Dangers Of Opal Mining

[opalplus]

Last night we had Phil and Denise from Opalgraphics around for dinner and they reminded me of the night i was bitten by deadly red back spider.
We were at camp site Koriot.pictures up top of mining.we had toilet .roughly made but ok..So at around 8 pm i went and sat on loo and was bitten on the behind...i had torch and saw large red back spider on toilet seat that had just bitten me..female red back spiders are deadly but males are not..but i didnt know what sex it was. I rushed back to Phil and said ,hey look at my bum!!It had swollen up 50% already where i was bitten.no way he said,,but its serious,,im not looking he said..At this stage i had started to sweat,wasn't fealing too good..10 minutes after i was bitten.
We discussed what to do.Nearest town 2-3 hours drive but than they would not have antidote anyway.we could ring for flying doctor service but they could not fly in till next morning anyway which would be too late for me if it was female spider.
So did the next best thing opened bottle Bacardi rum and had few drinks,i was in big sweat but really lucky as it wasn't female spider.Just shows how dangerous it can be when ur out in the bush..
So last night we drank some more bacardi rum......and some more..

[lindafox]

I love hearing these stories. I would love to visit Australia, but I will never make it there, unless Australia!"

[mauibuck]

Linda and others with a dream.

CAN’T never did anything. TRY kept on until he did.

Australia is at the end of a long plane ride. All you need is to save and dream and do it. I don’t know your age, physical condition or motivation but all it takes is money and time. And then you travel in the lifestyle according to your budget ad motivation. You can backpack, ride busses or hitch rides and pick up odd jobs like picking fruits and berries. You can be a stockman (cowboy) and drive a mob (heard) of cattle or sheep. On the other end of the scale you can hire (rent) an air-conditioned car, and stay in first class hotels along the coast or anything in between. For me, I bought an ancient camper van and went wherever the road took me. Stopped when and where I wanted and camped absolutely anywhere. In five months of traveling I stayed in a camper park one time only. (I had a mate their and registered the vehicle in his name. WAY easier than doing the registration and insurance as a foreigner.) However, I would recommend renting (hiring is their word) a campervan. It is my opinion that a single female could travel alone anywhere in Australia in complete safety.

But the first thing you need is some study. I recommend the book WALKABOUT by Bill Bryson as a great starter. It is very readable, current, and covers traveling in many places in Australia. It is a bit too civilized as an itinerary for me. Too many cities. I prefer the bush and small towns. Two things I learned traveling down under: life and traveling can be a lot of fun if you know where you are, where you are going, and how to get there. Unfortunately in both Adelaide and Melbourne, I was zero for three. From that came another epiphany for me. When entering a large city in Australia, the very first thing you should do is, LEAVE. And so I did. I completely skipped Sydney except for the tiny bit of tourist stuff I did on the first day of my arrival. Don’t regret it for a heartbeat.

If at all possible, travel by train instead of plane. It cost the same as a plane but it is much more interesting. You see a lot more and have the opportunity to walk around and have wonderful conversations with the Aussies. Virtually without exception I found them to be warm, open, generous, always kind and considerate, and even much more so in the small towns and in the bush.

The main thing to remember is that Australia is the same size as the United States. You can’t do it in two weeks. A month is an absolute minimum for the first trip and then subsequent trips should be longer. Most of the tourist stuff is along the coast, particularly in Queensland. I skipped all that. But then, I live on Maui so it is samo, samo. I did do the Great Barrier Reef in a fly over in a tiny 4 seater plane.

Remember that the seasons are reversed and it gets hotter as you go north. The bush is hotter than the coast. The outback is only for sturdy, self reliant people with their head screwed on 100% straight and with lots of preparation and planning. If you can’t survive three days in the forest in the USA with no provisions, don’t go outback except in a professionally organized group tour.

There are lots of extremely deadly creatures in Oz. But it is very unlikely you will encounter any. In the U.S., jelly fish are a nuisance. In Oz, the box jelly fish are beyond extremely deadly. In the U.S. a small octopus is cute. In Oz, the tiny blue ring octopus is deadly. In the U.S. the black widow spider can cause some serious aggravation. In Oz, the funnel and red back spiders are deadly. In Florida, the alligators are interesting. In Oz, the saltwater crocodile is 100% deadly. But the roo are beyond counting, the wallaby platypus and koala are really cute and someplace the cockatiel are as numerous as pigeons. And there is much, much more. http://www.famie.com/australia/mostunus ... gerous.htm

Australia is an incredibly exciting place to visit, with wild animals that seem to come from another planet. The people are warm and wonderful beyond description and G’day mate and a smile are as common as sunshine.

