Opal Mining Newsletter February-14, 2004 on Mining Underground for Opals in Coober Pedy

February 15, 2004.

Opal Mining Update - No 30

On Holidays and Wet Weather and Some Fish.

Finally on our way to Queensland again and hopefully we will not have the same problems as last year, or we will be broke, still recovering from that bill anyway on the credit card, lucky for us Pats works and we can save up for this holiday, you have to get away for Coober Pedy for while once a year or we would go mad.

This one of the Service stops on the way called Wauchope some 88 kilometers south from Tennant Creek, bit unusual to say the least, so worth a photo or two.

Anything to make you stop for a break but it is well done and we stopped here for breakfast, very nice and friendly staff.

More aliens, petrol at this time was $1.229.

Set up for traveling as you can see, it has been raining in front of us, so we are in for some wet roads from now on for a while.

So this is the first creek that we have come across, this is next to the roadhouse that we have just leaving, there will be a lot more to come before we get to our holiday place in Cardwell, Queensland.

Now we are into the water, have not gone far from the roadhouse, will now have to stick to the center of the road as we go though this lot as the sides of the road are very soft and will not take much to get bogged, if I stray to far to the left.

Looks like this lot is wide spread and it slowed us up real bad, but nothing I can do about it, but keep on going, the waster is running across the road so we are not far behind the rain, just hope we do not catch it up today.

Some traffic at last, I was begging to think that I was the only one on the road as this is the first vehicle we have seen since we have left the roadhouse about 80 kilometers back, nice to have some vehicles traveling along the road just in case we brake down and need help.

Still did not get past Tennent Creek without tire problems, turned out that when going through one of these flooding a stick floating across the road in the water caught the right hand air nipple on the boat trailer which caused a slow leak thankfully for me, I did not notice it until I have fueled up at Tennent Creek and was parked next door to the service station doing a bit of shopping and when I came out I saw the tire half way down, so had to get it repaired with a new tube being installed, always something.

This is real bad and a long stretch by the look of it, the water is running across the road and is up to the bottom of the door about 18 inches deep, we might need the boat before we get to Queensland the way this is going, this is more like a lake than a main road.

The whole landscape is flooded, that was about 1.5 kilometers across, so there has been a lot of water dumped around here, if this was dropped on Coober Pedy it would put us out of action for months, would flood many shafts and claims.

Same on the other side, I have just stopped to check if everything is alright, which it is lucky for us so I took the photos

And still more, buy they have had some water here, I found out later that they had some 7 and 8 inches in places around here, that is a lot of rain and only in one day, still have a air way to go yet to get to our destination, will not get there today and will stay in Mt Isa tonight and on to Townsville tomorrow and then we are only 300 kilometers from Cardwell.

This is called a Australian Bustard, commonly know as the Bush Turkey, it is a protected species and there is a fine if you get caught killing one, I have shot and eaten one when I was a Roo Shooter in the late 60s, they are a game bird and with strong flavored meat and they love grasshoppers which is why its here they are plenty around right now and I saw a few more after this one in the next few kilometers.

We are approaching the rain front, Townsville is not that far a way now so can have a little rest for a while.

Yep run right into it, chucking it down, will now have to slow down some because it is raining so heavy, I am about 40 kilometers out from Townsville right now so do not have far to go thankfully.

Well we finally got to Cardwell, did not stop overnight in Townsville after all as planed saved us a nights accommodation fee, we were in early enough to keep on going and got in Cardwell around 6pm, so plenty of time to unpack the vehicle and make the bed for the night

Here we are the day after we got here, the rain is starting to catch up here with the creeks running down to the sea, here we are having a look at the boat ramp which is just over this little bridge and to the left of photo, the water is running pretty fast.

Here is the shop that sells the fuel and bait supplies, nice friendly people and a very nice property, in the perfect spot I can tell you what a view they have, now on the boat ramp.

Here is the boat ramp, nice ramp, out of the wind when launching or bringing the boat back in to put on the trailer, as you can see here the wind is blowing and there is very little movement on the water, making it perfect for launching for old farts like us.

This is a view of the inlet that leads to the ocean, which is just round that corner up front I believe as we have not wet the boat at this stage, looking forward to getting it in the water, but have a bit of work to do yet before we are ready, have to get the fishing rods ready etc.

This is part of the parking bay, more to the right and some behind me, good setup, better than last year for sure, now to try and catch some fish here, not sure what we are in for.

This is a boat yard that repairs boats an yachts, they have a big one in there at the moment, sells some spare parts for the likes of my boat but will order in what I need if they done have it as the nearest place to go shopping is Cairn's some 140 kilometers north of here, which we will be visiting later on, but need a couple of new rollers for the boat trailer, they have them here so I will have to change them over when the boat is in the water one day soon, looks like rain again at the moment but it is the wet season here so cannot complain.

