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 Opel Hunters...
00:03I've got to go on the angled one.
00:05..unstable ground...
00:07Whoa!
00:08..almost costs the Boulder Boys...
00:10You've got to be careful, mate.
00:11..their $60,000 excavator...
00:15..the McFarlands...
00:17Looks like there's some nasty weather coming in.
00:19..race a storm...
00:21If there's a rain comes, it'll shut me down.
00:24..and the family ties of the Tunnel Rats.
00:27It's throwing money at the window and it's pissing me off.
00:32..are torn apart.
00:34He was just getting more aggressive and more psycho.
00:37Get out of my camp.
00:58In the harsh 34-degree heat of central Queensland...
01:09..Boulder Boys, Aaron Grotchen...
01:13..and Ron Selig
01:15are battling to get their crippled excavator
01:18to the main pit on their Dragonfly claim,
01:21where last year they found over $100,000 of Opel.
01:28Whoa!
01:30Oh, look at that!
01:32We've decided to go up to the pit and attack that.
01:36So far this year, it's been out of reach,
01:40flooded by summer storms.
01:43But with the pit finally dry,
01:45Aaron and partner Ron
01:47have just a few short months
01:49before monsoon rains sweeping down from the north
01:52flood it again.
01:54I'm finding already a bit of pots in colour.
01:58It's a sign.
02:00It's a bloody good sign.
02:02See, look, we've got sandstone here too, Ron.
02:05We've got 1,200 litres of diesel.
02:07I think we've got a good chance of getting Opel with what we've got.
02:10We're just gonna start up top and work our way into it.
02:12Trouble is, Aaron's 40-year-old Cato excavator
02:16is not up to the job.
02:18It limps around on one track.
02:21And you saw the thing it does when it's on one track going up a hill.
02:27And going down is dangerous too.
02:30With just one working track,
02:32taking the excavator into the pit is too risky.
02:36It could get stuck or even roll.
02:39Poor old girl. Yeah.
02:41Before they can tackle the pit,
02:43they need to repair the excavator's broken track.
02:47That's the part that's stripped.
02:49Here's that stripped.
02:51The cog's stripped in the back vinyl drive.
02:54Pull this one out, put the new one back in there
02:57and fill it up with oil and a bit of luck, we'll get going by the sun.
03:02It will fit.
03:04It won't.
03:08Yeah, I reckon that's bigger than that.
03:11Well, we've got some parts, but they didn't fit.
03:14Yeah, we'll just have to bodge it, Ron.
03:16That's all we can do, weld it.
03:19See how long it lasts.
03:25If we do a good enough job, we should last a while.
03:28We'll see how we go.
03:35My teeth down here aren't lined up.
03:37Neither are mine.
03:39Dude, I just...
03:41Walker opens, mate.
03:43Might as well do a Rubik's Cube.
03:47We've tried to fix it, Kato, we're not getting a win.
03:50It's deep ground up there
03:52and we can't do everything with this machine,
03:54so we're going to ask Eric if we can borrow his machine,
03:57work out a percentage.
03:59Neighbouring miner Eric Hume
04:01owns a modern 35-tonne excavator they've borrowed before.
04:06Hey, Eric, how are you?
04:08It's your mates from down the road again.
04:11Wondering if we could borrow your machine.
04:14All right, mate, we'll see you in about ten.
04:16Thanks, Eric. Thank you. Bye.
04:19He's on his way.
04:21Oh, good.
04:22I hate asking all the time,
04:24but a bit of luck we'll find some overlock
04:26and get stuff sorted out a bit better.
04:28Maybe get a bit better excavator.
04:30A former coal miner, Eric switched to mining opal 12 years ago.
04:34How are you, Eric?
04:36Good, mate.
04:37All right. We're on the bite again.
04:39Haven't you got, old Kato, got fixed up properly yet?
04:43We've had a lot of troubles with it.
04:45Oh, OK.
04:46Aaron and Ron will have to give up part of their profits
04:49in return for Eric's machine.
04:51We'll work out a percentage.
04:53Oh, what's the percentage?
