Digging For opals.

Hokitika Guardian, 3 October 1922, Page 3

Digging For opals.

(By One Who has done it.) Thcie are few methods of earning a living so fascinating as opal-getting. Tin' life is one of absolute freedom, under a sunny sky. in a perfect climate, and the leward as much as any man requires, or more, il be cares to work harder. Opal is found chielly in -the western plains of Queensland and New South Wales, in Australia. The gem-stone opal is loutul at all depths from the surface down to about 40ft. It exists in layers in the soft day of what was presumably tbe ancient sea-bed of Central Australia, and tin* best gum pieces are usually lound under an ironstone deposit, which suggests many theories as to its formation and cause. These theories, however are generally proved wrong by the actual occurrence of opal where, according to them, it should not he. The opal miner, like all real “buslinien.” is a sociable individual, and thus when a new “strike” is made a common earn]) is soon formed and the men work as partners.

This arrangement enables one to bo cool;, another to bo u Willi 1 limit or. and unfailingly, the nttiti with the best litisi moss apt it tide will bo delegated to deal with (ho visiting gem-buyers in thi' nearest township when the camp’s opal is sold. The opal seekcus arc not professional miners. JVohablv few of them ever handled the pick or shovel before going out into the Never-never. All kinds, all classes, and nearly all nationalities tire to he found tinning the opal diggers. Stores are brought out front the nearest township periodically but ns mutton can be had for next to nothing by arrangement with the owner of the sheep station who possesses the grazing rights of the ground on which the mines are situated, only the elementary necessaries of life require to he transported. Opal miners, alter examining the surface indications, usually decide by tossing a coin where they will sink their shafts. Kuril couple ot men work according to their own iduas, and when they have cut through the fust stratum may elect to follow along it horizontally or sink deeper on the chance of striking a. more valuable level. A shaft is oft. (Sin. in length 2ft (Jin. in width and the miners go up and fhiw-tt by means of foot holes cut in the walls about ]Bin. apari. A crude windlass, the barrel of which fs made from a tree trunk, 'is erected for limiting purposes when the shaft is deep and the excavations from the drives or tunnels are extensive. Opal is of every conceivable sbn.de and colour, but only that possessing the living, pulsating waves of fire is valuable, and of that variety “orange pin fire” commands the highest price—excepting black opal, which is ns yet found only in 'Lightning Itidge in the north-eastern portion of New South Wales near the Queensland border. finalised shells and fishbones are frequently found In the clay and are always of exquisite '‘life”. This fact encourages the belief that it is the presence of lime that transforms the ordinary opal into the variety known its '‘noble” or gem »pa|,