Travel to Australia, and watch this real life documentary, of people mining the Opal gemstone.
See our other videos, for the latest, HIGHEST QUALITY episodes of the Australian series Aussie Gold Hunters, Gem Hunters Down Under and MORE!
See our other videos, for the latest, HIGHEST QUALITY episodes of the Australian series Aussie Gold Hunters, Gem Hunters Down Under and MORE!
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TVTranscript
00:00On Outback Opal Hunters.
00:03Maybe let's put Opal just right there,
00:05if we can get the excavator through her.
00:07Cold's up, reunites with partner Greg and pilot Stoney,
00:12in one last push to find Opal before summer heat ends the season.
00:18It looks like she's running hot.
00:20Maybe the motor's getting sick, I don't know.
00:23I think that bucket's stuck.
00:25Because it's so hot, it's not got the pulling power
00:27to get it over the top once it heats up.
00:29The Cheels struggle with the extremes of the Outback.
00:33The steering itself, it's smashed.
00:35Very frustrating.
00:36Threatening the final days of their season.
00:38We just didn't need this today, you know.
00:40If they've left their tools here, they're coming back here.
00:43After weeks of poachers threatening his livelihood...
00:47The pick handle ain't much good against the shotgun.
00:50..Bushman Rod Manning battles to drive out thieves from his mine.
00:54Hey, you thieving bastard, yeah, run!
01:00Oh, yeah.
01:04And fancy clothes.
01:18This year's been doing a lot of solo missions,
01:22prospecting, looking at new country.
01:25You've just got to be extra careful when you're by yourself.
01:28If you hurt yourself, you've got no-one to help you.
01:31There's no room for error.
01:34It's the final sweltering weeks of the opal season
01:38in Australia's hottest year on record.
01:41Unworkable temperatures of 47 degrees Celsius are about to hit.
01:46The clock's ticking.
01:48There's places to go and I'm not there yet.
01:51I've still got to dig a bit of ground.
01:53I definitely need a payday.
01:55This car's having a bit of trouble.
01:57It'll be good to find five grand, get a set of teeth
02:00so I've got a smile again and can eat steak.
02:03It's good when you've got a good crew.
02:05You know, it's a hard job to do by yourself.
02:08You know, in some ways, it's nearly impossible.
02:14Hey, how are you? Hi, Carl.
02:16Good, mate, how are you going? Good to see you, Dave.
02:18How are you? Good on you. Good to see you, mate.
02:20After downing mining tools for most of the season,
02:24opal hunter Greg Garan and his sister Margie
02:27are back to join forces with Cobb.
02:30I had a bit of a late start to the year
02:32cos I had a pretty hard run last year.
02:34I had about five months off, cut a heap of opal.
02:37Now it's time to go digging.
02:41Oh, look at that!
02:43Queensland boulder opal, mate. Not bad, eh?
02:46Last season saw the end of a successful mining run
02:50with former partner Aaron Grotchen.
02:52I don't know. You don't know much, do you?
02:55People can change when opal comes.
02:58There was a bit of a disagreement
03:00and he told me to get me off his lease
03:02and that's exactly what I've done.
03:06You see that line there? This is from the seismic data.
03:09Yes.
03:10Greg and Cobb have teamed up
03:12to dig on a huge 10-square-kilometre exploration permit,
03:16the NOB.
03:18We have an exploration permit here of four sub-blocks
03:22and by the end of the year we need to drop two off,
03:25so we're going to go to a few places and dig them
03:28and see if it's viable to put leases down.
03:31It's worth having a try here
03:33because we know opal has come out in this area
03:36by a few different parties that have dug it.
03:39They have less than a week
03:41before summer temperatures end their season
03:43and they're forced to abandon their mission
03:45to discover signs of new opal ground.
03:48There might be a few hard lumps in amongst there,
03:50but you've got a big excavator, we can only give it a try.
03:53While Greg has the big machinery to dig,
03:56he's relying on Cole's expertise to pinpoint opal.
04:00It's been a while since I've worked with Cole.
04:02He is a professor of opal.
04:04He's been studying mapping and imagery
04:07for the last 25 years, I don't know,
04:09and he's getting close to hitting the nail right on the head.
04:13Greg's sister, Opal De La Margie,
04:16will sell whatever boulder opal they find
04:19worth up to $20,000 a gram.
04:22When you've got bills to pay and everything else,
04:24that's the sort of stuff you want to have,
04:26but we've got a bit of ground to get through before we get there.
04:31Critical to giving the team a competitive edge
04:34is an eye in the sky.
04:36Completing the team,
04:38helicopter cattle musterer and opal miner Stoney Kane.
04:43You getting in?
04:45Zip belt on.
04:47I've been mushering cattle in the helicopter
04:49for 19 years now or something,
04:51but I'm sort of bloody over it, eh?