04:55Well, we'd better get this sorted out first.
04:5925%.
05:00What? 25%?
05:02You boys can do better than that.
05:06No, we're buggered without it.
05:08Yeah, all right.
05:09Well, Ron's on 20%.
05:10Yeah.
05:11I get 40 and you get 40.
05:13All right, that's a deal.
05:14There you go.
05:15And you supply the fuel.
05:17I'll get the fuel.
05:18And when it comes back, I want a full tank of fuel.
05:20Yeah, yeah.
05:22Three kilometres northwest is Eric's mine and excavator.
05:27Eric's lent us his machine.
05:29We're going to take it up the top and try and find some opal.
05:33She talks to you, this machine.
05:36BEEP
05:39BEEP
05:43Engine is running.
05:45Dig, dig, dig.
05:48Now it's a long, slow cross-country crawl
05:53at a top speed of just five kilometres per hour.
05:59Get there in another hour or so and we'll start digging.
06:06BEEP
06:14Wait.
06:17Boiling.
06:18Boiling.
06:21What a strangle.
06:23Where'd that come from?
06:28Oh, BEEP me.
06:36900 kilometres southeast in Lightning Ridge.
06:41Holy dooly.
06:43This is worse than I can remember.
06:47Looks like there's some nasty weather coming in.
06:49We need to get serious about this roof, eh?
06:51Gavin and Connie McFarlane are surveying the leaking roof
06:55of their ageing shack.
06:58Some of the sheets, the screws are gone.
07:01They're lifted.
07:02The weather and stuff like that has been getting through the roof.
07:05The amount of drops that are actually coming through is a bit hellish.
07:09Get off the roof, Dad.
07:12It's like a mercy dash, I guess,
07:14for me to try and get this roof sorted out.
07:19The McFarlanes are a family of underground miners
07:22chasing premium black opal.
07:26We want the good stones,
07:27the stones that produce the black with the colour.
07:30Red on black's the ultimate opal.
07:33Looks like our palms are getting itchy.
07:34I was hoping that's money coming.
07:40So far this season, they've only found small trace opal.
07:45This is one of those businesses
07:46you're not always guaranteed a pay at the end of the week.
07:50You don't want to give up.
07:51You go six inches a foot and bang, you know, it's there.
07:57With a target of $20,000, getting a payday is becoming urgent.
08:02But approaching rains now threaten their mining operation.
08:07Just give me a little window of opportunity
08:09to try and get some money, get some opal out of the ground.
08:13How are you going to go out mining when there's...
08:15You know, Pete's got to work this week.
08:17You're not going down there on your own.
08:18Seriously, I don't like you down there on your own.
08:20It's not safe.
08:21Gavin's regular mining partner, Pete Driscoll, is away,
08:25supplementing his opal income, working as a bus driver.
08:29She doesn't like me going mining by myself.
08:32The area around Gavin's claim is full of old mine workings,
08:36dating back to the 1920s.
08:38Dangerous ground, prone to roof collapses.
08:42Most of the claims around me are all condemned now
08:45due to fall-ins and all that.
08:48In the older stuff, it crumbles, it falls.
08:51I've got a couple of friends
08:52that are going to have to make some phone calls.
08:54Let's see if they're available to give me a hand
08:56to get a couple of loads out from underground
08:59into the aggie and a wash and a tail out
09:02so we can try and hopefully find some opal and make some money.
09:05PHONE RINGS
09:07How are you?
09:08I need to move some dirt, buddy.
09:10I can come and give you a hand.
09:12Awesome. Yeah.
09:15Gavin's managed to wrangle two mates to help him down the mine.
09:21I've got a bit of a game plan.
09:23We'd like to get at least eight or ten loads
09:26out of that particular area.
09:29Oh, great.
09:31Is this for Guinness?
09:34Paul Martin is visiting from Sydney
09:36and normally works as a pawnbroker.
09:39Again, safety, safety, safety, buddy.
09:41Another set of eyes so Tim and I can concentrate on the machinery.
09:45Tim Bryant is a Lightning Ridge local
09:48with some underground experience.