Just dream it, then do it. I did.

[opalplus]

Linda ,wheel and deal ,sell some opals to get to australia.we have accomodation on coast and at ridge so no expense for accomodation if u come down under.
OK another story for you ,like bed time story..

My mate and i were in lightning ridge and we had to pick up 44 gallon drum fuel,as the roads were muddy and the normal truck couldnt deliver,and we needed to get the agitator going to wash out dirt and see if we found any opals..
Well when we rolled the 44 gallon drum onto ute,John had his index finger crush and lost about inch from top.Hes tough guy and he asked me for bandage,so i went and got one from shop and returned to see blood dripping out where his finger tip was,,Well john this bandage is no good,we will have to take u to hospital to get stiches..So i looked for his squashed finger and picked this pancake type thing,what mess,so isat down not fealing too good and guys from shop came out and could see i didnt look the best and were loking after me not John who hadl ost his finger....Than someone gave me clip behind ears as it wasnt me with sore finger ...Now John pokes his finger up to me in rude gesture when ever we meet ..just for fun....

[opalplus]

Maubuck.Mate thats good write up for down under,and good advice..
So whens ur next trip???wayne

[lindafox]

Thanks for the invite, Wayne. I may make a trip down there in a few years when the boys get older!!

[Julien]

It's already not funny at all to be bitten by a deadly spider, but on an intimate places of your body, it's worse.
Awkward situation...

How to differ a female spider to a male? Like insects, female spider are bigger than male, but as the size get bigger while getting old, at last you don't know. It's silly from me to say that the bigger the spider is, the bigger is the threat Let's find out the genitals of spider impossible
some male spider have their genital organ on the tip of one leg near the mouth, that's a tip that work only during the reproduction time.

[opalplus]

We all know females have the deadliest bite.!!!!. wink wink.

[jackie]

Yes i agree females can be more deadly than males... lol:P

[opalgraphics co]

Ur spider story was interesting and reminds me of time we had king brown snake in our trench.
we were working in Koriot and had a trench dug about 30 ft long by 6-8 feet deep deep .it was only 100 meters from our camp
we started the excavator up and let it warmed up.Michael hoped into the trench to do some specking,3 minutes later he yelled,he was at end trench and a few feet from him was mulga snake about 6 foot long.Jim went and got shotgun and hoped into excavator bucket and blew snake away,,we had to kill it as it was close to our camp.king brown snakes are deadly and w ecall em mulga snakes as they are normally in bush .Michael dosnt like snakes..

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[luv gems]

Coober Pedy is a deceptive town. On first impressions, it looks like a raw, dusty, hard-working mining town that makes few concessions to beauty. But invest a little time and you'll find there's far more to it than first meets the eye. The reason for Coober Pedy's existence is the opal.
This town on the edge of South Australia's Great Victoria Desert is the world's major source of precious opal, and the town's economy revolves around this shimmering, electrifying stone. Although Coober Pedy has a population of around 3,500, there is practically nothing that looks like a conventional house. The doors in the hillsides provide a clue. Most of the population lives underground, in comfortable dugout homes that remain pleasantly cool even when the mercury soars outside.

To get a feel for what opal mining
was like in the early days, call in at the Old Timers Mine. In 1916 this was a working mine, yet it was forgotten until 1968, when an underground home extension broke through a tunnel wall, revealing the labyrinth that is now the museum. Visitors don a hard-hat and walk through the passageways, where the days of pick-and-shovel mining are brought vividly back to life, complete with seams of opal still in the walls.

With its warm and welcoming ways, Coober Pedy can be surprisingly addictive. Half the population will tell you that they pulled in one day with the intention of filling up with petrol and having a quiet beer, and five years later they still haven't got around to leaving.

For more information, visit
http://www.westernaustralia.com


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[opalgouger]

Not many miners at Andamooka now. In fact with the price of fuel not many anywhere. I see the price of the cheaper opal has started to climb although the more expensive opal seems to remain static. I reckon when the price hits $3 a litrre we will see a sharp increase in prices and a drop in output.

