(ANIMAL CRY)
Doesn't sound alright, does it?
(ANIMAL CRY)
Doesn't sound good.
I don't know what the hell that could be.
(ANIMAL CRY)
I got no idea what that is.
Careful coming through here, mate.
(ANIMAL CRY)
Stay with us Sam. Don't... Stay with us.
The heart's absolutely racing. I'm terrified.
(ANIMAL CRY) Look out! Look out! Look out!
Jesus! JAKE WALLACE: Bloody hell.
It's a bloody goat!
Hey, Les. There's a goat down here!
What'd you say, a boat? It's a bloody goat.
Not a boat, you wombat!
A goat down there, what's a goat doing down there?
At least we know what it is, Sam.
Get behind the rickshaw, Sam.
I just got to be careful he doesn't come flying around
one of these corners at me.
Look out! Look out! Look out!
Look out! Sam! SAM MEHAN: Yeah!
Where are you? He's coming.
Pshh. Jesus.
So what are we gonna do here?
We're gonna have to try and catch this thing, aren't we?
Oh. Yeah. Well, let me get over that for a second, hey?
Yeah. Let's just take a breather.
Need to collect yourself, mate. You jumped out of your skin.
That absolutely frightened the crap out of me.
All I could see was these two bloody eyes coming towards me.
I can't even talk.
When it come round the corner, I was that flinched and tight.
It's a bit relief. We know what it is at least.
Look at the size of it, though. Is that a relief or not?
He's a big boy. Yeah. No. He's decent, isn't he?
Yeah. He's got a decent set of horns on him.
And he's probably cranky. Mmm.
Right, he's coming!
The Bushmen are having a disastrous mining season...
Where'd it go?
..and now Rod Manning... That's a big goat.
..Les Walsh, Sam Mehan and Jake 'Bogger' Wallace
have hit a new low -
in a face-off against a 50 kilo feral goat.
I have heard of this happening before.
They get to the top of the shaft
and they eat the minerals
out of the clay dirt.
And something else pushes 'em,
another goat pushes 'em and down they come.
And down one goes. Yeah, right.
You know, we've had enough setbacks.
Running around a mine chasing a bloody goat
but that's not making us money.
We need to catch this goat - get it out of the bloody hole -
so Bogger can get back to work and we can get back to work.
But it's not...it's not a real easy thing.
He's a big goat.
He's stirred up and he's got some horns.
Enough's enough. Come on.
You stay close, Sam.
Oh, here we go. We've lost him again.
Problem now is it's stuck between us and the way out.
So we're gonna have to work out how to get it back up,
onto the top of the ground.
And it's probably gonna end up going up like a load of dirt,
I reckon, in the bucket.
Jake! Yeah, mate.
What if we try and run it back up to where the hoist is?
And then we tackle it up there. What do you reckon?
It's called mustering, mate. Where is it?
It's down this, ah, drive down here again.
OK.
You stay behind me, Sam, and you'll be right.
(GOAT CRIES) Pssh.
Look at the size of the horns.
Bloody hell, mate. It's huge!
Definitely something out of a horror movie.
I still don't like the bloody look of it.
No.
You be careful up there, Jake.
Oh. Bloody hell, mate. Bogger be careful, mate!
This doesn't look like it's gonna be a bunch of fun, is it?
Look out! Look out! Look out! Bloody watch out!
Phew. Eugh.
Bloody... Look out! Look out! Look out!
Get him, Rod! Get him!
Oh, bloody hell. You alright, mate?
OK, what do we need? Uh...bread.
Bread. Yeah. And...
Cinnamon. So we're gonna go opal mining today.
You excited? Yeah, it'll be nice.
I never have done that before. No, me too.
Maybe we find something.
Yeah, that would be great. Then we can quit working.
(THEY LAUGH)
I'm, uh, Jasper.
I'm 29-years-old.
I'm from the Netherlands.
I was firefighting and I just decided to quit my job
and travel and have new experiences.
I'm Lara. I am from Germany.
I'm 20-years-old and I came after school to Australia
to get a new experience,
see different places.
And now I'm here in Coober Pedy
and it's definitely a different place
because there's not much around.
You need to talk with the locals, hang out with the locals.
You're mainly living with the locals.
I met Jasper and Lara in town.
They're some backpackers that were cruising through.
Met them and we got chatting
and then offered 'em a place to camp for a few days.
Lara and Jasper, they've never been mining before.
So that's going to be their first experience
and we're really excited to take them out and show them the ropes.
The house from Dan and Renee's is so nice.
It's so big.
I've never been in a dugout before.
It's really big. It's a great experience.
It's also nice that it goes up there,
down there, it goes everywhere.