09:51He's a road train driver and an excavator operator
09:54and I know in the past that he has mined as well.
10:03Right, guys, this is it, eh?
10:06I really need to get some dirt, more dirt moved out of here.
10:09This is looking really promising over here.
10:12Six metres underground.
10:14Safety is paramount.
10:17See that there? Yeah.
10:19Just keep an eye on stuff like that.
10:21In particular over here.
10:23It's only because it's dry.
10:25This claim hasn't been touched in ten-plus years.
10:28The ultimate price anyone can pay in this game is death.
10:31At the end of the day,
10:33no pretty rock or no amount of money is worth your life.
10:36The best thing to come out of the mine is the miner.
10:40Time to work, boys.
10:42First job is to move the opal dirt
10:45that Gavin and Pete have already dug out of the mine face
10:48using a machine commonly known as a bogger.
10:51Got myself a bit of a pile there happening,
10:54so give the digger a rest,
10:57load him into the bogger,
11:00bring him over and drop him into the hopper.
11:05It goes up the hoist into the back of the truck.
11:08The dirt will be washed and checked for opal later.
11:12That's our goal, that's our aim,
11:14to find the lucid black opal with the gem-quality colours on top.
11:22After three hours, most of the dirt has been cleared.
11:26Oh, where's that?
11:28You picked? Yeah.
11:30Here you go, Gav.
11:31And the mine face is showing promising signs.
11:34Well, I don't know if that's a knobby in the wall
11:37or if it's just mud.
11:39This is really interesting for me.
11:45Outside the isolated town of Minterby, South Australia...
11:51Hmm. It's interesting.
11:54I'm just testing the roof and I'm...
11:57I'm not liking what I see.
11:59..a potentially deadly crack has opened up
12:02in the ceiling of the Tunnel Rats mine.
12:05It has to go. Yeah.
12:07It's too dangerous.
12:09Yeah, there could be a good six, seven tonnes of rock there.
12:12If that drops on you, you're dead.
12:14There's spots of mobies, you're dead.
12:17Get rid of it.
12:19The Tunnel Rats' favoured mining technique
12:22is using home-made ammonium nitrate explosives.
12:25Put some holes in there, blast it down.
12:29Put a couple of shots in there now.
12:32It'll deal with that because it's very unsafe.
12:36Blast it out and eliminate the issue.
12:39Right-o. Go and make some noise.
12:45After striking it lucky eight weeks ago...
12:48Whoo!
12:50That is... That is why I called Minterby opal.
12:53Yes! Yes!
12:56..the Tunnel Rats, Baden Pearce, his dad, Rodney,
13:00and Baden's girlfriend, Lise Grove,
13:03are chasing an elusive seam of opal through concrete like sandstone.
13:08Oh, we've still got a lot of potch,
13:10but it's no opal, unfortunately.
13:13Thin stuff over this side, but it's no good.
13:18Times have been tough for the Tunnel Rats.
13:21It's caused a lot of stress on me,
13:24knowing that the end is coming very close for us.
13:28After nearly 100 years,
13:30the world-famous 213-square-kilometre opal field
13:35and the entire town of Minterby will soon be closed
13:39and the land handed back to traditional Indigenous owners.
13:43It's looking at all your hard work that you've been working for
13:47and getting that ripped away from you,
13:49knowing that, hey, there's still opal on the wall,
13:51but sorry, mate, you can't mind that anymore
13:53because we're kicking you out.
13:55I've got no words to express how angry I am about that.
13:59Faced with eviction, the Tunnel Rats need $200,000.
14:04Their home, belongings and all their mining equipment
14:08must be moved out of Minterby in just two months' time.
14:12Fail and they'll be forced to abandon whatever's still on site.
14:19Every day I feel that we're running out of time.
14:29I've got an oil leak.
14:32I've got drops of oil on the ground, a puddle underneath.
14:38We really need to shift the dirt so we can find opal.
14:42For the team, the bobcat is essential.
14:45I don't know what its problem is.
14:48With it out of action, they can't clear their mine
14:51and their opal hunt has ground to a halt.
14:56Argh!