[opalplus]

Opalgouger ur right.lot of opal fields have only few guys left working them,and everday costs are now expensive,from petrol to repairs.
i took few japanese buyers out last week,who hadnt been in lightning ridge for 5 years and they were amazed at how little opal there was to view,they didnt buy much but buy more when we visit them in japan.
but they did remind me of our last trip with them to lr.
that was 5 years ago ,they hired private plane from coast to lr,cost around $2,000 than, so we were at airport when storm came up early in morning ,so we had few teas and cofees.plane was 6 seater single prop.
so we took off in hurry.after storm passed and i didnt go to toilet..
we flew for hour than had another storm ahead of us,so we had to fly around it,it was really rough in the plane,than another storm came and pilot wanted to return..at this stage i was busting to go to toliet..so he decided to fly to another airport,and hour away..plane was going up and down side ways ,really rough..
at this satge i was sweating and red in face and in agony for leak..
so this japanese buyer gave me his sandwich that was in plastic bag.
so i urinated into the bag ..
oh such pleasure from act mother nature.
i filled the bag up ,so happy
than pressed the seals together and the bag burst.
everyone lifted their feet..
the japanese still tell that story quiet often about me,and i prefer to forget ,but they reminded me..
lesson ,dont drink and fly in small plane ,,obvious reason

[jackie]

I never drink if i have long flight or trip to go on.
Wayne ,after reading ur thread ill make sure i dont drink too much...

[opalplus]

Reading new book ,just out this week by Len cram titled
A Journey With Colour..South australia 1840-2005.
will post some of his interesting stories...His book is in colour and 367 pages top quaility paper so pictures are good.here are some short stories he has in book
Story From coober Pedy Times 14th feb 1996

At about 3.30 am,Tuesday 6th Feb,two police cars were blown up outside the Desrt cave Hotel .The vehicles from the traffic escort section were parked near the main entrance of the desert cave .An explosive devise was detonated causing approx $20,000 damage to the vehicles,and two windows of the hotel.no injurie3s were sustained as a result of the blast.Enquires were conducted by coober Pedy CIB major task force and Central Crime Scene.A 50 year old unemployed motor mehanic was charged with 3 counts of arson
Massive Explosion, Coober Pedy Times, 16 June 1993.

It was a scene reminiscent of deserted battlefield, twisted fingers of steel pointing skywards. Almost unrecognisable among the wreckage lay the remains of $25 000 worth of opal mining machinery. The blower was recognised y tis distinctive hopper, almost at right angles to where it should be, but the generator truck was simply a mangled mess of steal. The power of the blast that destroyed them must have been awesome; debris was recovered as far afield as 220 metres from its source.

The destroyed equipment was owned in partnership by Sammy Wong and Danny Stefanovic and once can only wonder what might have gone through their minds when the coming upon this scene of utter devastation. The incident occurred on Tuesday night or early morning of 8 / 9 June and at this stage the police is not sure of any definite motive for this act of sabotage, but being Coober Pedy, rumours are rife. Any persons having any information, which may be of assistance to the police, are urged to come forward now and disclose what they know. All information will be treated confidently.
There has been no advice so far on just what kind of explosive material was used, or how much, obviously a large amount. Machinery on adjoining claims in Dead Horse Gully were mostly untouched, which is rather amazing given the force of the blast and subsequent scattering of shrapnel over a large area. Police investigators were flown in to asses the damage and possible action to follow. The incident is of grave concern and perhaps right now is the time to restrict almost unlimited access to potentially life threatening explosives.
Opal Miner Killed, the advertiser, 22 September 2004.

A second – generation opal miner, Tom Kyrtzaliotis, was crushed to death in a freak accident in his mine when an overhanging cliff collapsed on the excavator he was operating at Coober Pedy. The rescue crews were alerted when Mr. Kyrtzaliotis, Adelaide Business partner, Arthur Pandeli, failed to get an answer from his mobile phone. It was too late when they arrived. He was the only son of Nakos Kyrtzaliotis, who came to Australia from a village near Thessalonika, in the north of Greece, in 1958. Tom was the oldest of three children and was only one week old when the family arrived at Coober Pedy.

Friends yesterday described him as a man of passion and conviction, full of life and energy and always ready to help others. Yanni Athanasiadis, senior member of the town’s Greek business community, said many people were in tears at a gathering yesterday.