was really my department and Pat sort of looked after the rest unless we got busy.

Gem show at the Congress St Expo, Tucson

As you can see we did have a lot of equipment to carry around with us, all of the show cases you see here are ours along with I think it was 12 lights, bit of a rush when it all had to be taken down at the end of a show and we had to pull them apart and then put then in there carrying cases and we had to be out of the premises within a couple of hours, hard work I can tell you, then you have to go and have dinner, get back to the motel, take out of the vehicle some of the smaller and expensive items especially if they don't belong to us and keep them in the room with us and then in the morning it is on the road again and on the next one or do some sight seeing, after all we are on a working holiday.

This is how I displayed and sold the rough opal, in jars and in water so the color could be seen, then when I sold a parcel I would empty the water out and put the opal in a plastic zip bag and give it to the customer and keep the jars for another year to use again when I came back with some more opal.

Although we did like doing the shows it was hard work and we never knew if we were going to make a dollar or two at a show or when we just went over to do the Tucson show, we got robbed of our deposit on the seconded show we did at the Days Inn at Tucson, the promoter just kept all of the monies that he had taken as a deposit and never put the show on so we lost $700.00, some people had paid in full so they lost the lot, we were lucky that we didn't we could have but decided against it, the management at the Days Inn put the show on for that year and then decided that they would run it very year after that, but we went over the Congress Street Expo as it was the biggest outside show in Tucson and we needed more space, was to cramped in the Days Inn and no parking for customers, so no good.

So it is a lot easier to run the business from home, do not have to put up with any shit form anybody, do not have to get up early in the morning and freeze our ass off, do not have to worry about the expense anymore of paying for the air fares, hire car, motel bills, petrol, booth fees, the one we had at the Congress Street Expo cost us US$3000.00 per show, so you can see there is a lot of expense for people like us that come form overseas to do the shows in America and not know that you are first, going to cover the expense of it all and second make a profit to go back again and pay for the holiday which is what is all about in the first place.

This went well for the first 4 years but in 2001 we did not do that good and that was due to again the promoter not doing there job in promoting the show, this Congress Street Expo show got mover 7 miles out of town to the Electric Park which is at a Base Ball Park, turns out that people did not Know where to go, even the locals, no electricity on the first 2 days and it was raining with water running through the tent, so we sold nothing for that time, cannot sell opal or jewelry in the dark, some vendors were running around trying to hire electric generators, one near us got one and asked if we would like to share in it and the expense and we said yes, then the council stepped in and stopped that because of the leads being on the ground as said it would be dangerous to the public, so that idea was shot in the ass.

When they finally got the power on in the tent only 2/3rds of the tents overhead big lights were working and stayed that way for the whole show and we were in the 1/3rd that did not have the lights on and no amount of complaining did any good, in fact for the first 12 days of the 16 day show we could not even get hold of the promoters as they were in hiding an then at the end of the show they had the cheek to tell us that the rates were going up the next year by 10%, so we ended up 47% down on our normal turnover, I did have a word to the promoter after the show had finished and we had packed up, I caught him outside and I told him straight that I and quite a few more would not be coming back to his show and what I though about him and his wife doing this one, we come to far to get messed over like that and with no guarantees of us making any money and having to put up with being treated like that and that they should not be running it.

Turns out that they went broke and again they took people deposits and quit, I heard that they owed money all over the place, they never paid the security guys, in fact the guys who did the security took over the show the next year, but the shows are on a down turn as far as getting people like me to go, they still suck in people who are trying it for the first time, but all in all as far as I am concerned it is over, I had a friend of mine go from here to do the show in 2005, in fact there was 6 of them in the group I was told, went to do different shows in Tucson, anyway my friend (no names) did the show in Tucson, I had already explained to him what was involved, going though customs etc and that it was not worth it as the first time is the hardest and people do not know you and tend not to buy from you and that I did not think he would do any good, well I was right, he did not do good and lost money and will never go back again, lesson learnt, but it cost him money, now he and I sell on the internet and make some money and a good profit during the year, the shows for Gem and Jewelry are on the way out, but the promoters in the US are making a living out of new people who give it a try, but not for me anymore, that's for sure.

Now we are back home mining again or at least I am, Pat is back at work doing her House Maid bit to earn some money to keep me going in this Opal Mining Game, very hard to be self sufficient all the time, and a lot of miners here rely on there wife to go out to work and earn some extra money so they can keep on mining and I am one of them for now anyway, only takes one pocket to change all of that of course.

Below is a photo taken just after a shot and as quick as I could get there as the fumes disappear very quickly after the shot has gone off, I never do this and stay under unless I have the blower running, you can see the end of the pipe where the arrow is, I always have a nail in the side wall at the end of the pipe so that when the shot has gone off I run in there with the light and find the nail, holding my breath of course and hang the light on the nail and make sure that the end of the pipe is clear and sucking as sometimes it gets blocked by a large lump and I have to break it up with the hand pick.

Normally I would have more fumes that this but as I am using the camera and had to get it ready some of them have gone already, but gives you some idea of what we have after a shot and these fumes will kill you if you get caught down here and cannot get out, so one has to be careful in what they are doing, even to breath to much of these in will make you sick, we have had some people leave here after being fumed, has lasting results and with some people after affects.

I have another 10 foot length of pipe ready back away from the shot or round the corner if I do not have the room and after I have run in holding my breath and find the end of the pipe I hang the light on the wall and made sure the pipe is clear, then go back and get this 10 foot length of pipe and bring it up front again holding my breath and get to the front of the shot and lay this pipe up on it and into the pipe above, this pulls all of the fumes back down the drive to this end and removes all of the fumes out of the drive within about 30 seconds, then I pull this pipes again up and start to clean up with the shovel, then break up any large lumps with the pick or electric jackpick, then it is on the 3 foot telescope and I start pulling the shot until I have pulled about half of it, then it is time to stop and make the dump flat on top so I can sit on it and check the level which is the best part of the job.

Then after I have checked the level I would drill and load the roof and light the fuses and go home, then pull the rest of the shot in the morning if possible, depends on the ground and if it was wet and if I was blocking up the elbows etc.

If you have ever wondered how we get a hole (Shaft) in the ground so we can get underground to start mining, this is how it is done today, this Rotary Drill is called a Calweld Drill, in the old days when they first started this opal mining all shafts were put down by hand and were commonly called Square Shafts, in fast there rectangular in shape and took between 2 and 3 weeks to put down to the 62 foot level and needed at least 2 people to do it, most consisted of at least 3 and were nick named Companies.

This drill is just starting off the shaft and will drill down to about 80 for me, when new these drills can go down to 100 feet, but most today can only drill about 90 feet due to the Kelley getting broken over the years, the Kelly Bar is the main bar that goes right down the middle of this 4 stage setup and is a 4 inch solid square bar that does the driving of the bucket, this shaft for the most part is approx 1 meter in diameter, some are a bit smaller, and they use a bigger one to open the shafts up for the tunnel machines and can open those shafts up to 6 feet in diameter.


Where things are always on the Hop		And the wheels are always in Motion