15:051,500 kilometres away at the McFarlane's camp in Lightning Ridge.
15:10If it rains, this becomes a pool and the tiles become slippery.
15:15Connie McFarlane and daughter Teagan
15:17are hoping that forecast winter storms stay away.
15:21The roof in there, as you can see, is just bad.
15:25And you can see that we've had to replace the walls.
15:28If it rains, it means we're all going to get wet.
15:30The floor gets wet, the furniture gets wet.
15:34Six metres down, the McFarlane's crumbling old mine.
15:39It's the sort of thing I look for.
15:41If it's a knobby, I like to rescue it before it goes into the digger.
15:46I think it's just mud.
15:48Yeah, it's just mud.
15:50Gavin McFarlane is on the lookout for the prized black opal
15:54this field is famous for.
15:57It's usually found in knobbies,
15:59small rocks scattered amongst the sandstone.
16:03Until they wash the excavated dirt,
16:06Gavin won't know whether it holds the elusive gem.
16:10With knobby country, it's not like seam.
16:12Seam, you see it all the time.
16:14Knobbies, who knows what this dirt's holding in the way of knobbies.
16:18This is really interesting for me.
16:21I'm getting a bit of a hurry up with myself.
16:23I really want to get my digger into that.
16:26Once Gavin empties that one out, we'll shift the digger into place.
16:30You use your boom to move it,
16:33so you put it where you want to go,
16:36and then you lift your floor rams up,
16:39let it back down onto the wheels and bring your roof ram down.
16:43That's it, that's good.
16:45So you should be able to pull yourself in there now.
16:49The ram holding the one-tonne digger
16:52against the mine's dry, unstable ceiling
16:55needs to be set firmly.
16:58When the roof ram goes up in the digger,
17:01it can bring it down on you.
17:06Just watch the roof.
17:08There we go.
17:14Buy me a nice pocket of gooseberries, Tim.
17:18Also red on black.
17:20We place the digger in the centre of the face,
17:23and we dig, and we just keep removing dirt.
17:27Where's the colour?
17:39That's roof, Tim.
17:44It's pushing the feet back.
17:56The bobcat was leaking oil,
17:58so I tracked down the oil leak and fixed it.
18:01It's a bleed-off hose from the hydraulic motors.
18:04It's a bleed-off hose from the hydraulic motors.
18:07It just hadn't been done up quite tight enough.
18:10Tensions have been high in the Tunnel Rats team.
18:13Now, with the bobcat working again,
18:16their race to find Opal can get back on track.
18:20Baden's just drilling our next set of holes
18:23to set off another set of shots.
18:25We've got actually a line of mud,
18:27which is about at Baden's head height.
18:29We just want to sort of keep tracking it to the right
18:32because it seems to always give us a little bit on the right.
18:37In just two months,
18:39Minterby and their mine will be closed down for good.
18:43Possibly drill some holes after that.
18:46To speed up their operation,
18:48Baden has enlisted 16-year-old family friend,
18:51Setha Williams.
18:53It is a bit of a hard time being, you know,
18:56close to the Minterby closure.
18:58You've got a lot going on,
19:00any kind of help that you can give us, man, would be great.
19:03Yep, no worries.
19:04Sweet as.
19:05We've got the bobcat up and going,
19:07so you can be the bobcat man.
19:09OK.
19:10Yeah.
19:29The bobcat's running pretty bad at the moment.
19:32The hydraulic coil's leaking out somewhere,
19:35so the hydraulics don't have much pressure in them
19:38They climbed up a big jittery and...
19:40Rodney's repair hasn't worked.
19:43And son Baden isn't impressed.
19:47I'm not liking what I see with that bobcat.
19:52There's a hole in that pipe somewhere here.
19:55Leaking hydraulic coil like a sieve.
19:58So whatever leak we tried to fix, didn't fix.
20:02It's a waste of time.
20:04Sometimes you've just got to take things to a mechanic.
20:07But the nearest bobcat mechanic is over 1,000 kilometres away.
20:13I'd have to send it down to Adelaide.
20:15It could take two weeks.