04:53It's donors, and not only that, but I've got a little boy now.
04:56He's about two.
04:58They're asleep in the morning when you go to work
05:00and they're asleep when you get home at night.
05:02All right, well, Dad's got to go to work.
05:04No.
05:05And they bloody grow up without you.
05:07You don't get much of a family life, eh?
05:09Have a good day.
05:12He'll be back.
05:14I sort of wouldn't mind kicking back a bit on the flying,
05:17doing a bit less flying and doing a bit more opal mining.
05:22I've done a bit of mining with Greg for, oh, six or seven years,
05:26and over the years I've sort of taught myself
05:28to read the ground from the helicopter,
05:30as, you know, like, you need the faults and the changes in the ground
05:33for the opal to form.
05:35That sort of gives you a bit of an idea to go to have a look.
05:38When you break that rock and it's bloody full of colour,
05:41it's an amazing rush. It's hard to explain.
05:43This mark here is a big fault that's marked on the seismic survey.
05:47And bang, that's why the opal's there.
05:49It's the underlying feeder.
05:51I reckon it looks good, that ground. Let's go and get some opal, mate.
05:55Stoney's first task is to help Cole locate fault lines
05:59where millions of years ago
06:01groundwater deposited silica in ironstone rock,
06:04forming opal.
06:06There's a couple of bits of flyover here, mate.
06:08We might see a bit of colour.
06:10You can see them faults coming in there, hey,
06:12like in a vegetation line.
06:15Oh, look, there's some really interesting stuff here.
06:18That white staining all over the rock,
06:20maybe that's good opal just right there
06:22if we can get the excavator through it.
06:24Yeah. That looks good, mate, hey?
06:36The course of the drought,
06:37we've been getting bloody terrible dust storms.
06:40We got a real bad one last night about 12 o'clock
06:43and everything's covered in dust today.
06:47It makes a mess and you can hardly breathe.
06:51Bushman Rod Manning is racing to reach his season target
06:55in the final scorching days of the mining season.
06:59It's a bugger for the heap because, you know,
07:01yesterday was nearly 50.
07:03When you get that layer of dust, it traps the heat in,
07:07so it just makes it real humid and real bloody hot
07:11and it just buggers everything up.
07:13Even tougher, Rod is without mining partner Les.
07:17What's up?
07:18Les is away getting us a bogger.
07:20Now, a bogger's like a little front-end loader
07:22that we use underground to move dirt.
07:25A mate of ours has got one for sale.
07:27It needs a little bit of work,
07:29so he'll do that down there if he decides to buy it.
07:34How are you?
07:35Hey, doll. How was your trip?
07:36Good.
07:37Yeah?
07:38Yeah.
07:39So, yeah, I got the mail from the mines department.
07:43Dodges is up for renewal.
07:45Oh, yeah? How much is it?
07:47$350.
07:49With the claims, you've got to renew them every year,
07:52so every year they're going to cost you $350.
07:56I kept the claim because we got real good money out of there,
07:59we had a break from it,
08:01and then when we went to go back to it,
08:03that's when we discovered the radders,
08:05and when the radders went in there, they made it unsafe.
08:09Radders are opal thieves
08:11that illegally mine on claims they don't own.
08:14Where the radders got in's not safe.
08:16We can't work down there, but there's a bit of solid ground there
08:19we might be able to work into the solid ground,
08:21so I'll go and have a look and I'll see what's happening, all right?
08:25OK.
08:27You can't just keep paying renewal year after year after year.
08:31You know, so I've got to make up me mind,
08:33and if we're going to work it, then we'll go and work it,
08:35and if we're not going to go and work it, then I'll hand it in.
08:39Choosing which mine to keep is a gamble with serious consequences.
08:43Let the wrong one go,
08:45and Rod could be forfeiting a fortune in opal.
08:48Stay there, Nigel.
08:51Oh, hello.
08:54This is not us.
08:57We didn't do this. This is radders.
09:00This is all radders here.
09:02Jesus, they're unbelievable.
09:04Look at that. Little pile of pots they've left there.
09:06They could have left me some bloody colour.
09:09If they've left their tools here,
09:11they're fairly certain that I'm not coming back here,
09:13and they are.
09:15So we might have to do something about that.
09:24We're just going to dig out in there.
09:27We've got opal in the floor.
09:29That's why we're taking the floor.
09:32In Lightning Ridge,
09:34Chris Cheal and 18-year-old son Oscar
09:37are also pushing hard
09:39before the mining season is shut down
09:41by unworkable 47-degree summer temperatures.
09:45Hoping that we can get a full load before it gets too hot.
09:49Hoping that we can get a full load before it gets too hot.
09:53We've moved into our last week here.