Yeah.
And they're super friendly as well.
Can I smell smoke? (SMOKE ALARM BLARES)
Hey, hey, hey! Oh.
What is this?
Yeah we wanted to make you guys a nice breakfast.
This is a surprise, as a thank you.
Obviously we can't have things catching on fire out there
or not paying attention...
Ah, yeah. Yeah.
..because it's a bit dangerous so...
Yeah, you've really got to keep your eye on the ball.
What am I doing? You sleep OK underground?
Yeah. No worries?
It's nice that it's so dark and quiet.
You didn't you hear any snoring, no?
You were a bit. Ah!
I think the bed was shaking.
(THEY LAUGH)
Coming out mining with us and hopefully, you know,
if we do find opal, we look after you.
Yeah.
Maybe fi... Five percent.
Maybe ten. Maybe...
(THEY LAUGH)
I think five is fair, especially after the burnt toast.
Oh, yeah.
It's pretty generous - five percent -
but they're gonna work for it so I guess, you know,
we do well, why not why not pass it on.
Oh! Look at that!
I think that's ready. That's charcoal.
I have never been mining before
so, today, it will be my first experience in a mine.
I'm very excited for it.
It will be different.
Yeah.
NARRATOR: The Opal Lovers -
couple Dan Measey and Renee Everest -
are struggling to successfully mine
their Diggers Gully claim.
So they've hired backpackers Jasper and Lara
to ease the workload.
RENEE EVEREST: Meeting our season target
of $300,000 is really important.
If we don't reach that target,
I'm gonna have to go back to Adelaide.
So, it's really important that we get there
so that I can stay up here fulltime.
Here we are. Ready to do some mining.
Well, we don't get straight to mining by the way.
Oh. Why? Why not? So mining is not just digging.
There's a bit of maintenance.
It's gonna get dirty.
Those flies.
Yeah, the flies aren't even that bad today.
Oh, my god.
We're really hoping to find opal here back at Diggers Gully.
Dan and his Dad mined here over 20 years ago,
found about 30 or 40,000.
So we're hoping to find a lot more than that.
Just be careful on the big loader.
It's an old machine, like, 40-years-old.
He's had a hard life
and if you're up on top it's a long way to fall.
OK. So the first thing we're gonna do
is take the air filter out.
Three points of contact on the climb up.
So the air filter's in here. Yeah.
Like this? That's it, yeah.
Righty tighty. Lefty loosey.
And then we slide this one out.
These are called nipples, that we need to grease.
Yeah.
Yeah, I've really upskilled since I've been living
and working up here fulltime.
So I've turned into the teacher today.
And you'll hear it click in. Yeah.
And then...and then the grease comes out.
And then if you want to do the next one...
Yeah. ..I'll hold that there.
Just the top one? Yep, just the top one.
Eugh! (LAUGHS)
That's why I've got the gloves on.
Nasty job. Looks good.
So I think the next lot we have to do
is actually underneath the loader.
Renee's definitely pulling her weight a lot more,
um, she's learning what to do.
She's in there having a crack, um,
because she knows really, ultimately, doesn't go well
for us this year, we don't get to target.
There's a risk of her unfortunately
going back to Adelaide,
which is not what either of us want.
(GENERATOR KICKS OVER)
So blowing from the inside out? Yeah.
But try not to touch the paper or you can put a hole in the paper.
If we don't do this, we can get a big breakdown.
If the engine on the loader blows up it's $40,000.
I think we'd be finished - no good.
And if you put your hand on top of my hand...
Yeah.
..and you feel that knobbly thing?
Oh, yeah. I have it. Yeah.
That's what you've got to grease.
And then just one pump. OK, I see that one.
Yeah. Excellent! Alright, let's get out of here.
And we'll go see how Dan and Lara are going.
All good.
Obviously it's burnt up a bit of the day -
getting these jobs done -
so we're definitely gonna go into the night.
But that's alright because it's what we want to do.
It's better at night, when we see with the blacklight.
Yeah.
We do have a dingo that comes to visit now and again but...
Oh! Sounds good. Great.
Finally, the real mining. Finally.
(ANIMAL SOUNDS)
See how precise he is? Yeah.
He really doesn't take much off.
Nuh. Not at all.
Dad and I have found opal here, I've found opal since.
Renee and I are confident about Diggers Gully.
And we're gonna find it, for sure.
It's a bit up and down dale. So we'll start here.
If you guys turn your blacklights on.
So, this is what we're looking for.
Oh, yeah.
So, see how that glows under the blacklight?
That's really bright, though. It's really bright.
So we want to find a lot of this. This is potch.
This is opal without any colour. Yeah.
