Most people are totally fascinated with the "good old days" of gold rushes and exploring. When I wandered the bush back in the 60's' I heard stories of the opal miners who combed this country back in the 1800's. The stories told of hardy men and women who seemed to be able to "smell" where the opal was. The work these miners did with a pick and shovel is unbelievable.

This is what an opal mine looks like before you start digging. You have to register a claim, which gives you your right to dig where you think you will find opal.

In some ways, picking the right spot is like picking the winning lottery number. In truth, this decision is often made by tossing a coin, though you'll find many folks who insist they have special and reliable methods for determining where opal can be found. Amazingly, some of the older, experienced miners seem to be nearly able to "smell" opal.

Two types of mining take place in Australia: underground and open cut.

Underground mining, as the name implies, require sinking a shaft with a one meter round orger (drill).

Well, that's how it's done today. Early miners dug their holes with a pick and shovel--and the old holes were rectangular in shape. How would you like to dig with a pick and a shovel at 110 degrees in the shade? The old miners did it all the time.

There are thousands of holes or shafts like this one.

Underground miners work with hoists to haul mullock to the surface. Mullock is the whitish clay that must be removed from the mines so that the opal miner can get down to the opal bearing levels. In the early days, mullock was drawn to the surface in buckets tied to a windlass. It was a long and tedious job.

Open cut mining uses bulldozers and backhoes to cut wide furrows in the ground. Much of the open cut mining is found in the Queensland mining areas. Making a "cut" with a dozer saves a lot of pick and shovel work! Once again, the early miners cut these furrows by hand.

Both the underground and open cut opal fields are just full of mullock piles. Miners refer to these mounds as heaps.

Interestingly, some of these waste heaps have proven to be a rich source of opal for tourists to find.

Once a miner removes the mullock and gets into the bearing level, he uses a technique called gouging to search for opal. Gouging means using a small pick to remove the dirt in the earth surrounding the opal. Before there was good lighting in the underground mines, the old timers used to listen for the special click sound that signaled when their pick hit opal.

Opal mining is not recommended for folks with claustrophobic tendencies!

It can be very lonely down in the mines--and dangerous. Mining rules make it safer by requiring miners to prop the roof of the mine and to carefully leave the mine if the ceiling looks unstable. Unfortunately, it's tempting to stay "just a little longer" if you're onto some good gems. Many miners have lost their lives taking risks like this.

Unformed opal is called potch and it can range from no colour to milky white to gray to black. This pan full of black potch is called tailings. Australia's famous black opals are actually opal sitting on black potch. Always, the miner hopes to find some valuable black opals among the worthless black potch.

Hopefully, this is what a miner finds after he washes a truck full of opal mullock. That tiny speck of colour tells a miner that some grade of opal is hiding inside the lump of mullock.

Some of the opal found hiding within the potch amounts to a minute single coloured fragment no bigger than the wee spot shown.

A lucky miner may find a larger piece of opal speckled with a rainbow of colours.

Sadly, it's been said, that 95% of opal found is valueless potch. Of the remaining five percent, 95% of that is low quality. The remaining bit can be termed precious opal. Miners commonly equate their situation to that of fishermen -- too much water is mixed up with the fish; or, in the case of miners -- too much potch is mixed up with the opal!