09:55I guess the main objective for this week
09:57is prove this claim is worthy of digging,
10:00and if it's still carrying a lot of opal,
10:02we're going to come in here and rip it all out.
10:07That's a bogger. It's a good bit of gear.
10:09You dig on the digger.
10:11Obviously, there's a lot of dirt lying around.
10:13So it comes in, scoops it all up,
10:15chucks it in here, and then you back her into the bucket,
10:18pull it off and she goes straight up into the tuck.
10:27We've just been loading the bucket up.
10:29It hadn't come back down. It looked up and it was stuck.
10:31So we don't know why.
10:33With a busted hoist,
10:35there's no way of getting opal-rich dirt out of the mine.
10:40HEAVY MACHINERY
10:44Chris has returned to opal mining at the end of the season
10:48after a crippling three-year drought
10:50destroyed his trucking business.
10:52I don't know.
10:54There's many other industries that you can go into
10:56and go to work one morning
10:59and come home that afternoon
11:01and be set up for the rest of your life.
11:04Leasing a claim and taking a 70% cut of any opal found,
11:08the Cheels made a dream start...
11:11Oh, that's beautiful. Oh, yes!
11:14..finding $20,000 worth of black opal.
11:19It's given me a little bit extra that I can put back into gear to,
11:22which is good.
11:24We've only got a week left here,
11:26so we just decided we'd set the bogger and the super hoist up
11:29and not mess around, just get into it.
11:31My kind of main priority next year
11:34is being able to put myself through uni and college.
11:37Hence why I'm out here, you know, opal mining.
11:40This definitely could be life-changing.
11:42One day you could have nothing, next day you could be a millionaire.
11:44Joining the team is long-time family friend,
11:4719-year-old Farron Lamb.
11:50Farron, I treat him like a son.
11:52He's been part of our family for a lot of years now.
11:55Years ago, he got suspended from school,
11:58so he just mined with me for the week
12:00and I actually was really impressed with the way he worked,
12:03so it'll be good to have him here for the week
12:05and, you know, take the pressure off Oscar and myself a bit.
12:10My mum lives in Gaduga, like 70km away from here.
12:13There's not much work out there for me,
12:15so Chris Farron helped me a bit through work.
12:18He's like another brother, a friend, pretty much a dad.
12:21If we were to hit a really good poppet
12:23or a really good run of opal this week
12:25with the boys working with me,
12:28it would take the pressure off us, you know, that bit more,
12:31and that'd be a dream come true.
12:34But with struggling equipment exposed to the scorching sun...
12:38Bucket's stuck. He's up there checking it out now,
12:40so hopefully he can work it out and we can keep digging.
12:42..their season could be over.
12:44That's the hydraulic reservoir.
12:46Because it's so hot, the oil's heating up.
12:49It's not got the pulling power to get it over the top once it heats up.
12:53If the pump gives out, it's game over.
12:57WHIRRING
13:02I've got the map Cole put on me iPad
13:04and we can see where the coordinates are to go to.
13:09Yeah, there is hard ground here, but I think we'll handle it.
13:12We'll be able to rip that hard stuff off the machines.
13:15We've just got to dig in the right place.
13:17Greg's excavator has crawled 3km in two hours
13:21to the site identified by mining partners Stoney and Cole.
13:26This is really interesting-looking ground.
13:28You can see the different layers.
13:30This sort of stuff here on the top, it's fairly hard,
13:33and suddenly there's a bit of a level there of clay
13:37and there's some rocks, and those rocks had a bit of opal in them.
13:40Clock's ticking.
13:42If it's a good place, we'd put a lease on it.
13:44That's what we want.
13:46The team have less than a week to secure a claim on the permit
13:50before they lose access to the land.
13:53But it's only worth it if they can find a rich pocket of opal.
13:57All the signs are there. You'd be mad not to have a go here.
14:00Greg's excavator is able to move one tonne of dirt in a single bucket,
14:05vital in the search for the ironstone rocks that hold the opal.
14:09Oh, you've got a good chunk of that level.
14:12We'll just see if there's any rocks.
14:14This is what we're looking for, our opal trace.
14:17Basically, these rocks are hidden in that level,
14:20so we've got to be real careful and check it really well.
14:34I'm going to have to check the oil, I think.
14:36I'm down on oil pressure and the temperature's up, Stoney.
14:38Oh, great.
14:40In the 40-plus degree heat,
14:42Greg's 40-year-old excavator is beginning to feel the strain.
14:47It looks like she's running a bit hot.
14:49I think I'd better turn her off.
14:53Hey!
14:54Might not be a real good thing at all.
14:56Bloody hell. I can't see any oil dripping.
14:59Hey, she's got nothing on the stick, eh?
15:02Oh.
15:03Maybe the motor's getting sick, I don't know.
