Original subtitles

Are you gonna follow me down? DAN ON RADIO: Yeah, copy.

Excavator's on site here at Benito's.

Got Renee here and, er, and the tip truck

so let's give it a crack.

Yes, I'm not sure how it's gonna go.

Erm, it's really quite steep, erm, and it's really tight.

I hope that ramp's wide enough.

You need to stop there a sec.

This is really scary, Dan!

Yeah, you definitely keep where I can see you.

Also remember that if something goes wrong you just get out of the way.

All right. Yeah, cos I don't want to get flattened.

You're right up against that wall!

Are you gonna be able to turn?Ah!

Yeah, I don't think you're gonna fit through here, Dan.

Ah.

(THEME MUSIC PLAYING)

Let's stop. This is, er, this is not gonna work.

Like, there's no way you're gonna fit through that.

So that stuffs up our whole plans now.

Like, if we can't get down to the ballroom.

I could try and get round here but even if I get round,

this is in the way, that's in the way. It's too skinny.

I'm gonna have to take the excavator up the top.

Rip this corner off.Yeah. Take all this out,

right the way down. And with you in the tip truck.

All right. So you just take this corner out and then, then we'll fit?

Yeah. But we'll have to put this, I can't stack the dirt, it has to go in the tip truck.Yeah.

NARRATOR: In the desert wastelands of Coober Pedy,

Dan Measey and partner Renee Everest are moving their entire operation

to new claim, Benito's Folly,

a cavernous network of four-metre-high drives.

My dream is to be able to move up here fulltime,

erm, to live and work with Dan fulltime,

so we need to find as much, erm, opal and money that we can.

Already halfway through the season,

and barely a tenth of their target achieved,

the move from Diggers Gully

to their new claim 20km away

has already cost Dan and Renee

thousands of dollars in transporting the excavator.

Because I wanna rip a fair bit out I'm gonna have to walk out here

and test the bank and make sure it's gonna hold me.

All right. Well you're getting pretty close to the bank there.

Diggers Gully has drained us quite a bit.

We haven't been finding very much opal at all.

So we're here at Benito's. There's a big ballroom down there

that we're looking at smashing in.

For God's sake, Dan, you're coming

right over the edge there. Like, be careful.

I've got to dig this out. This is what I need to do.

You look after what you've got to do

and that is bloody spotting. I'll sort this out.

Yeah, but my spotting is you're gonna go over the bloody edge.

I need to get as much dirt as I can from the top up. This is safe.

I've done this before. I'm experienced.

If you don't like it go sit in the tip truck and wait there.

Yeah, I'm not happy about this at all.

Maybe I will just go sit in the truck.

I'm not really happy about this but I suppose Dan knows what he's doing.

Rip this corner off from up here.

Then go down and trim the sides up so I can get down on that ramp.

Loader's still not fixed. We need to be getting onto pay dirt,

knocking the opal level down.

Doesn't come for free. It's cost a lot to move here.

It's another risk. More money, more expense.

OK, so that's the last bucket for you.

Go and dump that one, and I'll make me way back

down to the bottom and start cutting away at that side.

All right. I'll go dump this and I'll meet you down there.

Yeah, we thought it was gonna be pretty easy

to get down to the ballroom here.

As it turned out it's gonna be more time, moving more dirt.

We've got to cut the corner out

of the the ramp going out to get the excavator in.

Yeah. It's hard ground.

It's bloody on a lean. Hard up against this bloody wall.

Trying to get around.

It's the dump in front of me, piles of dirt.

Now we're slipping down the bank. (THUDS)Ah!

You there, Renee? Am I hitting the wall there at the back?

What's happening? Jesus, Dan!

Yeah, you're stuck now!

ANGEL: How fun is it just working 24/7

trying to find this matrix, eh? ISSY: Oh yeah. CODY: Oh, I don't think

it'd be so bad if we were actually finding it.

At the moment we're all black lighting,

using ultra violet lights to shine up the opal.

Ooh! Found a bit, guys. What have you got?Hang on.

What have you got?Hang on. What have you got?

Ooh.Let me, got a light here. Look at that.

Oh, I can see it glowing from here. Yoo-hoo.A bit of material.

Yeah, it's glowing but I can't see no colour in it.

Oh, damn.Ah.We need colour.

It's something though, it's just not what we're chasing.

I was just starting to get excited, too.

This rate we're still gonna be here when the sun comes up.

I know, right, and it's bloody freezing cold.

Yeah. Yeah, my nose is numb. Yeah.And dripping.

