The Opal Digger

The Opal Digger Just a guy and a mine, moving dirt and chasing rainbows. This is the good, the bad, and the ugly of life as an opal miner in Coober Pedy, Outback Australia.

"A chess master once said, 'Chess is a fickle mistress; no matter how bad she treats us, we keep coming back for more.'

I feel that in my bones as an opal miner. The ground here is that mistress. She'll give you weeks of back-breaking work, dust, and disappointment. But the moment she reveals one flash of colour, you forgive her for everything and keep digging, always coming back for more." It's a sickness!

27/05/2026

Spotted these wild horses out near Coober Pedy on a quick little video, and it’s one of those moments that makes you stop and just watch.

Out here in Australia, wild horses are usually called brumbies. In arid country they can travel long distances looking for feed and water, and they’re tough enough to survive in some seriously harsh country. At the same time, they’re also classed as feral herbivores in South Australia because they can put pressure on fragile outback vegetation and water sources.

That’s the desert for you - hard, beautiful, and full of life when you least expect it.

Real outback Australia. Real Coober Pedy country.

23/05/2026

Part 1 of being back underground and chasing trace in the wall.

I’ve finally made it back down the mine and stumbled onto a bit of trace, so this video shows the first step in how I deal with it.

A lot of people ask if the tunnelling machine cracks the opal or if we miss it while cutting. The truth is, opal often forms thin, and if you just attack it blindly with a jackhammer, you can wreck the whole lot.

So the process is to find the trace first, read how it’s running, then undercut it carefully with the tunnelling machine. After that, I’ll come back in with the jackhammer and try to bring the whole section down in one piece with as little damage as possible.

That’s real underground opal mining in Coober Pedy - slow, careful, and always a gamble.

This is Part 1. More to come once I bring it down and see what’s hiding behind it.

21/05/2026

Now I’m back on the computer with all the GPS coordinates I collected out on the opal fields.

I enter the registration peg and all four corner pegs into my claim calculator, and it gives me the full rundown - distances, dimensions, and the drawing I need for the mining department paperwork.

In this case, my claim works out at 51 by 97, which keeps me well within the legal size for a 50 metre by 100 metre opal claim in Coober Pedy.

Once that’s done, I print it out, take it into the mining department, fill in the paperwork, pay the fee, and the claim is registered again.

This is the part of opal mining most people never see - not the digging, not the colour, but the admin and field work that keeps a claim legal and ready for another season.

That’s the real process of registering an opal claim in Coober Pedy.

19/05/2026

Part 2 of re registering my opal claim in Coober Pedy.

I’ve done the registration peg, and now I’m working my way around the first peg and the rest of the corners to get the GPS coordinates I need.

For this part, I use a free app called GPS Status to get the latitude and longitude from each peg. I place the phone on top of the peg, line it up toward the next one, and work my way around the claim corner by corner.

Once I’ve got all four points, I take the coordinates home and plug them into my computer program so it can work out the dimensions, angles, and heading for the paperwork.

This is the real process behind keeping an opal claim registered in Coober Pedy, South Australia - not just digging for opal, but doing the field work properly so the claim is legal for another year.

17/05/2026

Fog in Coober Pedy? That’s not something you see every day.

Woke up this morning, looked out over the backyard, and the whole place was covered in fog. Out here in the desert, that feels properly strange.

Usually it’s red dirt, clear skies, dust, and heat. Not this. Could hardly see a bloody thing.

Excuse the croaky voice too, got a bit of a cold, but I had to film it because this is not a normal sight in Coober Pedy.

Just another reminder that the outback can still surprise you.

16/05/2026

Part 1 of re registering my opal claim in Coober Pedy.

Today I’m out on the opal fields getting all the coordinates I need to renew my mining claim for another year.

My claim is 50 metres by 100 metres, so that means starting from the registration peg, going out to all four corners, checking the pegs, and recording the GPS coordinates properly.

Once I’ve got those points, I put the coordinates into the computer program I have written and it works out the dimensions, angles, and heading so I can draw everything up and get the paperwork sorted.

This is one of those parts of opal mining people don’t usually see, not the digging, not the colour, but the behind the scenes work that keeps a claim legal and ready for another season.

This is real life opal mining in Coober Pedy, South Australia.

15/05/2026

G’day Opal Diggers, here’s the latest update on the new winch build for the back of the truck.

I’ve reinforced the base with two channels to make it strong enough for the job, and the setup is telescopic so it can extend out a couple more metres when needed.

It’s not fully finished yet, but this is what I’ve been working on lately. The idea is to have a solid, practical winch setup for exploring old mine shafts and making life a bit easier out on the opal fields.

Still a bit more work to do, but it’s coming together.

I’ll give you another update once it’s fully working - then we’ll see it go down the hole.

13/05/2026

Spotted this beautiful wedge-tailed eagle sitting quietly at sunrise out here in Coober Pedy. No engines, no machines… just the outback doing its thing.

A lot of people think of the desert as empty, but mornings like this tell a different story. You’ve just got to slow down long enough to see it.

Then it’s back to the grind - dust, noise, and chasing colour underground.

That’s life out here.

10/05/2026

New project on the go out here in Coober Pedy.

We’re taking this old blower out to the field and changing things up. The plan is to remove the engine and run it off an electric motor instead.

If we can get it right, we’ll be able to run both the blower and the tunnelling machine off the one generator.

That’s the goal anyway… 😅

Getting it out there is half the battle, and yeah, I drew the short straw riding in the old truck getting towed. Rough as guts, but that’s mining life.

Old gear, bush engineering, and a bit of trial and error… we’ll see how it goes.

Stay tuned.

03/05/2026

These are opalised shells I found out here in Coober Pedy last year.

Hard to believe, but this used to be sea life around 100 million years ago, back when this whole area was covered by an inland sea.

Over time, as the ground changed, silica-rich water moved through the rock and slowly replaced the original shell material. Instead of just leaving a fossil behind, it turned it into opal.

That’s how you end up with something like this - ancient life preserved, but glowing with colour.

These pieces went to a collector, and you can see why. You’re not just looking at opal… you’re looking at a snapshot of prehistoric Australia.

This is what makes Coober Pedy so special. It’s not just gemstones, it’s history you can hold in your hand.

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Coober Pedy, SA
5723

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