15:05Got any oil?
15:07I don't think I've got any at the camp.
15:10Oh. I'll go and see what I can find, boys.
15:14Well, we've bloody hit a bit of drama here.
15:17We're out of oil.
15:19We are here in the bloody middle of nowhere.
15:21The nearest town's, like, 130km away.
15:24It's a two-and-a-half, three-hour trip at least
15:26to go to town and get some oil.
15:28So I'll just jump in the two-way
15:30and give a couple of the local farmers a call.
15:36A veteran of 20 years mustering cattle,
15:39Stoney has worked many of the farms in the region.
15:43We've only got a few days to dig.
15:45Hopefully somebody's got spare 20 litres of oil
15:47sitting around that we can borrow.
15:49Get us out of the shit and get us back into the work.
16:01We've invested thousands of dollars
16:04and a lot of blood, sweat and tears into a hole
16:07and them bastards come down and in one night
16:10take what you've been working for months for.
16:13Battling ratter thieves
16:15and without partner Les to watch his back,
16:18Rod Manning's deciding whether to renew
16:21his dangerous dodgies claim.
16:26Dodgies was a good mine.
16:28There was a lot of money come out of there.
16:30There's still money in there,
16:32but where potentially there's good money I can't get into.
16:36The ratters have taken too much column out
16:38and I've got too wide a space.
16:40Even if I tried to work here I'd have to put
16:4220 or 30 bloody props in the hole
16:44and strong possibility of collapse.
16:46So I think I might get the bloody hell out of here
16:49and go up where they were scratching around up there
16:52in the safer stuff because this is way unsafe.
16:55I do not like even being down here.
17:00This is where the ratters have been scratching around.
17:02They've been scratching around here
17:04so I guess I'll have a little bit of a look here
17:07and just see potch absolute everywhere.
17:11This here, that's all opal.
17:15Not coloured of course.
17:18If this is all full of colour,
17:20every stone that falls down there
17:22is probably worth between $3,000 and $20,000.
17:27So, you know, in 30 seconds I can have
17:31a couple of hundred thousand dollars in me hand.
17:38Good potch.
17:40Where's the colour?
17:42You're not going to have ratters unless you've got colour.
17:45So I think what I'll do is I'll come back down with a jackhammer
17:48and I'll have a bit of a dig in here
17:50and just see what it looks like.
17:52They've sort of showed me the way there, haven't they?
18:02I think it might be the oil.
18:05It's definitely oil wasn't letting it come up in the first place.
18:0845-degree heat has caused the Cheels bucket hoist to fail,
18:13the only way of getting opal dirt out of their 13-metre deep mine.
18:18The oil's too hot. We started too late in the day.
18:21We've got to be starting earlier, getting out here earlier,
18:24getting the load over and done with, no messing around.
18:27So I'm just going to try and cool it down and up
18:29and we might be able to get the last two buckets on.
18:32The heat has thinned the hydraulic oil,
18:34reducing pressure in the hoist's pump.
18:37A quick fix is ice-cold water on a rag
18:40to cool the oil and increase its thickness.
18:44I'm going to start this hoist up again
18:46and I want you to hit the up button and see if she'll get over.
18:50Righto. Righto, give it a go.
19:03While it's back in action, the hoist could fail at any moment,
19:08leaving Chris with no way to find opal to pay off business debts.
19:13I am concerned about the pump back there
19:15and I really want to just finish off and get going,
19:18but the heat's just breaking us a bit.
19:21We've been getting our opal down deep,
19:23so, yeah, we'll take a bit more floor out and have a look.
19:33Not real happy with the amount of dust coming out of the face.
19:36It's just bad for your lungs.
19:39The dirt's real hard in the corner here and it's too dusty.
19:42I can't extract the dust out
19:44because I haven't had a chance to put a ventilation shaft down.
19:47So if I keep digging here, it's going to fill my lungs with dust
19:51and that's no good because you end up with silicosis.
19:54Silicosis is chronic lung disease
19:57caused by inhaling silica particles,
20:00a primary mineral in opal creation.
20:04I'm just going to pull up on this and we're going to go straight in there
20:07where it's softer and it's not as dusty.
20:09When we got that really good find,
20:11we were just two or three foot from this wall.
20:13We were seeing gems everywhere,
20:15so decided to head this way, see if it's carrying on that level.
20:19We put props up to reinforce the roof,
20:21so make sure it doesn't fall down.
20:23So if you go straight in there and start digging it out,
20:25eventually it'll fall down.
20:27So you put them up to avoid cave-ins
20:29and big bits of rocks falling down and hitting you
20:31because it's too dangerous.
20:33Chainsaw?
20:35Yeah, bro.
20:36And lead. 240-volt lead, please.
20:39Where's the lead?
