More Photos

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More Photos

 Australasia » Australia » Victoria » Melbourne » CBD By onehorsetown
March 29th 2007
melCan't fit them onto the Coast To Coast entry so.... and they are all mixed up, Sorry

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Photos

Sunset over the desert
A stunning sunset at the end of the mail run coming into Coober Pedy. No photo can really capture how incredibly beautiful it was and all the colours it throws up against the outback landscape.

Great Ocean Road
The final stretch of the 1,300 km drive from Adelaide to Melbourne. Photo by Marius

Greyhound Promo Chick
My 2 days of promo work for Greyhound on Bondi Beach. Yes I looked like a tool, but I got a 2000km pass for free and two surfers gave me their numbers.

Inland Sea
Prehistoric inland sea in the middle of the North SA State outback

In Da Outback
no one can hear you scream

Entering the Oodnadatta Track
600km round trip on the mail run and some of the loneliest oldest harshest roads in the country - RAD

Noodling
The machines that help dig potch (the white/pink stuff under which opal hides) out the ground are called noodling machines. Here are some at work. The mining outfits here are plenty and small - commonly family units of father and son, sometimes the mum too, all physically in there having a go. It costs about AUD$50,000+ per year to buy the machines and sustain the permits needed to mine a 'claim', and sometimes no money is made for years. Then one day, someone hits the jacjpot - literally digging up a claim worth anything up to several million dollars' worth in one go. Thats when the rest of the town hears and some jealous miner folk go moonlighting on other people's claims to steal their finds - which is why most miners, if they come across opal, just stay on the claim until it is all dug out of the ground, otherwise they have to bowl in with their guns and shot stealers out of their holes. No joke.

Noodler
The cost of opal mining versus the amount of time you can go without a find, plus the fact that this used to mean more theft of machinery from one miner to another, means that miners now make their own noodling machines by throwing together bits of ancient leftovers lying around the town or in junkyards. They look like film props strewn across Coober Pedy but they are genuinely working pieces of machinery. Also, not so long ago Coober was a pretty lawless place with miners simply blowing up each other's pubs, hotels, houses, vans etc in jealousy or for revenge for stealing from their claims. So it made no sense to own anything of worth. Today it is less dangerous to live here - only just though according to locals I spoke to.

RIP Good Ol Boy
Spanner, one of the residents past of WillaimCreek, the last stop on my Mail Run in the middle of nowhere, a town of five official permanent residents. I think three of those work in the pub. The only pub.

Vanajek!
My miner friend Roger at his family's claim (I think. I have never met anyone my age (he is 28)who does that sort of job. I can think of a few guys back home living the suited and booted life, or who are too busy smoking draw to get off their middle class whiteboy arses to do something with their lives, who could use a chat and a beer with Roger. He was a fascinating boy and a lot of fun too.I should mention that his older sister is the first fully qualified female engineer in Australia (I think that was what he said, with pride - good to see) and heads up something very important for BHP. Vanajek junior has no flies on him either.

Who Goes There?
A herd of cows grazing at Anna Creek, the world's largest cattle station a few hundred km's from Coober Pedy, and the size of Belgium. These are truly free range cows.

Ghan Railway
A surviving bridge from the old Ghan railway line going through the middle of the desert near Oodnadatta. There are remains of track and sidings all along the route.