Woah! Sugar!Hey, hey. You all right there, Iss?Oh!

Oui, watch yourself there. There's a few rocks sliding now.

Hey, how about I have a light on, eh, so we can actually see?

Oh!Oh wow!Ha-huh! That's better. Makes life a bit easier.

Should have offered that when we got here!

The Misfits, team leader Angel Dempsey,

Issy Glen and new recruit Cody Polglase

are black lighting for rainbow matrix,

coloured flecks of opal scattered throughout

slabs of a pale host rock.

CODY: We're just not coming up with the material unfortunately.

Like, we've dedicated ourselves to this 150 kilos for Joe for Lightning Ridge

and, er, we got off to a cracking start

but at the moment it's a lot of hard work with no return, unfortunately.

The Lightning Ridge Gem Festival is a world famous event,

where you can take material, all types of material,

all types of grade, and you can literally sell everything you take.

The team's mentor and financier 'Opal' Joe Kalmar

needs 150kg of rainbow matrix to sell

at the upcoming Lightning Ridge Opal Festival.

The event attracts thousands of buyers

with big budgets from across the globe.

It is a bit dismal at the moment, isn't it?

Yeah, well, the money that we're wanting for the matrix,

you know for 150 kilos, like, we've all got uses for that.

Without that, you know, I'm not gonna be able to get

my Andamooka mansion. You know one with a shower,

with working taps. That's all I want.

So without that it's not gonna happen.

We are working huge hours night and day so we're getting fatigued.

We're tired. It's late. We're in a dangerous spot.

There's just huge boulders lying around.

Like, worst-case scenario, yeah, you could get crushed

and seriously injured down here.

So many rocks. Not enough of them are glowing.

No. None of mine are glowing.

Oh, certainly a tough target to hit.

I mean that's the biggest opal find we've had to do.

You know, like, in a short period of time.

Like, I don't even know if it's even possible, like...

I mean, opal is unpredictable. Oh!Angel!

Hey, hey!Woah. Hey!(BLEEP) Hey, hey!Get out of the way! Hey!Oh!

(BLEEP) What was that!

Oh, that was close, mate. That was close.

OSCAR: Hello! CHRIS: Hey buddy. LUCA: Hi.

How you going? Good. How you going?

Good, thanks. Long time no see.

Yeah, I reckon.Erm... What have you been up to?

I've got a jewellery collection to show you, mate.

Yeah, all right. I'm excited.Yeah, I'm keen to hear your thoughts.

Wow! Man that is unbelievable.

All our opal.Yeah. Here it is.

Finished.Yeah.Finished product.

That is unbelievable. You kids have done so well.

I love this. Who designed that one?

I did. Yeah.You did? Yeah, I come up with that.

Jeez you seem to know what the ladies like, don't ya?(LAUGHS) Yeah.

To go through all these hardships

and then to see your finished product,

and it's top-shelf jewellery,

and like it's better than anywhere you'd see in any shop in Paris

or around the world and I've been to those places.

Like, that to me is just top-shelf.

And to do that with your family,

it just does not get any better than that.

Well, that's the good news I had to share, that you know,

we've got that new collection all done and ready to go.

But I do have some bad news as well.

Clear...Mm...erm I think

you know this is gonna have to be my last week of mining,

I think, or fulltime at least.

Yeah, righto.What do you think? I think it sucks.Yeah.

Mate, you know the business is growing so, so quickly,

and I'm sort of juggling all of that side with the mining,

and like you know, we've constantly got stuff with the website.

It's getting a bit too much for me to handle with the mining now.

Oh, well, we'll just have to do the best we can, Luca.

You've got to keep finding the stones for me.Yeah.Mm.

Well, we better go and find some, eh?

Righto. Let's make the most of this week.Yeah. Let's do it.

This season, the Cheal family

have partnered up with local miner Mark Bressan

to unearth opal to sell as high-end jewellery

across the world.

But with Oscar's impending departure,

Chris' working relationship with Mark

is more important than ever.

To find opal is hard enough

but to find a good partner is even harder

and Mark is a great mining partner

and we wanna build each other up, see each other be successful.

I want it to come back a bit, Mark. MARK: All right, mate.

Just going to lower the boom.Yeah.

You know we've got some big future plans

that we wanna start working on,

but you know that all costs money.

To supply enough opal for the business,

Chris and Mark need multiple agitator wash plants

up and running to process opal-bearing dirt.

It's extremely important for us to find opal

because if you're not finding opal then all these projects we've got,

they've got to be funded plus we've got to live.

Mining gear is not cheap and it's not cheap to build.