20:40Come on, boys, you've got to get with it.
20:52We'll need that one out of the way.
20:55Can you put that cap in?
20:57All right, just grab that little hammer.
20:59Behind this chair, Oscar.
21:07Doesn't take long to put a couple of props in and make it safe, you know?
21:10You've got to support the roof because
21:12as she comes in, you're not getting out.
21:17We should be able to load this truck pretty quick.
21:19If the hoist stops, then that's the end of our digging,
21:21so we just want to concentrate on getting this load out
21:24before it gets to the rock.
21:29In this really tight space, I've got to be careful of the wires.
21:32Last thing we want, you know, being so cramped for room,
21:35last thing we want is it being reversed over the wires
21:37and ripping it all up.
21:38Yeah, that'll put us back for days.
21:41Hopefully there's a few gems in there and, you know,
21:45hopefully it covers costs, but then obviously, you know,
21:49you want some good pocket money after that,
21:53but we'll just see.
21:55I think there'll be money there.
21:57I just don't know how much.
22:00Bucket's starting to play up again,
22:02and I think now it's starting to heat up.
22:04It's going all the way to the bottom.
22:06Bucket's starting to play up again,
22:08and I think now it's starting to heat up.
22:10It's going all the way to the bottom.
22:11Midday, and the mercury's hitting 47 degrees.
22:15Too hot to mine.
22:17A couple of beers and we'll tail out
22:19and see what we've got at the end of the day.
22:22They still need to transport the mined dirt
22:2540 kilometres to their agitator
22:27to be washed and examined for opal.
22:31Pull up, boys. I think we've found a tyre.
22:44So we dropped a tyre right end
22:46on our beautiful roads that we've got here at the moment.
22:50We just didn't need this today, you know.
22:53We've decreased our chances of actually finding opal
22:56by the end of the week.
22:58I'm frustrated, pissed off.
23:16Travelling at 180 kilometres per hour,
23:19Stoney's desperately hunting for engine oil
23:22on Weona cattle station.
23:25It is a bit of a worry.
23:27The machine did get a bit hot and oil pressure was dropping.
23:30This machine does use oil.
23:32It's not a new machine.
23:34The team urgently need oil for their excavator
23:37to continue digging for signs of opal
23:39on land they will lose access to in a week's time.
23:42We've got the clock ticking.
23:44We've only got so long and then it's someone else's go.
23:47Nothing worse than dripping oil.
23:49Just blow a hose or get a pinhole in it.
23:52You always put an oil in it.
23:54It all costs money.
24:23Bloody bit of local knowledge.
24:25Luckily, bloody Frank and Paula at Weona there helped us out.
24:29I do a bit of work for them.
24:31Thought he might have a bit of oil sitting around there, so it's good.
24:34The 20 litres of oil will give the team another day of digging,
24:38but soon extreme summer temperatures will shut down all work.
24:44Sounds like he's coming, Cole.
24:46Bit of luck he's got the oil, hey?
24:48Yeah.
24:52Don't worry.
24:54No worries, mate.
24:56OK.
25:01She's right, Colin, we can make a start.
25:05Cool.
25:09They're searching for good opal colour,
25:11from blues and greens to the rarest and most valuable, red.
25:17We're bloody just running into a little family here at Waxman.
25:20This one here come off the end of this one here.
25:22Have a look at this.
25:26You're just going to see a big sneaker too fitting behind here
25:29and pop that whole chunk out, mate.
25:31Hopefully it'll come out and they'll all be sitting up on top of it.
25:37There we go.
25:39Beautiful.
25:41This is sandstone and this is clay,
25:43and the rocks are stuck up against the sandstone,
25:46so we've got to try and separate them without hurting them.
26:03It's gone a bit bloody boring here, mate.
26:06We haven't seen any colour for a bit.
26:08And it's getting a bit hot.
26:10Hammer's getting heavy.
26:17There's some colour.
26:19Look at that one. That's nice and bright.
26:22Bloody hell.
26:24Yeah, nice bit of blue-green, nice and thick too.
26:27So maybe there'll be more stuff as we go in, I reckon.
26:30Off we go.
26:32They're all there, look at that.
26:34It's a big nest, hey?
26:36Yeah, yeah.
26:38Ooh, here we go.
26:41I'm getting excited.
26:46Wow.
26:48Check that out, boys.
26:50Woo-hoo.
26:52We're getting some nice colour.
26:54There's some little stones there.
26:57Oi, look at this, fellas.
26:59Oh, bloody hell.
27:01Oh, it's red.
27:03Red!
27:05Red, mate, look at that.
27:07There you go, that's what happens.
27:09Oh, it flashes to green one way.
27:11Yeah, one way's green, one way's red.
27:13That's unreal.
27:15Jam.
