Opal, eccentrics and the Red Baron

Age: Four years two months Favourite TV show? Bluey Favourite game? Spiderman What do you like to get up to most?

games

What makes you happy?

Playing

Having lots and lots of

toys... and chewing

If you could be a superhero, who would you be? I would like to be shooting out webs and being Spiderman

What is the naughtiest thing you’ve done?

Tackling my brother

What would you do if you were the boss at home? That’s a big one. I would drill a hole to find transform!

What is your favourite food? Pancakes What do you want to be when you grow up?

I want to be Spiderman to shoot the cars and get the baddies... and a police

PETER Cooke fronts the Discovery Channel’s Outback Opal Hunters and says it’s been a boon for western tourism, with visitors flocking to Lightning Ridge to check out the frontier town and the people who live there.

“It’s been absolutely amazing, that show. I get comments from the tourist operators, the caravan park operators, people who’ve come to the ‘Ridge solely because their kids have seen the show on TV and tell mum and dad, ‘we have to go and see what Lightning Ridge and black opal is all about’,” Mr Cooke told Dubbo Photo

“My brother Mick and I were the only ones silly enough to put our hands up when they came around looking for people to put a microphone on and go about their mining business. Not many people were interested in doing that – it’s a bit of a nuisance, but, like I say, it’s had really good benefits for the town which is great.

“The town depends on tourism for its livelihood. The opal is a big part of it and it’s the reason Lightning Ridge is there but anything that can bring them and put a smile on their faces and their hands in their pockets for the local businesses, it’s great.”

Mr Cooke was raising his family, three daughters, the eldest 30, in Beechworth in northern Victoria, surrounded by Ned Kelly country.

He ran a bobcat business and built stone houses as well as working as a psych nurse in an asylum in the town, but said it was just too cold.

“I’ve been coming up to Lightning Ridge as a hobby miner for 30 plus years and now I’ve lived there fulltime for 10 years and I just love it, it’s the place for me,” he said.

“Opal mining’s one of those jobs where the little bloke’s got a chance, you don’t have to be a great big million dollar corporation or work for BHP, you can go there with a pick and a shovel, virtually, and if you’re lucky enough, and work hard enough, you can make a good living out of it, not guaranteed, there’s no guarantee in it. You’ve got to be a gambler to be an opal miner I think and if you can, having a supplementary income would also be helpful.”

Mr Cooke recently struck lucky, with what he describes as the find of a lifetime.

“A stone we found up at the ‘Ridge, it was a 50 carat knobby when we found it, I rubbed it down to 40 carats, it’s not finished but enough to look good and put it in a saleable condition,” he said.

“They’re almost once or twice in a lifetime, I’d say that to see that stone it would’ve been 500 trucks of dirt to go through. So, if you’re lucky you might get two or three of those in a lifetime – they’re rare, very rare.

“I was fortunate selling this one because I’m involved in the Outback Opal Hunters and the buyer that I sold it to is going to use that as the leverage when he goes to sell the stone.

“Just enjoy opal – it’s Australia’s national gemstone and not enough Aussies know enough about opal. All our good opal gets sold overseas and I think more of it should stay here and be appreciated by Aussies.”