A devastating drought has ravaged Eastern Australia for months

and dried up the water supply at the public agitator site.

Chris has been forced to lease a private dam known as a tank

and repair a 30-year-old agitator left on the site.

This is our private tank, and since we've run out of water

at Ned's Dam we've had to sort of ramp it up here.

So, gonna attempt to try and get that old agitator up and running.

Hasn't been used for years. I dunno, it could be ten years, two years, I'm not sure.

So, yeah, we're just having a bit of a clean-up

and we'll start setting up and we'll try and get the...

get the motor running, get the barrel spinning.

Righto, well, I'll fire the genny up

and we'll get underground, eh? Yeah, let's do it.

Yeah, well, everyone's sacrificed,

you know, a lot for this mining operation.

But Luca and I in particular, you know living the double life,

giving up everything in Sydney to, you know, come out here and mine

and you know do our thing out here,

you know, it definitely means it needs to pay off.

As Chris and Mark prepare their new agitator site,

eight kilometres away... Good to go.

..Oscar and Luca want to dig towards

a nine-inch exploration hole

the team drilled a year ago that produced colour.

The chances are that the material we drilled out isn't the only material there.

So, if we get in there, find that drill hole, dig around it,

we're most likely, er, gonna find opal.

So I'm pretty keen to get out there and have a look.

It's been a goal for the year and, yeah, I'm not leaving till we hit it.

How are we feeling, Osky? Ah, yeah, all right.

The face is looking interesting.Yeah.

Ah, it's all...ugly looking.

Could be a good sign of opal, though.

You sing out and get me to stop if you see anything.Yeah, will do.

And the rock is solid up there!

What's happened there?

I'm not sure what's going on. Erm.That's scary.

The power just cut out. But I'm not sure why.

ANGEL: Yeah, that could have been the end of the mission, eh?

CODY: I'm pretty sure it was that one on the ground there.

If that had hit you in the head that would have been Goodnight Irene I reckon.

The Misfits are working through the night in dangerous conditions

attempting to find 150kg of rainbow matrix

to sell at the Lightning Ridge Opal Festival in a week's time.

I don't know about you guys, but I'm wrecked. I need a bed.

ISSY: Yeah.Yeah, I'm hearing ya. And I've got a little bit of a plan.

I've been sort of thinking about something

while we've been chipping away here but we'll catch up in the morning and go from there, eh.Yeah.Yeah.

ISSY: So how are you faring up after last night's scare?

I mean, I'm over this, trying to reach this goal,

hey, like, I'm starting to feel it's impossible.

What did you wanna do? Cos I do have a bit of an idea.

Obviously when we're down there

and you know we're finding the bits of matrix

but we're sort of raking with our picks and stuff like that.Yeah.

So I thought what about if we try

and knock something up for the Bobcat you know -

So, like a big rake?Yeah. Yeah. A big rake.

That's a good idea.I don't know how it'll come together,

but I'm sure there's enough bits around here.

It's only got to have a few teeth. I think it'll work.I love it.

Pretty good idea. So let's go find the materials. Let's do this!Let's do it! Cool.

Yeah, well, I might just grab the lead and grinder out

and start cutting these legs off, Angel.

Yeah, good plan. I'll look for some H-beam.All right, cool.

Finding any type of opal

with a deadline is almost impossible to do.

You know opal is unpredictable. Matrix comes into that category

cos it's a type of opal here in Andamooka,

and we've got to find 150 kilos before the Lightning Ridge Festival.

Anything else you need a hand with?

I've packed up the whole family. I've brought 'em out here.

We really committed this season. You just can't get too displaced by these little hiccups and stuff.

It's about getting out there and getting it done.

We know it's there. We just got to get it out.

Hey, Cody!

Found the perfect piece of H-beam for you

but guess where it is? Where?Under the trailer.

So the H-beam because the bucket opens,

we want something that, once we open the bucket

we can get it over and clamp onto.

So basically this is what we'll use

to carry this frame around and use it as a rake.

Finding, you know, opal for me is really important.

You know I've got a gym that I run at the moment with my husband.

We've opened it up to veer kids away from drugs and alcohol.

It's really important to me because I have been there.

And, I'm gonna cry again...

..erm, I've just hit 14 years

of clean time and sobriety.

So these kids need this.

Just prepping everything. And Issy, er, Angel,

they're cutting up a few pieces just a few more structural supports

through the centre here and we'll get into it.

All right, let's take it over, eh? Give it a test run.

Ooh, God that bit's heavy. Don't pierce the fuel drum.