This rubber boot is a tribute to the wettest place in Australia so they recon it is called Tully, something like 7 meters of rain falls here on average every year.

We finally got out and wet a line, but the weather did not look that great and looked like it could rain at any time so we decided to stay in close to the mainland and not venture out to far, when we launching the boat we met a local and had a talk to him about what kind of fishing he was going to do, said he was going to set some crab nets and throw a line out and hope for the best, we followed him around the corner to where he was dropping the nets (about 1 mile) but the water there was to shallow (about 4 foot) for us and I did not want to fish with lures just yet as it was starting to rain, we had 2 squalls come through while we were out there and we got a bit wet but it is warm rain so it did not matter, unless we wanted to travel then it got in your eyes.

So we went across towards the big Island (Hinchinbrook) to find the hole which I found it on the navigation depth chart and was checking out on the first day, I used the sounder all over the place and found no fish or the likes anywhere until I got over the depression then the fish finder went crazy, they were fish at different depths, pity it does not tell you what they are, but at least there was something swimming around, so we anchored there (66 feet) and threw out the rods and I set 2 near the top, about 20 feet down and we fished down on or near the bottom.

Turns out we were in Shark Alley, we brought home 5 small black tip sharks (2 kinds) and we threw back 4 baby hammerheads, we also got bitten off 3 times, Pat lost both her hooks at one time once and we caught a couple of very small fish that we threw back and 1 catfish, not worth keeping, this below is the first Hammerhead Pat caught and as there are 4 species of this shark, this one is called a scalloped hammerhead, this a side view and you really cannot see that it is a hammerhead here, has a nice looking eye.

Now you can see the head on it, very clean looking fish, the biggest I have ever had my hands on was a 10 footer exactly in 1991 at a place called 80 miles beach in Western Australia, a feller had caught one in a net and came and told me I could have it as I was taking the jaws out of sharks at that time and trying to sell them, the most jaws I ever took was 64 in 2 days.

Now we can see just how big it is, a baby, I think we was over a nursery as most of what we caught here had diapers on.

And here is what we brought home the front 3 are black tip reef sharks and the back 2 or black tip sharks, you can see the body in a lot deeper on the back 2 and the front ones are more sleeker and look a faster fish, don't know if they are or not.

The colors you see here is not the true color of the shark, they have changed while being in the ice box and being dead I suppose, the true color is bronze, but they are not the bronze whaler as that shark does not have the black tips on the fins, all of these are very good eating as most small sharks under 4 foot are.

Today we did not go out as again the weather look nasty but tuned out that we would have been the same as yesterday, but we went shopping instead, don't know when we will go out again as there is a cyclone expected in the area within the next 24 to 48 hours so that could finish us from fishing for a few days if it turns out to be a bad one, just have to wait and see.

Turns out I have a water pump problem on the 4x4 which really pisses me off as it was supposed to a new one that was put on last year in Mt Isa, the seal on the shaft is leaking when I stop and I only noticed it when I was refueling in Mt Isa, isn't that a scream, fixed and broke in the same place, how's that for luck, but it seals when the engine is running so I will be alright until I can get it fixed.

I have the vehicle booked into a workshop in Ingham 51 kilometers down the road from here, I am waiting for a phone call to take it in when he has got the parts for it.

We had a lot of rain last night and again looked bad this morning and has rained some more on and of, the cyclone that was expected crossed the coast this morning north of a place Cooktown, but the weather forecast here for the next few days is for thunder storms and high winds, but the winds may be in the afternoon and Saturday is forecast for thunder storms and hardly any winds at all, same for Sunday so we will wait and see.

This is the place that we are staying at in Cardwell, as I said it is a very nice place with new friendly owners and as you saw above the fish cleaning facilities here are as good as I have come across, all we have to do now is catch some of the fish that we came here for and we will be happy and may come back.

This is where park out car when it is not attached to the boat, as do not take it off the boat unless we want to go out shopping, the boat is parked just around the corner to the right, perfect spot, not far from the room, can see it from the rear window and right next to the water hose so we can wash down the boat when we come home.

The owners have been kind enough to put a small chest freeze out side of out front door, this is a huge benefit to us, as we keep out bait, big bag of ice, food and fish fillets in there, we will probably buy our own before we leave, just have to work out how to put it in the boat for going back, we have just got back from shopping in Ingham.

Went back to Ingham to get the 4x4 fixed, turns out it was a water hose, a U bend hose that is on the water pump and it had split, today when I got there it had split more and you could see the water running out a lot more, so in the beginning it must have been squirting on to the pump and running down making it look like it was coming from the shaft, lucky for me it was not a big job nor expensive, Cost $70.00.