But we want to be finding big chunks of opal with colour.
OK. Yeah.
NARRATOR: Opal and colourless potch fluoresce,
when electrons in the silica react with ultraviolet light.
And we'll start black lighting the wall.
Sounds good. Alright.
Finally. LARA BUECHELER: Yeah, let's go.
So you're looking for the glow, that aqua glow.
That stuff?
That's not opal.
So that's a mineral.
So that's not opal - otherwise we'd be really rich.
So... (LAUGHS)
And the floor. And is that also on the floor?
Yeah, on the floor as well. Yep, yep.
So also on the floor, on the ground.
Something glows here.
Looks like a big piece.
Renee? It's a bigger one.
I think we find a big piece.
Um, nah.
It's nothing to get excited about.
That's just a bit of potch. Oh.
It was glowing a lot, with the black light on it.
But then, when we turn on the normal light,
it had no colour.
So nothing worth it.
No colour so that's not worth anything.
No. You can keep that.
(THEY LAUGH)
We're allowed to keep it - that's fun -
but, I mean, it's not worth anything.
So we need to keep looking.
No colour.
Worth keeping, not keeping?
Yeah, chuck it in the bucket.
Going on?
Oh, Captain Mud Pants! Going on, man?
Oh, we got a bit going on up here.
Oh, yeah.
Is that colour?
Coober Pedy, South Australia -
the opal capital of the world.
Electric blue, man!
Beautiful bit of blue, just fits in there nice.
The Blacklighters -
team leader Mark I'Anson, Paul Coon and John Nassar -
are chasing a promising opal seam at their Servo Claim.
I haven't even checked this bit behind me yet.
I know, I had a little quick wander.
Since securing the claim last season,
it's been the most profitable of their five mines.
Alright, man. Well, I've got to get going, hey.
I've parked the dozer up. You be able to drive it?
Going where? To Adelaide!
Got to have a specialist appointment.
Oh! I told yous this.
End of last season, a excavator hit me in the head
and I had to have plastic surgery.
And they re-pushed my face back out into place
and had to all heal.
So I'm just going back to the specialist,
to just check it out.
Yous just don't listen to a thing I say, do ya?
I might as well just mumble to myself in the corner.
When you coming back?
Well, I was gonna come straight back
but Sinan's gonna be in Adelaide
and he's about to go on an overseas trip.
So he wants to buy.
If yous guys stay, punch out a bit more,
bring down a parcel, we sell it to Sinan.
We should try and get all everything we've got together -
get some money in the bank -
so we can attack this thing properly, hey?
After unearthing a major haul last week...
Oh!
..the team stockpiled some of their opal...
I've got a parcel put aside here I want to sell to Sinan.
So at least Sinan's definitely got something to buy.
..but they need another big find to meet the demands
of major Adelaide opal dealer Sinan Kocadag.
How long are we talking or how long have we got?
I think I've got to see him on Friday or Saturday.
So you've got a few more days.
Sinan in Adelaide,
he's a buyer that buys a lot of opal off us at times.
He'll take a lot in one hit, which is always handy for us.
He's obviously got some hungry buyers over there.
So this is a chance to sell the whole lot in one hit,
have a big bank balance
and mine our arses off for the rest of the season.
Righto, but spewing you're going 'cause, man, I think we're on.
I know, I know. I don't want to go.
I hate going to doctors. (BLEEP)
Alright. Well, I better get up there and meet Rach.
Oh. Well, safe travels. Alright, man.
We'll come on Friday.
I don't want to go Adelaide.
The big smoke can get stuffed.
This is paradise.
Season target this year's another 350,000, you know?
We chose that number
'cause that's pretty much what we need
to, you know, keep going out here and...
No way near it yet but, hey,
you know, that can all change in a day so...
We've just got to be, you know, consistent,
just keep coming out, keep putting the work in.
And, at the end of the day, you never know what can happen.
Thin. Just trace. Crap. Not even worth keeping.
Yeah, so I decided to come over here.
Yeah, I just thought we'd double our chances, you know,
I'd come over and go Opalzilla.
And, um...yeah just, you know,
we've got to get some more opal for Sinan in Adelaide.
So we'll see how we go.
Opal fluoresces under the blacklight.
So just run the dirt through.
Pick it off the belt if there's any opal in it
and then it just goes out as tailing.
Come on, old girl, give us some opal.
Yeah, that is opal mining.
You know, you think you're banging your head
against the wall and just blowing diesel.
And then some...you know, then it turns up.
Other times, you know,
you might want to give up and you're a foot away so...
Yeah, that's just the game we're in
and you've just got to accept what it is with mining.
