'A warm, fuzzy feeling'
Many of the opal miners in Lightning Ridge don’t think of retiring. Jack (whose name has been changed for his privacy), is 82 years old and still operates mining equipment, searching for that elusive opal.
He and his business partner Gary (whose name has also been changed), 67, work a subterranean mine, using a digger and a blower to chisel into the stone walls and gradually delve further into the caverns.
Both men are grizzled but their stocky build and muscle belie their age. They have been mining together for three years.
“We met each other just working in that claim there,” said Gary, gesturing to a plot of land nearby. “I was on a jackhammer and thought this is no way ... I’m gonna try something different.”
At the same time, Jack was looking to sell his mining equipment, so Gary bought it and the two teamed up.
“We just sort of hit it off pretty well and stayed that way ever since,” said Gary.
The pair say they work together underground for about four hours a day, then carry off their dirt to sort as a team.
It’s a strenuous existence. Gary said he works other jobs such as doing farm work to support himself.
They face risks each time they go underground.
“[Cave-ins have] happened in areas,” said Gary. “I have heard of people being killed ... but most people get killed on the buckets.”
This happens when people climb up the mine shaft directly under a suspended load.
“The last two people have been killed, the actual bucket has got caught, and one bloke was poking it with a stick and it fell,” Gary explained.
Then there are thieves. If you’re unlucky, you may lose all your stones before you even get to them.
Miners call them “ratters”, robbers who sneak into unoccupied mines, usually under cover of darkness. Most recently, ratters stole a composite of stone from one of the key pillars holding up Gary and Jack’s mine.
“You don't notice it, you sort of go down,” said Gary, and all of a sudden [you say] ‘Oh, that was there.’ You get a shock.”
But it’s all part of the Lightning Ridge lifestyle. “Have you ever been in a place where you don’t get phone service?” No one knows where you are,“ he said. “It gives you this freedom.”
Aside from enjoying the off-the-grid experience, Gary marvels at the sediment that contains fossils of shellfish from millions of years ago. When the light hits an opal for the first time, he gets “a warm fuzzy feeling” as he’s confronted with its antiquity.
“You come across a mussel or something like that, and that mussel hasn’t changed in millions of years,” he said. “Imagine what the earth was like then.”
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