Peter’s Story Part 20
My Life in Turmoil My life, now in a perceived state of upheaval was in turmoil. I was feeling totally insecure with our permanent return to Canberra. With our mining days at Mintabie finished and all bridges burnt, with the …
Australian Opal and Gemstones
My Life in Turmoil My life, now in a perceived state of upheaval was in turmoil. I was feeling totally insecure with our permanent return to Canberra. With our mining days at Mintabie finished and all bridges burnt, with the …
Finding the Balance Running my shop ‘Mineshaft’ and being a full time opal miner made my life very busy. Somehow amongst all this I had to juggle a marriage and spend time with our young son Michael. There are periods in …
Preparing a New Opal Mine We had bottomed on opal at our new grasshopper claim and were really keen to go down and dig it out. This might appear a ‘ready set go’ procedure but the fact is there is quite …
A Comfortable Routine My life had developed a certain comfortable routine over the time we had been mining at Mintabie. Whilst in Canberra I would run our business and around Easter, when the weather cooled, we would drive the 3000 …
Gut Feelings It was around about this time that opal mining at Mintabie exploded (No pun intended). Prospecting Drilling rigs were beginning to find nice trace and opal on the flats across the first sand dune that was to become …
Expect The Unexpected Opal mining is exciting. Every day is a chance and everyday has its adventure. In between all this lies a normal sort of existence. However even day-to-day life on any opal field can be a little different …
My Dad Tries Divining My dad was inflicted with that horrible disease ‘Alcoholism’. That didn’t mean I loved him less. I just didn’t like seeing the man who was such a wonderful father, in a drunken state. Today I would be …
Yeon Kim Yeon Kim (A Korean Opal miner) had joined our partnership on an equal basis. This gave flexibility for one of us to go back home and the mining continue. Yeon Kim was older than Robert and I, so …
Peter and Robert Professional Opal Miners 1983 was our first year of full time professional opal mining. Robert had resigned from his secure job and Peter Bucke had agreed to become the full time manager for Mineshaft. Mintabie was growing …
Opal From My Own Mine We returned home to Canberra with my share of the opal from Spooky’s claim. What a feeling to have so much beautiful rough opal to look at and cut. I must have come close to …