Righto, here we go.
Ah, not too bad.
Nothing exciting.
Mark's really not that happy about coming back to Adelaide.
He's been swearing
and cursing at me
but, at the end of day,
his health, really,
is of the utmost.
We've got to make sure that he's OK.
The boys have definitely got the clock against 'em
'cause, yeah, Sinan flies out on Friday.
So everything we've got, by then, Friday is the deadline.
They've got to really get into gear
and get as much material as they can by then.
Oh, he's a strong (BLEEP).
He threw you around, didn't he?
I thought you had him there, for a second.
I thought I had him too, Jake.
I thought you were riding him for a second.
I thought I had him, mate. I thought I had him.
At their Dead Dog Claim,
the Bushmen are struggling with a dangerous feral goat -
trapped underground - preventing them from mining.
Hey, hang on. Oh.
Yeah. You run him out, Bogger. Yeah, righto.
Oh, (BLEEP). Nearly had him.
Oh! Missed him.
Those horns - they can be bloody deadly, I tell you now.
You know, if they get you in the side
or, you know, up under the ribs, it could do a lot damage.
It's only got to be running at the right speed
and putting enough pressure into you and it could be all over.
SAM MEHAN: I can hear it. Look out, Sam!
Look out. Here he is again.
Oh.
Try and get hold him.
The goat keeps trying to run at us
and I don't want a goat running at me.
Terrified.
The solution is for Rod and Jake to catch it
and me to stand on the sidelines.
Come down here. Yeah.
Oi! Go! Go! Go!
I fell over.
He turned around and went back the other way.
Yeah, I fell over on my way through.
Did ya? You alright?
Yeah, I'm alright but I'm (BLEEP) terrified.
Look out! Look out, here he comes!
He's gone around the back. Hang on! Hang on!
Look out. Look out!
Nah, he's gone.
He's running...running me in circles here.
Hang on. Where are you? Here.
Where's Sam? (LAUGHS)
Alright, Sam. You're gonna stay in your cubby hole, are ya?
Yeah. I'm not moving. Alright.
Righto. Next time it comes at me, mate, I'm diving on it.
It's a bit dangerous.
You know, I just dunno where I'm gonna land -
hopefully not on the horns, that's the main thing.
But we'll see what happens.
You stay up there, Sam. I am not moving.
I'll run him towards yous.
Yeah, I might be able get him as he jumps up here.
Bring him up this way.
Hup-hup-hup.
Here he comes. Keep him coming.
No, he can see me light.
Yeah. Keep him coming up this way, Bogger.
Yeah, mate.
Right, here he comes.
Ah! Ah! Look out!
Aw, Jesus!
Righto. You got him?
I've got him by the horns, here, mate.
Whoa! Bloody hell. Oh.
(GOAT CRIES)
Wrap your rope around him.
Aw, (BLEEP). Bit me.
I reckon the only way to get him out of here
is we'll have to tie him into the hoist.
Have you got that horn? Yeah. I've got him, mate.
Jesus! Oh.
Righto.
Too old for this (BLEEP), Bogger! Bloody oath.
See how sharp these horns are?
I mean, billy goats fight in the wild.
And they're used to sort of hooking you with these things
and that's what he's been doing.
He got you up the leg, didn't he? Yeah. He did, mate.
What's your leg look like?
It's not too bad mate, just a bit of skin off.
Righto, let's get him out of here.
Sam! Yeah?
Get out of your hole 'cause the goat's going up there.
I'm climbing up the ladders.
Get him in arse first. Oh.
Bloody...he's got a bit of weight to him.
(GOAT CRIES) That's the noise.
Righto, mate! You're going for the ride of your life.
Righto, mate!
So, yeah. We've got him tied in.
We'll send him up and set him free.
The goat would make a bloody good curry.
No, he's been through enough.
That would slow him down altogether.
You ready, go!
There he goes. Good job, mate.
Don't leave me hanging, come on. Get it up there.
We shouldn't be chasing goats around,
we should be digging opal.
Well, we're rained off yet again. SAM MEHAN: Yeah.
So yet another day of non-mining. Yeah.
What can you do? You can't beat the rain.
So, in the meantime, let's get out of this weather.
No worries, mate. Let's get out of here.
You right, Sam? I am.
You're safe now, mate... (LAUGHS) I know.
you can get out of the back of the ute.
Yeah, the goat's gone. The big scary goat's gone, mate.
You're all sorted.
Yeah, so Mark's had to take off, you know,
back to the city to get...go get a couple of tests done.
So I'm out here by myself, Johnny's over in Opalzilla.
We're just trying to, you know, scrape together whatever we can.