There's a lot of money with this matrix at the moment.

Like, 150 kilos at three dollars a gram,

you know, that's a lot of money for all of us.

We're gonna get the Bobcat on the trailer with the attachment

and take it to German Gully so we can find this matrix.

Woah! (LAUGHS) Look at that. Looking good!

This is our new beaut matrix raker.

We're gonna utilise this to start raking out

where we believe there's more matrix to be found.

Yeah, we need to be getting this rake working, and it has to work.

You know we spent pretty well a whole day on making it.

Nothing at the moment is really going our way so fingers crossed

Cody's done a good job and that we'll be up and running.

Oh, nuh!Hey, far out!

Broke it already! (BLEEP) me. Oh, well.

Ah (BLEEP), for crying out loud.

Oh, it's torn straight out of the steel! Bloody hell!

Unfortunately, we haven't taken

the structural integrity and the rust into account.

We got it made but unfortunately it just tore to pieces.

Hey, are we better off just to use the bucket?

All right, well, we've got a Bobcat so let's use it, eh?Yep.

We'll just start spreading it. Issy and I will start collecting.Yep.

All right!

Right now, we just seem to be

spinning our wheels really to be honest.

It's like, we're...we're confident that the matrix is here,

but I don't know, we're just, we're losing the light,

and, er, we're a bit desperate.

Hoo! The dust is real!

Hey, guys! I don't know if this is actually working, eh?

RENEE: Ah, you've hit the wall there, Dan!

DAN: Yeah. We're not doing this.

I can't get around. I've hit the wall.

The front track's fallen down. I've got no room.

We're not doing it without the loader.

If the loader was here this would be done properly and safe and fast.

What do you suggest we do then? We go underground

with a pick and a jack pick. We look for opal, find opal.

Until the loader is back online we don't do any of this (BLEEP).

Dan and Renee's move to their new claim

has been derailed by oversized machinery.

Their 50-tonne excavator is too wide to traverse the mine entrance,

and his loader, which could clear a path,

is waiting for $20,000 of repairs.

I'm really just getting over it.

I know you're over it. I'm over it.

But doing this ain't gonna get us anywhere.

It's gonna get us more damage. Nah, all right, let's do it.

Really frustrating and hard to manage,

having a quarter of a million dollars' worth of machinery

and we're back to hand tools.

Yeah, it's a real shame you couldn't get round this corner.

Yeah.We gotta go back to old-fashioned mining.

Underestimated that, but,

that's what you get, er, didn't have the machine here.

Thought it was gonna go, but anyway, let's get in here.

Be nice and cool in here, hopefully the flies aren't around

and there's some opal weight in there that's easily reachable.

Yeah, I so wish I was walking in here with the excavator to did this.

Yeah, it's gonna be hard work with the hand tools.

Let's do our best to see what we can pick up with the black light.

Ah, doesn't look like there's anything here at the moment.

Ooh, it looks like there might be something up there.

Ah, there's a little piece up here high, Renee.

That looks like that's a little level.

Yeah, I reckon that's probably connected so. That's really exciting.

Yeah, that means that level is producing material. We need to get up high.

Ah, there's another one! On that same level.

So that's reinforcing too why we need to take this roof down

cos it looks like everything is up high here.

I haven't seen anything down low.

Have you?No. I haven't.Yeah.

So they've tunnelled in under it and left a lot up high.

With most of the material being up high and in the ceiling,

er, it's reinforced why we've come here,

what our plan was to go down and smash that roof in.

It just, it's...it's reinforced it

five times again cos there it is sitting in the ceiling.

So how are we gonna get up there? I do have an old platform.

It's not gonna be high enough as it is

but I could put some legs on it

and chuck it in the trailer.Yeah. Yep.

And then we drive it down. Position it where we need it.

Get on top of it, and dig all that out from it. All right, let's do that.

Using skills gained from 20 years of steelwork and welding,

Dan wants to fabricate a platform at his shed

to reach the opal four metres high in the mine roof.

I designed and fabricated this frame three or four years ago.

It's a fairly good option to adapt into what we need it for.

So the plan is to make two rectangular frames

out of this 50 x 50 x 2 millimetre SHS.

Then weld those to the bottom of that platform, and brace them up.

I actually really enjoy welding.

It's, er, sometimes medicine and therapy for me.

That's it. All done. Erm, ready, welded out.

Let's get it on the trailer. Go mining.

Yep, come on in, Dan.

So this could be a little bit touch and go.

The platform is sticking up quite high.

So come in really slowly.

Can you see much with your mirrors?