27:19Oh, box birdie.
27:21It is red.
27:23This'll be good, this'll keep me out of the paddock
27:25with a bucket full of this, I'll be happy.
27:27That is very good colour.
27:29That is beautiful.
27:31That shows what this place is capable of.
27:40Yesterday I found a few little bits of trace.
27:43I'm just going to drop some cables down here now
27:46and get a jackhammer and some lights down there
27:48and have a bit of a dig and just see what it looks like.
27:52At Dodgy's, Rod faces a $350 lease renewal fee.
27:57Still short of his season target,
27:59he needs to prove it's worth keeping.
28:01Hey, you stay. Stay.
28:04When you're doing it tough, that's hard money to come up with.
28:08I've got to sort of figure out if it's worth hanging on to.
28:13Complicating matters.
28:15Ratters have been stealing opal from the mine.
28:18This is where they left that little bit of hotch for me,
28:21so hook in, I guess.
28:34Where's the colour?
28:37Some bloody ice-chunky rat and bastard's got it, I guess.
28:43Yeah, look at that. They missed a bit.
28:45That's nice colour.
28:47And that's obviously why they've been digging here.
28:50That's enough to get the old heart beating a bit quicker, I reckon.
28:53It's nice colour.
28:55I think we're going to keep it.
28:58That's enough to get me excited.
29:00I think we'll keep it like we renew the lease.
29:03You can always guarantee if you've got ratters in a mine,
29:06you've got colour in a mine.
29:14Well, these weren't here yesterday.
29:18These definitely weren't here yesterday and neither was this.
29:24See, that's fresh.
29:28Someone's been down here last night, cos that wasn't there yesterday.
29:31Cos we were in here, I would have saw it.
29:33Last night they were here.
29:35The only way to stop them is to be here when they're here.
29:37So I'm coming back tonight to stuff them.
29:43Well, the ratters are active. They're about.
29:46All I can do is go out to the claim
29:48and find yourself a box tree to sit underneath and wait
29:51and see if they turn up or not.
29:56Let's do this.
30:02The way I've got to do it is get out there,
30:05hide this away in the scrub a little bit,
30:07just find a tree and sit underneath the tree and wait.
30:11Can't have any lights or anything on.
30:13I've got to be a bit smart, a bit careful.
30:16A pick handle ain't much good against a shotgun.
30:21They won't see us from here, I don't think.
30:29You don't know whether they're going to turn up.
30:31You don't know whether it's one bloke,
30:33you don't know whether it's four blokes,
30:35you don't know whether they've got guns.
30:37You just have to wait and see what happens.
30:41I'd sooner cop a flogging than let someone steal off me.
30:46You know, I've copped floggings before.
30:49You heel, you'll get over them.
30:51But you don't heel or get over being a dog
30:54and laying down and letting people walk all over you.
31:07Hello, here we go.
31:10Yeah, there, look.
31:15Nah, I think that's just one of the boys going home from the pub.
31:19I think we might put that one down to a false alarm.
31:31Ooh, that sounds like a car.
31:37Yeah, this is it, righto.
31:39This is it, fellas, this is it.
31:50Hey, you thieving bastard, yeah, run!
31:54You, mate, I heard you, squinter!
31:57I saw you!
32:01Don't rush, cos I know who you are!
32:04He's just a little friggin' grub.
32:08I can pay him a visit.
32:10That's the end of our ratter problem.
32:18To secure Dodgie's claim,
32:20Rod needs to sell the opal he found
32:23to help pay for the $350 renewal fee.
32:26Whenever I get some reasonable stones
32:29that are only little and don't cost much money,
32:32I run them down to Sandra.
32:34She's very easy to deal with.
32:36You home, Sandra?
32:38Come on in.
32:39I've got something for you.
32:40Oh, beauty, I've been waiting.
32:42I need a little bit of extra.
32:44They're not spectacular,
32:45but I think you might be able to do something with them.
32:48Yep.
32:49There's a couple of them there,
32:50there's a couple of these little ones
32:52that you'll be able to do something with.
32:53Yeah, that one I can, definitely.
32:55You'll get a couple of rings out of them,
32:56I reckon, and maybe a pendant.
32:58That's a nice one.
33:00That should come up actually quite nice.
33:02Yeah.
33:03What are you looking at for the whole lot?
33:05Oh, I don't know, Sandra.
33:06I reckon to you $300.
33:08Well, a bit of work in that one.
33:11Mmm, $300.
33:14What do you want to give me?
33:16I reckon about $250.
33:18$250?
33:19Well, I see it's fair, $250.
33:22Well, that'll do me.
33:23I'm happy with that.
33:24$250's done.
33:25Good on you, Sandra.
33:26Thank you very much.
33:27Yeah.
33:28I'll even chuck a 10 in.