At Servo Claim,
the Blacklighters are chasing a big opal find
for Sinan Kocadag - a bulk buyer, based in Adelaide.
Oh, hang on a minute. We've hit something here.
Just busted into a whole heap of skin shells here,
all in the corner here.
We'll bust it up.
Big shelf, it runs all the way along.
There's more here, more here. Here.
That could just be a big shelf in there
so we're gonna have to be careful,
trying to get this out.
Millions of years ago,
Coober Pedy was covered by an ancient inland sea.
Over time, shelled organisms decomposed
and left voids in the seabed.
On rare occasions,
the entire void filled with silica rich water
and formed opal.
But, more commonly, only the thin outer shell or skin opalised.
Look at that. It's getting fatter.
Yeah-ah!
That's what we come mining for, hey?
Right here.
And there's more, plenty more.
What's going on, man?
Just having a bit of a cluster...
Oh! ..cluster problem here.
Hello! Yeah.
That's a pretty one. You want to have a dig?
I'll have a go. We've got more over here.
Yeah. It's the whole (BLEEP) way, I reckon, in behind there.
Few more hiding. Yeah.
Chuck us that, right.
Oh, there we go.
There's a full one! Full one, right there.
You keep digging wherever you find a shelf like that,
you always get some nice big blobbies in there.
So hopefully we've just got to march back a little bit
and they'll start fattening up for us.
And, hey, it could be pay day today.
Oh, look at that! Boom!
Oh-ha! Ha-ho!
So, remember, not a yellow or gold glow,
but an aqua glow.
So you even see it pretty good when it's up there,
with that lamp?
Yep.
In their vast open cut mine,
the Opal Lovers have hired backpackers Jasper and Lara
to help with blacklighting.
It's definitely a lot quicker with with more eyes.
I mean, usually, it's better I stay on the machines, scrape,
ah, and then Renee checks it.
With the extra couple there,
they really check that a lot quicker.
Got me back in there digging and, yeah,
made a big difference to us.
We'll look here, maybe, in the dirt.
It can be anywhere.
RENEE EVEREST: OK. I've actually found something
over here, you guys.
Oh, wow! So, see how this is glowing?
It's different to all of the yellows
and sort of golds in the wall.
Yeah. Now you can see it really good.
Oh, cool. Oh, there's more here. Look little bit there, yeah.
Yeah. Yeah, that one.
That looks like colour. Yeah. Yep.
That looks good, hey?
Yeah, just take the blacklight away.
That's top green crystal. Look at the colour of that.
Find our first opal. Yeah.
Maybe. Go like this.
Go across 'cause then it breaks it out.
If you just go in,
it doesn't really do much - it just goes in.
There might be some pieces drop.
There's one up here that may drop down.
Oh, that big one?
That will probably bounce off your hard hat.
It won't bounce off your nose
but it'll bounce off your hard hat so...
Sounds exciting. Broke nose later.
OK, what we'll do next...
Now, remember that opal once was water
so we're trying to theorise on where the water
could could have gone.
We've got to be careful that if this dips like this -
or dips up or down - we don't hurt it.
But I reckon we go in here.
And Lara's gonna catch that with both hands.
I'll light it up for you.
Yep. Catch it. There you go.
Ooh, there's bigger bits in behind.
Ooh, there's more. Ooh. Look at that, Dan!
Oh, there's more behind it. How good is that colour?
Ooh. Ooh, my god. Look how green.
That's exciting. That's cool. Look how green that is.
Wow, yeah. (LAUGHS)
That's beautiful blue-green. Don't do it, Dan.
Oh, he's doing the mouth tumble. It's not gum.
Why are you eating it for? Watch how much better it looks.
Wow, great colour. That's cool.
That's really cool to find. Yeah, definitely.
I thought we'd need to search longer.
Yeah. It is really, really fast.
OK. So next one is break this down.
Here? Yeah.
Ooh, there's some green. Yeah.
Oh! Hey, look at that one.
Oh, wow. That's a good piece. Yeah.
Wow. That's a nice green one.
Look at that.
You should get Jasper to do the mouth tumble.
Yeah. Give that a tumble, that one.
Go for it. Should I?
But don't bite on it. Put her in. Go for it.
(LAUGHS) Tastes good.
Do you have some more?
It's been in the ground 120 million years.
Ah, dear me. Wow!
Great colour. Green, red.
Dear me.
That one's in the bucket, for sure.
It's been really beneficial
that Jasper and Lara are helping us out.
Um, it's been a lot quicker.
We've been able to, um, blacklight the wall more quickly,
find more opal more quickly.
Oh, here's something. Something's glowing.
Everyone, you see it?
Oh, yeah. Oh, that's a big one again.