Nah. I certainly can't see the top of the platform.

(ON RADIO) I think that's gonna be too high. All right, keep coming.

Oh, I think you might just squeeze in, Dan.

Oh! That is, oh, my God, Dan!

You better come out and have a look. You're touching that side.(GRUNTS)

LUCA: I'm not too sure what's going on.

The generator's still going. OSCAR: The power just cut out.

The digger is still going, so the power pack is still on.

Yeah. Yeah, you can see here the lights have tripped out.

So, I'll turn it off.

See them...them here. So they're our lights underground.

Those two, the blue ones. They've tripped off for some reason.

So, I don't know, I doubt it's being overloaded or anything.

It just could have been something that's, I don't know,

tripped it out. So they're back on now.

Oh, there we go, we're all good.

Genny's back on.

The lights, the circuit breakers are seeming to stay on so,

yeah, that should be OK.

I'd say it would have just been something random

that's tripped them off. But definitely caught

Luca and I by surprise underground.

Head back underground and get into it.

On his last dig of the season, Oscar Cheal and sister Luca

need to reach an opal-bearing exploration hole

drilled 12 months earlier.

Is this the last one, Luca?Yeah.

Luca's on the bogger. So we're just punching out.

I've tightened that drive right up. So I've dug a face here. Luca's gonna bog it out.

The drill holes Dad and I put down last year,

we got really nice material

out of the particular drill hole that we're heading to.

So we got this little, like stone, er, gem green on black

out of that hole which is pretty rare

and then, as well as a heap of other material,

so who knows what a truckload or two out of that area will be.

Righto. That's another truck.

I tell you what, Luca,

we've been digging flat out all week,

and still haven't hit this bloody drill hole.

I thought we would have by now. Starting to wonder whether we're a bit off, where it's at.

Oh, yeah, I've triple checked the like surveying...Yeah.

..from the top to the bottom. I mean I've stepped it out,

you know, tons of times and we're still not there.Yeah.

So, if we're not there, it's, we're bloody close.

You know, what we're doing down here

is our only chance this week of getting something.

Eight kilometres from the underground mine,

Dad Chris is attempting to revive

their 30-year-old agitator wash plant.

I'm just gonna try and turn this motor over.

I'm just gonna bypass the key to the, the wires.

You know, the 12-volt wiring in this thing's real good.

So I'm just gonna bridge it across...

..and hopefully it'll kick over.

Something's seized up in there. It should be throwing in.

Yeah, looks like we're nearly touching here, erm.

I think if we come in a little bit more,

another 150-200 mm, I think we'll clear it.

You reckon?Yeah.

So, you're happy to keep going?Yeah.

We're committed now and I'm not gonna try and reverse out.

Yeah. All right. I'll stand up front.

Yeah, I think the measurements are a little bit out.

I think Dan might have gone a bit overboard with the height.

Maybe he thought I was shorter than what I actually am.

Unable to get their excavator

close enough to work new mine Benito's Folly,

Dan and Renee have been forced to use a custom-made platform

to extract opal with jackhammers.

OK. You all right?

Yeah, this is blowing straight into my face.

All right so we'll start picking through.

These large pieces really, we'll probably have to smash

some of these up. Some big chunky bits.

Yeah, the way I've been seeing it up there

it might just be a bit here or there.

So we'll smash these up as we go.

Have a quick look through 'em.

Few little chips in all these but nothing.

Nothing, nothing to write home about.

Ooh, Dan! (LAUGHS) What have you got?

Look at this one!Yeah. That's really glowing.

That's nice big material but that'll be potch. Isn't even -

It might not be. That's got to be potch.

Might not be.It's too big to be, it's too big to be colour.

Oh, well, I'm gonna have a look at it.

All right, you do your thing. Look at that, Dan! It's got colour.

Oh! Hang on, hang on, hang on, hang on. Ooh.

Look at that.(WHISTLES) Does that go right through?

(LAUGHS) That is disgusting, Dan. Look at that.

There's more inside that.Yeah.

I can see deep, that... that crystal red flash

is really in nice and deep so. So that should clean up really well, shouldn't it?

Oh, yeah, I want to clean this up now. I just...that's just top colour.

We're finding bits and pieces but we're not getting any closer really.

Yeah. It's really hard to see.

It's covered in dust. The dust is (BLEEP).

Generally you can go, that's what we're looking for,

but at the moment without licking every stone or washing it...

Well.There you go. That's what we need is bloody rain!

We need to find a way of washing these stones.

I know my rake sort of didn't all pan out.