20:17But the way I see it is, Dad's already fixed that three times.
20:21Mm-hm.
20:22If I add all that up, that's nearly 14 days of working and breakdowns.
20:27Yeah.
20:28In time.
20:31It's throwing money at the window and it's pissing me off.
20:37Aargh!
20:43Keep coming.
20:45Keep coming.
20:46After an oil leak...
20:50Oh, she's spraying it hard.
20:54...Aaron and Ron have been forced to stop
20:57and fix their newly borrowed excavator.
21:01These two hoses here, I'll join them in line together
21:05and they can circulate and it'll be fine.
21:09When you get in this excavator, it tells you to find opal.
21:12You go find opal. You go find opal.
21:14Does it?
21:15Thankfully, not too much hydraulic oil spewed out.
21:20A quick fix and they can start moving into the big pit,
21:24where their best chance of finding opal lies.
21:29We're just going to start up top and work our way into it.
21:31After rains destroyed the previous ramp, Aaron must build a new one,
21:36down to where he last found good opal.
21:40Using up to 1,000 bucket loads of earth, nearly 500 tonnes.
21:49After a tough start, this opal hunting season has turned out well for Aaron.
21:56Money's going right at the moment because we found that parcel at the squiggly.
22:00Woo-hoo!
22:02Paid all bills and we've got diesel money and we've got food.
22:07My goal this year is to find enough opal to buy at least a D8 or D9 dozer.
22:14You need 100,000 to do that.
22:17Not having a dozer sort of slows you up a bit.
22:20You need the machinery to do the job.
22:23What he's trying to do right now is put a bit more fill in here
22:27so that he can dig around to the bottom of the slip.
22:31Let's hope that he gets it high enough.
22:33I don't want to see him slip down.
22:40Aaron does have to be careful.
22:43One side's still firm and the other side's just built,
22:45so it's just starting to slide sideways.
22:50Creating a stable platform for their borrowed $60,000 excavator
22:55is proving more difficult than expected.
22:59You've got to be careful, mate.
23:01I've got to go on the angled one.
23:06But Aaron's determined to get to the opal.
23:09No skiing allowed on the hill.
23:11No.
23:12Not in the wet stuff.
23:16You shouldn't be putting the wet stuff there.
23:19Oi!
23:21Water, hidden under the dry surface of the pit,
23:25has turned into muddy slurry.
23:27And that's only the crust.
23:29It's like a skin on a pudding.
23:31By depositing it in front of the excavator,
23:34Aaron hasn't realised he's making the ramp more unstable
23:38and weakening the ground under the 35-tonne machine.
23:43It's just like we'll just ooze out, even though you've got a heart,
23:47because as the compression goes, it'll just leak out everywhere.
23:52Like quicksand, the more Aaron struggles against the mud,
23:56the worse it gets.
24:04Six metres beneath the New South Wales outback.
24:08Yeah. Yeah.
24:11There. Yeah, that is loose.
24:13Gavin McFarlane and his crew
24:15are clearing a potentially dangerous crumbling ceiling.
24:26And you've just got to chip away at it.
24:36The dirt they've dug out will be washed at Gavin's agitator plant.
24:40Hopefully we've got some opal going up here.
24:43Hopefully.
24:45Only then will he know if it holds the rarest black opal.
24:50Truck's full.
24:52Miles will head to the agitator, put it in,
24:56and we'll go from there, eh?
25:04Oh, there's got to be something in there.
25:06My bones are sore.
25:09There we go. In the back.
25:12Their wash plant is located three kilometres away
25:16at a site where the land and water
25:18is supplied by the local mining association
25:21and is shared with a dozen other miners.
25:23I'll try to get this load in if I can.
25:26If the rain comes, it'll shut me down.
25:31I don't like the looks of that.
25:33Fingers crossed we have a good tail out.
25:36I'll try and let it wash for a whole day.
25:39This is the field of dreams.
25:47The agitator, formerly a cement mixer,
25:50washes the six tonnes of excavated dirt
25:53using 900 litres of water to remove mud and clay.