33:29LAUGHTER
33:32With $250 from the sale,
33:35Rod has enough money to renew the lease on the mine.
33:39I'm pretty happy, to tell you the truth.
33:41Old Les is away,
33:43so he's missed out on a bit of bloody excitement
33:46and a bit of fun,
33:47but with us renewing the lease
33:49and going back there to work,
33:50to get that little bit of colour,
33:52I didn't do very much digging at all,
33:54so another good sign.
33:56Hold on.
33:58Where are we going?
33:59LAUGHTER
34:02How flash is that, eh?
34:04Wow.
34:05I know where to trade it, girl.
34:07This looks good.
34:08That's beautiful.
34:10Love you.
34:12Love you, too.
34:13Best wife I've ever had.
34:14LAUGHTER
34:25Our steering itself smashed.
34:28Oh, I'll have to try them later.
34:30Um, very frustrating.
34:33On the penultimate day of their mining season,
34:36the Cheels truck,
34:37full of potentially opal-bearing dirt,
34:40is busted.
34:41Tyrod end.
34:43It keeps your wheels in line and parallel.
34:45She snapped off.
34:48The nearest town for a new Tyrod end
34:51is Walgett, 80km away,
34:53but first, Chris has to get the broken one off.
34:59It's not coming out like that.
35:01It's not going to hurry.
35:03So me brother's trying to track one down in Walgett.
35:06He said he'll come up, give us a hand to get it out,
35:09and this is what he does, you know.
35:12He fixes trucks and tractors and whatever else.
35:15He's a pretty handy mechanic.
35:17How you going, brother?
35:18Good, mate. What's up?
35:19Good. Thanks for coming up.
35:20Uncle Geoffo just arrived.
35:22He's got the new tyre bar, crowbar, everything.
35:24So we're going to try and get the old one off.
35:26We were having a bit of trouble earlier, but he's the expert,
35:28so hopefully he can sort something out
35:30and then we'll get the new one on and hopefully get going.
35:37There goes the other one.
35:39It's off now.
35:41We dropped this one out and we snapped the other one,
35:43getting this out here.
35:45So we'll take this back to the workshop
35:47and undo them down there, fix it all up.
35:50Frustrating, but we'll just try and get back tonight
35:53and get it finished off.
35:56Right.
36:02The chills return from Walcott
36:04with the parts they need to fix the truck.
36:07I need one of yous on one side to hold it up,
36:10keep it out of the dirt.
36:12We'll start the truck.
36:14I'll get someone in on the steering wheel.
36:20Just go right hand down, just slow.
36:22Turn.
36:24Turn.
36:27Woo! Woo!
36:31Good days.
36:33We got it on. Only took a few minutes.
36:35Still a lot.
36:39Right-o. Pack that up.
36:41Yeah, I am happy.
36:43Let's just hope we have a good, smooth day tomorrow, you know.
36:46Yeah.
36:51With the truck fixed,
36:53the chills can finally deliver the 15 tonnes of dirt
36:56and with it, the hope of Chris being able to pay off crippling debt.
37:01We're here just about to start our last hail out of the season,
37:04so, you know, we had that breakdown yesterday,
37:07which, you know, wrecked the whole day for us.
37:09We're all very disappointed,
37:11so, I don't know, hopefully we can finish the season on a high.
37:13The agitator, a giant water-filled rotating drum,
37:17strips dirt from the sandstone, revealing any opal.
37:21If I was free to find some opal together, it'd be pretty special,
37:24so hopefully that's the case.
37:32Jeez, look at that colour.
37:34Right-o.
37:36I got him. That is bright.
37:39Whoa!
37:41Oi, look at the colour in that.
37:43That's a nice colour.
37:45Yeah, it just started and picking up.
37:47Really, really nice colour, so...
37:49Um, yeah, super good. It's a good start.
37:52Blue-purple stone.
37:54Check that one out.
37:56Oh, nice colour on black, too.
37:58Oh, that's a nice colour.
38:00Oh!
38:02Look at that.
38:04Bloody ace, hey? See that one?
38:06Got one. Look at that one.
38:08Yeah, that's bright.
38:10Could cut a decent stone out of that. It's flashy as.
38:12Yeah.
38:14Think we've got another little payday there.
38:16How you doing, big fella?
38:18Buzz?
38:20Come on, man.
38:22The Cheels have found black opal,
38:25predominantly blue-green with flashes of red and yellow.
38:29It's in the rough, and there's an estimated 200 grams.
38:34Fair bit of material.
38:36Yeah, what do you reckon? How much?
38:38There's definitely five grand in the rough there,
38:41and, you know, if a few of these rub up,
38:44we'll get 10 grand. We'll get 10 grand for it.
38:46Yeah, I reckon.