Er, but I do have one idea for the water situation

if youse want to give me one more shot.

Well, we've got nothing better at the moment

and we need to find this matrix. All right, cool.

Let's go.Let's go and have some food

and start again tomorrow. ANGEL: Yeah.

The Misfits desperately need to find 150kg of rainbow matrix

to sell at the Lightning Ridge Opal Festival

in less than a week's time.

ISSY: Ooh, here comes Cody. ANGEL: Hey, is that a trailer on?

He has got a trailer on.

And he's got water on the back.

Morning!Morning!Morning.

What have you got here?

You asked for rain. I am the rain man.

Hi, a rainmaker!

While you was doing your little, er, demonstration yesterday,

I got the water pod and the fire pump.

So basically I just put a couple of reducers on it so we can run a hose off it.

We didn't wanna make it too wet up here

but this should be enough to clean it off.

Hey.Fingers crossed this will work. Redemption day.It is.

It is, fingers crossed. Well, let's run the hose out

and get into it. Let's give it a go.Yep.Cool.

All right, you ready?Oh, yeah.

Let's make it rain. (MOTOR STARTS)

Rightio, open it up. Let's go! Oh!

Ha! Hey!That's better. (WHOOPS)

This is the first time I've ever noodled this way. How's it working, guys?

This is a bit different, isn't it? But I think it's working.

Certainly cleaning the rocks and making 'em real glittery.

Haven't found anything yet though.

Yeah, I've got a couple of pieces here.Oh, excellent.

Yeah, the rake didn't work out, you know, as well as we'd hoped

and with this water idea you know, we're making it rain

without it actually raining so we'll be able to wash the dirt

and be able to find the matrix which is awesome.

I need a quick wash.

Oh, a little bit of matrix.

I reckon this is working, guys. Yeah, I agree.

Look at this.Oh, wow!

Ha, that's beautiful, isn't it? That's a real -That's opal!

That's awesome.Oh, it might be time to get a bucket out, eh?

I didn't want to jump the gun this morning but, yeah.

Yep, that's what we're wanting. Black trace on matrix.

You can see a bit of the matrix sticking out there with a bit of green.

I reckon this will do, guys, eh? It's a nice sight, isn't it, eh?

But the thing is we've still got to go and get it, get it treated

and make it into a sellable product, eh?

All right.Let's load it up and get going, eh?

Holy dooley! That's got to be at least 20, 30 kilos.

CHRIS: Can you just pass me that half inch, er, 12 mm spanner there?

Oh, it's got to work. If it doesn't work we can't wash.

Your wash plant is half your operation, or more.

Like, if you can't process your dirt,

you can't flee everything underground and be successful

and get it a hundred percent, you know you...you've got to wash.

Chris Cheal and Mark Bressan are attempting to get

a second agitator wash plant operational at their new private dam

as water levels at their primary agitator site

are critically low.

We're gonna try and start this motor up.

So I'm just gonna jump, jump the starter,

cos the, the key it's, this set-up is all...

it's got wasp nests all through it.

So I'm just gonna bypass the key,

and I'll jump it straight off the starter motor,

er, see if I can get it to run.

(MOTOR STARTS)

Yeah, boy.Yeah, mate.

That's the best sound in the world.

We'll be all right, man. That's all I needed,

to get this thing going.

I'll have this agi spinning in a few days.

It sounds good, eh.

Chris will need to dedicate his time to getting the agitator working,

putting all the pressure on his children,

Oscar and Luca, to find opal.

LUCA: Oh, woah, woah, woah! OSCAR: What?

There it is! Drill hole. Look.

Oh! Yeah!Yeah!We hit it.

That's it.Finally.

You know Dad and I put this drill hole down

about a year ago, last year,

and you know, here we are, we're about 20ft underground,

and we got colour out of this drill hole when we did it.

So the colour that we got, nice bits of green

and there was potch all the way through it, too,

has come out of this one little bit, here on this level.

So, that's what we were drilling for.

So in theory if we got some green in there,

then there should be some more opal around it.

You can see here,

there's some seam running along there,

and it runs all the way up. You can literally see

the potch there and then there's our drill hole.

So, you know that could have been the colour.

Oh, yeah, there's purple there actually.

Right next to it. There you go, that's why you drill.

That's the first bit of colour we've seen...

..in that recent bit of digging out here

and it's right next to that drill hole and blue-purple.

You know it's a really, really good sign for what's around

because there's colour in the drill hole

and there's colour right next to it and hopefully it bounces out a little bit more

and we can get paid. Hell, yeah. (CHUCKLES)

DAN: Right. So time to tumble up what we got yesterday.