Oh, it glows a lot.
And I thought such a big piece that's worthless -
just white stuff -
and then we shined with the normal light on it
and it has suddenly colour.
Dan, Lara's found a piece on the dump.
Yeah? Yeah.
What do you reckon it is? It's beautiful.
Ooh. Don't fall over, Dan.
Take a seat. (LAUGHS)
But, yeah, I reckon that's a bone, Dan.
So is a bone more worth it than a shell?
Absolutely. Yeah, yeah.
I've never found a bone. It's a puzzle.
You don't see this very often so it's really lucky.
Wow. Whoa.
So that's been laying in the seabed...
Whoa. ..in between shells.
Isn't it lucky that you found it?
That's a serious find.
Been really exciting tonight.
We've found an amazing animal bone, um...
Unfortunately Dan has broken it and it's in three pieces
but it's really, um, bright crystal.
It's really opalised.
It's just beautiful.
I've been on and off opal mining
since I was, I guess, 11-years-old.
So that's 30 something years and I've never found one.
I'm sure Dad never found one and my brother never found one.
I think that's a serious find.
This is a very, very old survey peg.
Yeah.
'Cause how ever how ever old this tree is,
it's grown since that peg was put in...
Yeah.
..'cause they wouldn't have put the peg under the tree like that.
No.
NARRATOR: After rescuing a feral goat from their opal scarce mine,
the Bushmen are searching the heavily mined Grawin opal fields
for a new claim -
to get their dismal season back on track.
Over the years, we've dug everywhere that we know.
If this is a no good,
I really don't know where we're gonna go.
I've got no plan B.
Our season target is $150,000.
No matter what, we have to find opal.
If we don't find opal we're not gonna hit our season target
and we really are going to be pretty much stuffed.
I want to go and retire or slow right down shortly.
And I need a bit of money behind me to do that.
You know, we've had no luck at all really
and time is definitely running out.
What we have got here is a really, really old mine.
Back in the day, when this was dug,
this was a very isolated area.
The nearest field is a long way north of here.
So we are out bloody middle of nowhere here.
There's enough dirt on the surface
to say they were getting colour
'cause you wouldn't have dug this much dirt
if you weren't getting something.
And, you know, they might have left some.
But the other two aren't quite feeling my excitement.
Well, you've got to do your own thing,
a bit of a survey.
They get a couple of bent wires and wander around the paddock
and they reckon, when the wires cross,
that tells 'em where there's opal.
He gets a bit toey when I get the wires out.
Yeah, rubs it in a bit.
If the wires worked we'd be filthy rich.
The amount of times I've seen him wander around the scrub
with two pieces of bloody wire...
"This is it! This is it!"
It was never it!
Rod doesn't believe in wires
but it's something that I have always believed in
and learnt it from my father and a few other people.
You've got more chance of finding something with a dead chook
than you have with them two bloody lumps of fencing wire.
A lot of people don't believe in it
but Les and I both picked up the same cross over fault,
in the same place, so...
Stop killing chickens
and let's do something that we know will work.
Righto, what's gonna work?
Dropping the camera down this hole.
What I want to do is drop a camera down there.
I want to see a good roof, you know?
It's all to no avail,
if this has got a really bad roof.
And what I've got's a bit of an action cam here.
And I've rigged up a couple of 12 volt lights onto it
and plugged it into the car battery.
And, if I lower it down this hole,
we'll be able to see what's down here.
Hopefully it goes all the way.
Righto, let's have a look.
Whatever's on this camera,
that's gonna determine our future.
Righto, here we go.
Please be solid, be solid.
Come on. Come on, go through. That's it, I think.
There's the... Yeah, that's the level.
Ooh! And there's a good roof!
Look at the roof! Yes!
It's got a roof! Yes!
Yeah. (BLEEP), yeah.
There's no breakouts, there's no bloody faults.
Nothing fallen on the bottom.
I can't wait to go exploring. Yeah.
Well, it's starting to tick all the boxes.
Yes, it is.
You know what I reckon we ought to do now, Les?
What's that?
Take a sample, take a couple of bucket loads,
put it through the washer... Yep.
..if there's any colour at all in it, we'll peg it.
Yep. Yep.
And I'm liking everything here.
It's telling me something at the moment.
We'll get a bucket load from there,
a bucket load from here.
Stick her in the washing machine and we'll see what happens.
I've just got this gut feeling
that this is gonna be a good spot.
Not much here.
We've gotta rip through this quick, hey?
Square this off and get out of here.
Yeah, I think we'll end up with time left so...
At Servo Claim,
the Blacklighters have found promising signs of colour
as they race to secure a big haul,
ahead of meeting with a major opal buyer in Adelaide.
Whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa.
There it is, there it is!
Oh-haw!
And you've sort of the greenie potch
and then got the greenie gum that's coated.
Then we've got something
that hopefully might turn to some grey there and just, like,
the thinnest little most beautiful red crystal trace
to go on the green crystal so...
Nice colour.
Just getting...it's a bit thin at the moment.
Just needs to fatten up and then it'll be a payday.
Now we're cooking!
Oh! Oh-ho-ho.
Where did that come from? Right there.
Here we go. Some more.
Oh, look at that. Beautiful green.
Thin but it's bloody beautiful. Thin, yeah.
Yeah. Pulling a pocket out of the wall, mate.
Honestly, it doesn't matter whether it's, you know,
20 grand or 500 bucks -
the feeling's always the same.
Always a bit of rush 'cause you never know how
much is gonna come out.
And, honestly, that was a like a pretty nice little pocket there
so we've earnt some pretty good pocket money today.
Mark, honestly, would be foaming at the bit
to get back out here - knowing what we found today.
So, hey, can't wait to get home, wash it up
and see what we've really got.
So, let's have a look what we've got.
JASPER PIKE: Oh, wow. LARA BUECHELER: Wow!
In the light, it looks amazing.
With the sun on it, all the colours.
Before I came to Coober Pedy, everything was new for me.
So I have no idea what the worth is from those pieces.
Could be couple of thousand dollars, I think.
So cleaned the top of this shell up.
There's a lot of blue green in the back of here.
Yeah, great colour.
Cleaned the top off here,
just to see that there's good material underneath.
So, good colour under there.
And then, of course... And then the bone.
Oh, wow. Yeah! These are great bones.
Yeah. In the sun, it looks good.
Yeah, I haven't touched that at all
because I don't want to take any markings off it
or damage it at all.
I'm so sure that's a bone. Beautiful.
Yeah. It is.
NARRATOR: The Opal Lovers have discovered
a mixed parcel of blue green crystal opal, shells
and an ancient opalised bone.
The entire haul weighs 65 grams.
So, how much do you think everything's worth there, Dan?
I think these shells, the little bit of seam,
I think we'd probably put 1500 dollars on those.
So... LARA BUECHELER: For all of them?
Yeah, yeah.
The bone...I think have to put 15 grand on that.
Wow! Yeah, that's cool.
Just for that one piece.
JASPER PIKE: Such a little piece. Yeah.
It is. I wouldn't let it go for less.
It was really new for me that, like,
just such a little piece can be so much worth it.
Great find. 16 and a half all up?
16 and a half.
Wow. That's cool.
Thank you for your help. No worries.
No worries. It was great.
I think that deserves a high five.
Thank you.
So I was very excited. It's a lot of money.
It's good.
Went really well, didn't we, during the week?
Yeah. It was good.
Yeah.
Hope you haven't got the fever now, is the only problem.
Maybe. You have it, maybe.
I feel something. Yeah. You want to go every night out.
Yeah, definitely. To look for opal.
Oh, if you find something, you're like,
"Oh, I want to go for more."
So you want to stay here in Coober Pedy?
Maybe. (THEY LAUGH)
So I guess that brings us to the percentage subject.
Oh, yeah. Forgot about that. Yes.
We did talk about five percent.
So that's, uh, is that $825.00?
Oh! Yeah.
It's good. It's pretty good.
That's pretty good for, uh...
Yeah, staying here for free,
making a bit of money with the opal.
Yeah. Yeah, it's fantastic.
Yeah. Our first opal money.
I think we ought to cheers to that.
Yeah. Cheers.
Cheers, guys.
Cheers. Thank you.
Find out what the old fella's done,
whether he's found anything in those buckets or not.
Oh, we can only hope.
NARRATOR: On the hunt for a new claim,
veteran Bushman, Les Walsh,
has been washing old timers' waste dirt -
to see if it holds any trace of colour.
If there's nothing in this, you know...
It's all riding on this, really.
Well, the cement mixer's still turning
so I guess that's a good sign.
It is a good sign, something in it.
How you going, old fella? Oh, not bad. Not bad.
Where are you up to?
Well, that one's nearly ready to tip out.
So, see what we've got in it.
Not much in it so far, mate. No. Very bloody light.
Oh, a little bit coming out now.
Something.
This tail out has to go well
because we have nowhere else to go.
We're not finding any opal and we're just using time.
And we're hoping for colour, otherwise we're pretty (BLEEP).
No colour, no claims.
We've got no hope.
We don't know what we're gonna do.
I'm not seeing any bloody colour but...
No.