25:59All that's left is the rocks,
26:01and within them, hopefully, black opal.
26:05You can see the knobbies or all the trace as it comes down.
26:09Those are the sort of things that keep an eye out coming down.
26:13Whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa.
26:16Look what the digger hit.
26:18We've obviously hit a knobby with the digger.
26:21If that had some colour, that'd play for my roof.
26:24No colour in him, but he's a beautiful big black knobby.
26:28That makes me feel heaps better, heaps better.
26:32Heaps better, heaps better.
26:34It's black.
26:36Oh, mate, if you get a colour bar on the red,
26:39say the red's on the black, anything on black's the best quality opal you can get.
26:44The best opal in the world.
26:46Gavin won't know if there's opal
26:49until the wash is complete in 24 hours' time.
26:53Maybe the opal gods are smiling on me,
26:56hopefully this time round, you know?
26:59I hope they're not teasing me, saying,
27:01oh, that's all you're going to get.
27:11I'm not wasting no more diesel there, Ron.
27:13Stopped dead by muddy quicksand.
27:16Aaron and Ron's plan to dig the rich opal level
27:19at the bottom of their big pit has failed.
27:22Oh, if you're not careful, you could sink the excavator
27:25cos that's all just total mud under there.
27:27I nearly went off the side there then.
27:34But Aaron's determined to find some opal.
27:41Well, I'm going to go back up here
27:43where them little rocks are starting to come in, Ron.
27:45Well, at least there are rocks here.
27:47Yeah, at least we had rocks here.
27:49It's a little bit safer.
27:50Bit safer up there.
27:52Near the top of the ramp is a smaller opal level
27:56that could be worth digging.
28:21Nice.
28:27And the colour!
28:33Oh, my Mamma Maria!
28:40Here, here.
28:44It is a bit of colour, Ron.
28:48Here they are, here, Ron. There's rock back here too.
28:50Oh, look at that.
28:51Starting to get a few rocks coming in here,
28:53getting close to the stage top.
28:56So we'll go this way.
28:58Opal's like that as soon as you think it's not there
29:01and it turns up.
29:03That's the other part.
29:05It was up here in the mulloch.
29:07Far out.
29:09Nothing wrong with that colour.
29:16Yeah, nice rock.
29:18Look.
29:20Very nice rock.
29:22Ooh.
29:27Here, Ron.
29:29Oi!
29:31Oi!
29:32That's a nice stone.
29:34That's gem.
29:36I wouldn't think there'd be nothing in that rock.
29:38Then I hit it and it must have just hit on the right brake.
29:41She's loaded.
29:43There can be two nice stones.
29:45Look at the colours everywhere.
29:47That's thick too, eh?
29:49It is.
29:50All those two colours there.
29:52Aaron's gamble to dig in the shallower ground
29:55has paid off.
29:57Oh, them two stones will pay for the diesel for this.
30:00It was good to have a look here.
30:11Well, boys, pointy end of the business.
30:14The McFarland's agitator has been churning dirt
30:18over the last 24 hours.
30:20Let's go get some opal, eh?
30:22Right, let's do it.
30:23Let's do it.
30:24Now the agi will be reversed
30:26and Gavin and the team will check through the washed rocks
30:29by hand for opal in what's called a tail-out.
30:32Here's the exciting part now.
30:35Let's see if all our hard work pays off.
30:38A leaking roof back at camp and forecast bad weather
30:42means the McFarland's need this to be a successful tail-out.
30:46I've got my fingers crossed
30:48because really until such time as you find something half decent,
30:52we're going to have to deal with this roof, which is not...
30:55No, I'm not coping with that very well at all.
31:08I'm going into reverse.
31:10Without reverse,
31:12there's no way of getting the rocks or the opal out of the agi.
31:19I don't know if I've done the gearbox.
31:30It's working.
31:32It's working.
31:35Dodged a bullet there, a bit of perseverance,
31:37jiggling around with the gear stick.
31:39Relief? Yeah.
31:43There's got to be some colour in there, boys.
31:45Fingers crossed.
31:49The sedimentary sandstone level Gavin has been mining
31:52is renowned for good opal.