The plan is the material we've seen,

that we tumble out of this load here

will actually go towards, er, getting our friend Nicko in to,

er, do some cutting lessons for Renee

so she can start to learn to cut our opal.

The tumbler washes clay

off the opal-bearing rock exposing the colour.

While the machine runs for two hours,

Renee wants to learn how to cut opal

with renowned local cutter Nicko Farantouris.

So this is a really important part

of our business plan to, er, value add

by Dan sourcing the opal as rough,

then being able to cut and polish

and then also an end result of jewellery.

We're trying to do a jewellery line as well.

Cutting and polishing opal can greatly increase its value

but also risks destroying the gemstone.

Ergh!NICKO: Ooh! Ooh! That was a little bit, uh-oh.

A little bit too hard. But that's all right.

We can fix that. I think we give it a polish now,

so, yeah spray the, erm -So spray? Yep. Yep. Spray the buffer there.

And you'll see that - Wow, this looks fantastic, Nicko!

No, you've done very well. Thank you very much for your help.

Any time. It's turned out really nicely.

Hey, Dan! We're back.Hey, Dan. From the cutting room.Hey!

The Jedi Master and the Apprentice. Yep.How are you going?

How'd you go? Look. Yeah, look what I did.

Wow, that's a nice polish and a nice shape.

While you're here, Nicko, I thought you might be able to put

a little bit of a valuation on something here. Yeah, not a problem.

Some nice material that comes from the same spot.

Nice bit of colour there. With this sort of material

you'd be looking around 1,500 dollars an ounce.Yeah.

It's gorgeous. It's beautiful. Nice little cutters in there. And what have you got in here?

And then just a little bit of white base

which is probably similar to what you guys were cutting so.

Yeah, a little bit of grey there. You'd be looking at about 250 dollars an ounce.Yep.

Right. These obviously ended up being of more value

than when they were in the rough.Yeah.

What do you see in there? Yeah, a stone like this, you know,

would probably be, you know just over the 100 dollar mark.

Yeah, I'm pretty happy with that for my first go.

Say 12, 14. Have you got anything else, Dan?

Didn't we find something else? Yeah, we had something else to show you

that's a little bit exciting.OK. What have you got there?This one.

OK.

That's a beautiful piece, Dan.

Dan and Renee have white and crystal opal.

Blue, green and purple

with rare red featured on a king stone.

It's been tumbled with one gem cut and polished by Renee.

The entire parcel weighs 80 grams.

So what are you thinking, Nicko?

Erm, a piece like this, erm, you know, probably around the 5,000.

Yeah, 5,500 as it is. Woo-hoo. That's cool.Yeah.

So all up, Nicko, that's...?

You'd be looking at about 11,600 dollars, roughly.

Well, that's fantastic, isn't it? Wow! Excellent, mate.

Well, we certainly appreciate your help.

Any time.In getting us to that. Any time, give me a call.

Cutting's really awesome. Much appreciated.

All right. See you, Dan.See ya.

Oh, you're gonna get us some drinks? Get a couple of beers.

Benito's is looking pretty positive really.

Erm, we didn't get much digging done in a way.

We didn't move much ground but yielded pretty well for what we did.

So it's looking good here. Yeah, well, cheers to Benito's. Cheers to Benito's.

Really looking forward to finding great opal, with Renee,

and building our future together.

It's a beautiful view, isn't it? Oh, awesome. Look at that.

CODY: Come on! Show us the colour!

Oh (BLEEP).

To assess the first 25 of their 150kg quota,

Cody is using dangerous chemicals

to cook a sample of the rainbow matrix.

Impregnating the material with a sugar solution,

then cooking it in sulfuric acid at 175 degrees

turns the host rock black,

highlighting the opal against the darker background.

Yeah, 150 kilos that's a, it's...it's still a lot of rocks.

You know, I'm probably about 80 kilos

so it's twice me in...in rocks.

The porosity of the host rock,

the amount of opal in the rock,

and the length of cooking time,

all contribute to the success of the process.

You're kidding me. They've been a bit of a waste of time.

I hope the other batch isn't the same.

I reckon we might have something here!

Yes! You bloody beauty.

That's money rocks right there.

JOE: Hey, Cody. Hey, good morning, guys. How are youse?ISSY: Morning.

All right. So you got something to show us?

I do. Yes, so, erm...

Mentor and financier 'Opal' Joe Kalmar has come to assess

the first batch the team has treated.

Joe, if you wanna take a look and tell us what you think? Well, take the cover off.