This isn't real flash, Les.
We ain't got even a skerrick of colour.
Not looking too good. No.
Have a look at this.
Oo-oo-hoo! That looks good.
Mate, I don't even need me glasses to see that one.
That's bright. That's black too.
Oh! How good's that?
I think that's a reasonable start.
That's saved us.
Two little tiny stones like that has given us some future.
Yep. We've got somewhere to go now.
Mmm.
'Cause we didn't five minutes ago.
The Bushmen have two pieces of black and crystal opal,
blue green in colour.
It's been washed in a tumbler and weighs less than one gram.
That piece there, you know, it's on really black material.
We might have...
..might have a grand in them two stones, Les.
If that's there,
there's got to be a little bit more.
And we haven't even been underground.
If we found that in the pile, who knows what else is there?
This could be the one that gets us a blower,
that get's Les retired, that gets everything we want.
Or this could be the one that ruins us,
you just don't know.
Well, I reckon this deserves a bit of a celebration, Les.
There you go, Sam. Sounds good.
This week's ended up better than it started
so here's to billy goats.
Yeah. Here's to billy goats. Here's to billy goats.
Our fortune might be made here. I'm hoping so.
Righto.
We've got a bloody (BLEEP) load of opal, hey.
There is. Let's be honest.
This is one of best... Parcel it up.
patches, hey?
Look at these full shells.
Like, some of them are just full. And, like, look at 'em.
They're beautiful, beautiful shells. So...
Don't forget about all these bags over here.
Johnny's noodling parcel, we graded out at 40 grand.
Alright. So what are we, as a team, wanting for it?
I'm not happy with 100. I'll tell you that now.
It won't...that's not cutting the mustard.
Righto. Nah, fair enough.
120 would be minimum.
What do you think, John? 120? I think Paul's right there.
Alright we start 150, 160. Yeah, I reckon that's it.
Alright. Sounds good.
Alright. Good work, men. We'll do that.
Let's show him who's the boss. No less than 120.
120. Yeah, yeah.
We just put it back in the bags. Push for 130.
Yep, alright.
In Adelaide, the Blacklighters are reunited
and ready to sell the opal they found this week -
along with parcels of colour
they've been holding back for a bulk sale.
I buy opal and I distribute it around the world, you know?
But I'm excited.
It's always a thrill to come see the boys
and see what they can offer.
Paul! Sinan, how are ya?
Good to see you, buddy. OK, mate. Good.
Johnny. Good, mate. Sinan. How you going, sir?
How you going, sir? Good to bloody see ya.
Good to see you too.
How's mining season?
Mining's been good for us.
We knew you needed some product.
There's our top graded blue. That's your tops.
There's our.. Blue green.
There's our top graded faced. Yeah.
There's our other graded faced.
But there's a lot of different grades.
There's a lot of stuff, mate. It's...and look at this pile!
Rah-rah-rah. Like beauties, man.
Shells bells.
NARRATOR: The Blacklighters have seam opal and opalised shells -
blue green in colour with flashes of purple, yellow and red.
It's in the rough,
the total parcel weighing 2.1 kilograms.
I'm impressed. I mean, there's a lot there.
There's a lot to go through.
So, let's talk business, hey?
You can split opal every day and sell it very fast.
This is to buy the lot price.
OK, give me a lot price.
With Johnny's, the shells, the rubs
and this pile of stuff here, 160.
The amount I'm thinking would be comfortable
would be around the 115 mark -
for the lot -
and then I know a lot, I have to do a lot of work on.
OK? I'm not comfortable at 115.
That doesn't give me any comfort. We can't do 115, Sinan.
I will go to, um...
..128.
There's no way, there's no way.
Why 128?
You're just pulling numbers out of your head.
Yeah, that's a (BLEEP) number. That's a (BLEEP) number.
28's bad luck. 28's no good.
28's my favourite number. 135 maybe.
135. Look, look, look.
I won't beat about the bush and I'll give you my final.
And I'll give you 130, is it.
And I think 130's fair.
I think, honestly, 135 we've got a deal.
Come on. 135. 135 you've got a deal.
You're all OK with that, Johnny? I'm happy with 135.
Done. Well done, mate.
Well done.
You'll get to see the next big parcel.
Thank you, sir. Good on you, Johnny.
Legend as always, Sinan, mate.
I'd say that was a success.
We actually got a little bit more than we wanted
but I'm not gonna tell him that.
I am happy with the outcome today.
It will leave me enough margin
so I can make a profit out of it as well.
Plus 15.
(THEY CHEER)
Beauty! 15 extra tickers.
That's five each. Ha-ha!
Captioned by AI-Media ai-media.tv