31:55If we get on to it the right colour and all that,
31:57the buyers will be actually ringing me to buy my opal.
32:00That's what I'm told.
32:02I'm looking for the elusive red on black there.
32:05That's the best of the best.
32:08Oh!
32:10One knobby.
32:12Big black knobby.
32:14One coloured knobby.
32:19SCREAMING
32:24In 2018, the South Australian government
32:27announced a plan to close the town of Minterby
32:30and hand the land back to the traditional owners.
32:32Baden and dad Rodney are already at loggerheads over repairs.
32:37Still over $52,000 short of the money they need to relocate.
32:42The reality of the impending closure of the town
32:45and losing all they have invested
32:47is putting their relationship under extra pressure.
32:51My own superannuation, I've invested $60,000 into it.
32:56Thanks to that, I've got nothing left.
33:16EXPLOSION
33:26Next morning, and no-one's mining.
33:34We had a little bit of a rough night last night.
33:38The pressure to find enough opal to move out of Minterby
33:42has caused the team to crack.
33:45It just started off with money, the whole money issue.
33:48It's suspicious to me, taking money.
33:51I'm selling opal and not...
33:53Giving him all the money.
33:55Giving him all the money.
33:56And I stood up for Baden
33:58and then that made the situation a whole hell of a lot worse.
34:01From an argument to a full-on fight.
34:05Tempest fled.
34:07He took it a little bit too far
34:09and unfortunately the son had to step up
34:12and he knew where he stood after that.
34:19It got physical, all right, yeah.
34:21Yeah.
34:23I was up to the doorway, telling Lisey to get out of my camp.
34:28Baden came and got me
34:30and sort of started pushing me back
34:33and I started to push him back against him
34:35and he just dropped me down on the ground.
34:38Well, I never thought that I'd face that with my son.
34:42Ever.
34:44Like, I'm six foot one and, you know,
34:47and he just handled me like a...
34:50I don't know, a bucket of feathers.
34:54Kicked me out of my own home.
34:56He said, get out of my home, get out of my home, get out of my home.
35:00I said, don't forget it's my home too, old boy.
35:03He didn't care.
35:04He was just getting more aggressive and more psycho,
35:06so I thought, well...
35:09The disintegration of the team
35:11leaves Baden with a major problem.
35:15Dad and I are no longer in partnership.
35:18The only access to the mine
35:20and the rich opal seam is on Rodney's claim.
35:24I need to use Dad's claim for entry
35:28to go into my claim.
35:31Grab my mining drill.
35:33He can be nasty and say,
35:36no, you're not entering my claim.
35:39So realistically, where my claim is, I have no access.
35:46At this point, reconciliation...
35:48No, not at this point.
35:51BOOM
36:02In their camp at Dragonfly...
36:04There's one of the better bits.
36:06That's gem.
36:08That there's worth 500 a carat.
36:11..Aaron and Ron are examining their find of boulder opal.
36:15You might get a couple of stones in the bottom here, see?
36:18Look there.
36:19Aaron's determination to find opal...
36:23..has paid off.
36:24Hey, that's nice.
36:25We looked a bit further up
36:27and the level just pinched into the sandstone
36:30and we got a bit of colour.
36:31Nice colour.
36:33Hey, look at that.
36:35There's a stone there.
36:36That's green, isn't it?
36:38That's electric green-blue.
36:40Perfect cutting stones for boulder opal jewellery.
36:44Gorgeous. Nice colour, isn't it?
36:47Their boulder opal is a variety of colours
36:50with some sought-after reds and yellows.
36:53At approximately 17 grams, even in the rough,
36:56it's worth a solid $10,000.
37:00Oh, it's a nice colour, isn't it?
37:02We're going to get more surprises, so you're right.
37:04You're probably going to get 10 grand out of it.
37:06Their 60-40 deal with excavator owner Eric
37:10means they'll get $6,000,
37:13bringing their total up to $98,000,
37:17within reach of their season target.
37:20Until we cut these up, you don't know.
37:22It could be 20 grand.
37:23That's it.