It rained again for most of the day and last night, and I was told that as of this morning they had 6 inches of rain in the last 24 hours and it is raining again and there is more expected.

Rained for most of last night, but had cleared up by 9.30 this morning, so I talked Pat in to going out on the water for a couple of hours, so off we went and put the boat in, went back to that hole again, the water is still very dirty out in the channel, had a lot of bites and then we started to catch small sharks again, one that Pat caught was only about 12 inches long and I hooked into something big, tried to pull the rod out of the boat and made a run for it, when I got it to stop and was reeling it in, all of a sudden it was gone, turns out the crimp on wire trace had come apart, so I have no idea what was on, but the odds are it was at least a 5 or 6 foot shark, which I would not have kept anyway.

We came home again with 3 sharks and this time I caught the biggest for a change, but we have decided that we do not want any more sharks after this lot for a while, so any more on the hooks will be let go, it fish we want from now on, big fish if we can find them.

Rained again last night and all night and looked very menacing this morning and Pat did not want to go out, there was no wind to speak of, same as yesterday and it has started to rain about 10 minutes ago (2.55 pm) so we could have gone out and tried a new spot, met the old park owners this morning and he told me of another couple of fishing holes that are not on the chart I have been looking at, but it is a navigation chart and will not have every little hot spot covered, that is why you need to speak to a local who doesn't mind telling.

We will be going out in the morning, providing the wind is not up and the forecast does not predict any, should be the same as the last two days which I have missed out on, but tomorrow will be action time, I do not want to fish in that channel as the water is very dirty right now, although one of the spots I was told about is in there but closer to the mainland than where I was going and further north, so I will find that hole when the weather is not right for going to far out and I am sure there will still be plenty of those days in front of us.

Last night was the first night it did not rain since we have been here and as I said the forecast was good for today, so we got up at 6.30 and got ready an after some quick cereals and was off, when we got to the boat ramp I had to fill one of the fuel tanks and also filled up a spare 10 liter container to take with me, just in case as I have not done a lot of straight miles out at sea and do not know how much fuel I would use today.

Below is the island we are heading for, its called Goold Island and is 11 miles out to sea from the mainland, the weather this morning is perfect, except I my hat blew off and sank before I could get to it, just before I took this photo, we are heading for the right side and to the back as there is a fishing hole I have been told about, so I have to try and find it and give it a try.

This is part of the Hinchinbrook Island, as yet I don't know just how big this Island really is, but I do know that it is about 53 kilometers long but it is also very wide and has a lot of inlets, we are just passing the northern tip of it on the way to the island we are going to nobody lives here, but they do charter tours to it and people can stay and hike on it.

Now I have turned the camera around to the left a little and you can see the tip of the island on the right and Goold Island and in the middle is a storm going through, hopefully it will be gone by the time we get there.

In the distance is the Brook Islands, these are part of the Great Barrier Reef although the reef itself is about another 18 miles further out than these and to far for me to go out to, but I will be going out to these which is another 6 miles out from the island I am going to, which makes them 17 miles out, but they are protected from fishing and I cannot fish within 500 meters of them and I have been told today that there are markers near the island to show the boundaries and I have also been told that there is a shoal some where in between there and the island I am going to fish around today, will find out more about that later and where it is.

Here we are fishing hat hole I was telling you about, it is 88 feet deep, not a lot in it right now but we did catch some Bat fish in it, but the weather blew up and the swell got a bit rough as it was coming sideways to the boat we decided to head in, I had already fished another hole back a kilometer or so, but all we got in there was couple of small sharks again and s0 we left that place for this one.

This is as the swell was starting to get up, white caps starting to break on us, so it is time to head for home and call it a day, not nice fishing in this type of water plus is rough traveling just to get back in again.

Here is one of the Bat fish, Pat again caught the 2 biggest of the 5 we caught (she caught 3) we also caught a few small sharks as we stopped on the way back by the tip of the big island, as there was a storm passing over the mainland in front of us so we decided to anchor out to sea and wait for it to pass through, in the mean time the sea calmed down so we stayed fishing there for a about an hour, but all we caught was sharks which we let go or cut off.

This is the catch for today, not a lot to brag about and I do hope we can do a lot better than this, we had some for dinner tonight, not that good and not better than shark, so will not take these again and not what we came for sure.

Hope you have enjoyed this issue and look forward to the next one, hopefully I will have some more good photos to show you in the next issue and maybe some of Good Looking Opal and lots of it, I am still hoping that this will be a good year for us in mining, so stay with us over the next few months and find out what goes on in our part of the world as far as Opal Mining goes.

Stay Tuned for the next Issue, who knows what I will have to report.

Until the next issue.........

and wish me lots of LUCK.

Cya Later, Stuart Bird.

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