38:48After a basic polish,
38:50the Cheels have an estimated $10,000 worth of opal.
38:54Their 70% share brings their season total to $29,400.
39:00The prospects are a lot better going into next year
39:03than what they were at the start of the year for me, that's for sure.
39:06When we got that bit of opal,
39:08I felt like the weight of the world lifting off me, you know,
39:10because I knew it allowed me to just breathe a bit easier,
39:13you know, like I had costs going out.
39:15Pressure came off me right in that instant, really.
39:18I feel proud. Dad never really asked for help,
39:21and he asked me to come up here and give him a hand,
39:24and got it done. Happy as I can be now.
39:28Finding over 20 grand, it definitely helps me next year.
39:32So there's a lot of expenses with uni and college
39:34and just living in Sydney and stuff next year.
39:36In all the breaks we get, I'll be out here giving him a hand,
39:39because I love it, he loves it, and it's good to do it together.
39:43I'm really happy. It was a good end of the season,
39:45and knowing that I've got country that's worthwhile digging in front of me,
39:49we'll be back next year.
39:59If I can't see any colour, I'll throw it there.
40:01If I see some colour, I'll throw it here.
40:04Cole, Greg and Stoney are about to lose access to land
40:08on their exploration permit.
40:10They want to be convinced the site has potential
40:13for high-end boulder opal.
40:16Ah, yeah, this is a six-inch trim saw.
40:18Very thin blade there, very good for cutting, I reckon.
40:21What do you reckon? I'll try this one, eh?
40:23Yeah, get into them, mate, I reckon, eh?
40:25OK.
40:26What they find in these ironstone rocks
40:28will decide if they stake a claim
40:30and start a bigger operation next season,
40:33or abandon it, wasting four days' mining and thousands of dollars.
40:38Let the saw answer your questions, and some do and some don't.
40:42I'll do this one.
40:47Greg's had 40 years' cutting experience,
40:50but one slip of the saw could destroy the opal.
40:55Whoa!
40:57There we go.
40:59That's amazing.
41:01That's what we're looking for, boys.
41:03Look at that.
41:04Wow, big chunks.
41:05That's colour.
41:06That is nice.
41:07Good stuff.
41:11So, yeah, this one looks under.
41:13Yeah.
41:14This one's Kingstone, it's the best quality opal.
41:17Hopefully it runs in here and it'll be good.
41:20I hope we pick it up.
41:22It'll be good.
41:23I hope we pick it up on the first cut.
41:26The Kingstone shows rare red opal on the face.
41:30If it continues inside, it could be worth tens of thousands of dollars.
41:37Let's see if there's something there.
41:40No, it didn't run to there.
41:43When I sawed it, it was the first saw cut,
41:45didn't show any more opal.
41:48Greg tries a second cut straight through the middle of the stone.
41:53OK, we're getting close.
41:56Won't be long.
41:59Here we go.
42:00Here we go.
42:02Oh.
42:04That's running.
42:05Running!
42:07Running!
42:08Goes from side to side.
42:10Beautiful colour either side.
42:12I can see it now, yeah.
42:14That's definitely one chunky stone.
42:16Yeah.
42:18That's what it's all about, eh?
42:20Yeah.
42:21Meant to be, Stoney.
42:22Yeah, she's worth a few bucks.
42:23Don't worry about that.
42:24Definitely.
42:25Oh, yeah.
42:26That gives hope.
42:27We must keep digging.
42:29They have high-quality boulder opal,
42:32ranging from prized red through to mid-value blues and greens.
42:36It's been sawn, and there's five kilograms.
42:40Potentially, between those two bits,
42:42that could be, like, ten grand, you know?
42:44Yeah, and then the other stuff that's with it,
42:46I'm thinking around $15,000-plus.
42:48We definitely didn't dig a dud.
42:49Nah.
42:50And that's more to dig.
42:51With an estimated value of over $15,000,
42:55this opal find is the proof the team need to stake a claim
42:59and together set up a mine.
43:02It's great to know that that area's producing that material.
43:05Good commercial stuff as well.
43:07A lot more gem, I think, to come yet.
43:09Good on you, great meeting you, mate.
43:10It was a pleasure, mate.
43:11I enjoyed it.
43:12Cheers, mate.
43:13Me too.
43:14Off to a good start.
43:16Yeah, no, it looks good, eh?
43:18You can't not be happy with that, that grounds.
43:21It's doing all the things that it should do to produce opal.
43:25It's been great working with the team.
43:27I've just got a good feeling about this one.
43:29Things are coming together for a reason,
43:31and that's so we can, you know, find some opal and be successful.
43:35It's already paid off.
43:37I think in time we'll find a lot more of that type of material.
43:41We are off to a very good start.
43:43Opal will fly.
44:13.