Opal

Which gemstone was discovered in 1930 in what's now the township of Andamooka in outback South Australia, Rachel?

Opal?

Yes, Rachel.

It is Opal.

You are doing very, very well.

Okay.

So if you remember our previous episodes for October, or if you haven't yet listened to them, maybe pause here, listen to those, and then come back when it's the witching episode.

And take a little listen to our Opal episodes.

But to give you a little recap, I had grown up being told that Opals were bad luck unless you were born in October or unless the Opal was gifted to you.

And we're about to see kind of how some of that folklore comes about.

We've already talked about one story that sort of features Opals as bad luck.

And that is a Sir Walter Scott story, which is a princess.

She's accused of... sort of witchcraft unholy activities and she happens to have a beautiful mystical kind of opal that is destroyed with holy water and then she is destroyed because the opal is destroyed so we've already talked a little bit about how the uh bad luck mythology kind of kind of played into the human culture, so to speak.

So naturally all of those combined would only bring about good luck.

those.

But yeah, I mean, Opal.

Next to your guys, Opal.

Opal.

Okay.

Okay.

Hi everyone, my name is Callum and earlier this year I took my boys out for some father and son time out into the bush and it was up north and on a whim we stopped by a place called Opal's Down Under.

Has anyone been before? I don't know if you have been, but the business model is extraordinary because they go and find all the opals.

I have one here.

And they decided for the three towns that they'd like to do something big for each of the towns.

And last year in Junda, they did the Galaxy Opal.

So many years ago, because Boulder Opal was found outside of Junda, a man found a beautiful stone and it was called the Galaxy Opal.

So they got a mosaic done off that opal and had it laid into a rock.

So then we moved on to Wendora and they came up with the Big Yabby.

So, yeah, the...

Opals do not have a regular crystal structure.

It is amorphous mineral.

Right.

So, yeah, yes, usually it's six to ten.

I'm just looking at my notes because, again, it is quite a complex material.

Opals is a very tricky topic.

So I would recommend that if this is a gemstone that you particularly like, I would definitely recommend doing some private research yourself because you can go...

No.

Opal?

Opal is correct.

Hey.

Yeah, Julia.

I still do.

And a beautiful opal can be incredible.

Opal, yeah.

You know, rutile quartz and tourmaline.

Like tourmaline.

Other groups, more than 1,000 kilometres from where the Olympic Stadium will be built, are suggesting ways they could contribute.

Every piece of opal that we find, every one of them's got a story behind it.

Daniel Black, president of Queensland Boulder Opal Association, says opal miners have aspirations for their precious stones to bedazzle some of the most important elements of the Olympic Games.

You know, whether that's within, you know, within gifts to dignitaries that might come over for the Games, whether that's within our medals or even within the torch itself.

What does that mean for procurement? Because, you know, Opal's, it's not the kind of thing that you can just sit down and hammer out.

You've got to find them, right?

Yeah, correct.

I mean, there's going to be a whole range of challenges that we'll have to work through.