Oh, that's a bit dead, eh?Mm. ANGEL: Yeah, no colour in that. Yeah.Very dead.

Yeah, that's actually worthless. Yeah. OK.That's not good.

No, that's actually not, that's actually not worth nothing.

And this is the other stuff here?Yeah.

So if you wanna take a look at this. Oh, look at that!

Wow!See, now that's money.

The Misfits have matrix opal

speckled with the full rainbow of colours

within a black host rock.

It's been treated, and weighs 1.7kg.

JOE: That is absolutely stunning. See that's money.

Hey!That's what we want.Hey. That's what we like to hear.

Ah, yeah, no, that's money. So this kind of material here

makes up for the downfall on this kind of stuff, eh?Yeah, yeah.

So basically, right...

..you've got about five grand there, you know, pretty easy wholesale.

With the rest of it, it should jump up obviously substantially.

But we do need 150 kilos. Yeah, yeah.

And you've got to find a way

to...to get it processed faster.Yeah.

You know what I mean. Because only, only cos the clock's ticking.

We've got to find a way to step it up but...Yeah.

..but only because youse need money.

Oh! Yeah! This is everything for us you know.

We've putting all our efforts into getting it so we don't wanna fall short.Yeah.

Well, I'll bung on some snags and we can have

a bit of a barbie for lunch. Let's have a barbie and celebrate.

Come on let's do it. Yeah, come on, let's go.

Oh, well done, Cody, for cooking.

Awesome to get a feed into everybody, right.

Make no mistake, that's some good gear you've got there.

That's some nice rock.Cheers, appreciate the feedback.Yay!

Well, Mark, let's hope we've got enough water in the tail-out, mate.

Yeah, mate, I think, erm, we're just gonna, erm, just get it, I reckon.

Righto, mate, roll him out.Yep.

The Cheals and Mark are about to tail-out

a truck load of opal-bearing dirt mined by Oscar and Luca.

OSCAR: Righto. Let's kick it and rip it.

The dam's been drying up

and, erm, washing our dirt is paramount

because you could miss it. You could miss it quite easily

underground and and above ground.

Fingers crossed we get some opal and fingers crossed, the, erm,

the water will last long enough for us to tail-out.

The team managed to wash the rock for 24 hours to remove thick clay,

but they still need fresh water from the critically low dam

to rinse off residual mud and expose any opal.

Oh, it'd be great if it, if it did pay, you know,

er, and I could leave the crew on a high going out.

LUCA: Yeah, you know, the tail-out is my favourite.

It's where all the excitement kind of happens.

You can see where all that potch

we dug out went, sis. Hey, look at that.

Definitely call this our last one at Ned's

until we get massive rainfall and that dam fills up again.

Ooh! Right. Check that out. What have you got?

Ooh!(LAUGHS)MARK: Ooh!

Black sitting down in there. It looks like it's multi-barred.

Oh, there it is, Dad.Eh? That's what I saw. Nice, eh?

Oh, yeah. That'll face up all right, too.

Decent-sized chunk, eh? Yeah, a good way to finish off a tail-out.

I'm pretty happy with that. I think we got a few dollars there.

Yeah, I'm keen to have a look. All right.

The Cheals have a mixed parcel of black and crystal opal.

Predominantly blue-green with flashes of purple and rare red.

It's been washed, and weighs 400 grams.

OSCAR: There's some nice material here, eh?

We're getting it right, aren't we?We are.

See the pattern underneath that, eh? MARK: Yeah.

Gem green.Gem green.

There's ten, 10 to 12K just in that one.

This one here, it'll be interesting.

You could get 15 out of that.

Even that one there like that's,

that'll be a beautiful tear drop.Mm.

Six, seven thousand for that.

So, you're at least looking at 45,000.

We did pretty well, sis. Yeah, we did.

Legend. Saved the day, you two.

Once again. (ALL LAUGHS)

Thanks, sis.Thank you.

Your partner in crime this year, eh?

CHRIS: Oscar, we kicked off about five years ago together,

when he decided to... to come and work alongside me

and...and then, you know, he's grown our business

to another level. Yeah, I'm just so proud of him

and what he's achieved already

for our business, but in life in general.

He knows where he wants to be in life.

I'm very proud of what, you know, Dad and I have been

able to achieve together and,

yeah, I'm proud of him, too. Like, he's a rock-solid bloke.

I've just been so lucky to get that time with him

and be able to see that firsthand and as I said,

I'll cherish that for the rest of my life.

Cheers, guys.

Subtitles by Deluxe