37:26It's a good start.
37:28Very good start.
37:30For Aaron, this opal find is the encouragement he needs
37:34to keep expanding his mining operation.
37:37I'll be a dozer pulling up here next year.
37:39We need a good $100,000 to get a machine.
37:42Nothing's cheap.
37:55In Minterby...
37:57I just want one more bag.
37:59..Lise and Vaden are packing to leave town for good.
38:05After their fight, ending 22 years of working together,
38:09Dad Rodney has made himself scarce.
38:13He's gone off a little drive somewhere.
38:15I don't know where, but it's out of my way.
38:21I believe that finding the opal has definitely caused a lot of issues.
38:27We've never really had opal before, so we've never fought before.
38:35I'm taking the opal with me.
38:37You probably think, oh, my son's ripping me off still.
38:39He's ripping me, he's taking all my opal.
38:42At the end of the day, he's old school
38:44and he's going to sell it for nothing,
38:46so I'm actually going to cut stones and make more money out of it,
38:49regardless of the relationship that we have.
38:51I'm a man of my word and I'll make as much money as I can
38:55to even put in his pocket still.
39:00Time to say goodbye to Minterby
39:04and the opal Baden knows is still waiting to be found at the grasshopper claim.
39:12I'll miss Minterby. I'll miss living here,
39:15but I'm not going to miss everything else that comes with it.
39:26Yep, it's time to go. I'm over it. I'm done.
39:33I'm sad about everything, but it's just what happens, isn't it?
39:47I need to regroup. I really need to get my head back on my shoulders.
39:51I need some time to think.
39:54I feel very disgusted to have your son treat you like s**t.
40:03I'll march on. I don't need anybody.
40:06I'll just keep on working myself
40:09until I've either got no money left
40:12or the government come and shut the door on me.
40:15He's got all the opal.
40:17He's got all the money.
40:19The government come and shut the door on me.
40:22He's got all the opal. I've got nothing.
40:25So I'll just keep on going.
40:40Pretty sad. Not looking good.
40:44I mean, good trace, but no money.
40:49No money, unless it's up in that last one.
40:52Gavin and his crew have so far searched through
40:56150 kilograms of rocks from their mine
40:59without finding a single opal.
41:02Last stable coming out. Last chance.
41:13You looking for them, boys?
41:15You better look harder.
41:17Jeez, mate.
41:19You're kidding. Wow.
41:23It's not a full roof, but I'll tell you what.
41:26It's a good start to one, mate.
41:29Woo-hoo.
41:33Oh, I got liquor.
41:35Oh, look at that.
41:38That'll rub up beautiful.
41:40Sensational.
41:44Guys, I couldn't have done it without you.
41:46Really thank you for what you've done.
41:48That's awesome, you know.
41:56Salt and pepper.
41:58Can you hear a car? I can hear a car.
42:00Someone coming? Want to go have a look?
42:02I think that might be Pete.
42:06Gavin's regular mining partner, Pete,
42:09has finally made it back.
42:13How you going? Hey, mate. How are you?
42:16Oh, pretty good. Another week down.
42:18Good, yeah. How'd you go?
42:20Uh, yeah, chase.
42:23What have you got there?
42:25Oh, you little pearler.
42:27The single crystal opal with blue-green colours
42:30is only in the rough.
42:32It weighs 2.4 grams,
42:34making its value $2,000,
42:37two-thirds of what Gavin needs for his roof repair.
42:40I've got something for you, too. Really?
42:42Best I can do, but...
42:44Oh, mate. ..that one bad little patch...
42:46Oh, mate. ..we'll make it waterproof.
42:48Mate, that's fantastic. That's brilliant.
42:50No drama, mate.
42:52Well, let's get the tech done.
43:00That's excellent. Thank you, mate.
43:02No worries. See you tomorrow, buddy.
43:04Appreciate it. That's awesome.
43:06I couldn't think of a better spot to have a beer.
43:08Another day in paradise, mate.
43:10Oh, so here's one I prepared earlier.
43:12Ha-ha, he's good at that.
43:17Too many more days like this. No problem.