I'm off to the small outback town of White Cliffs in far
western New South Wales.
Its closer to Adelaide than Sydney and looks like a
moonscape in parts. These craters are from tens of
thousands of old opal mines,
Oh, Ive got one.Interview's over. Everybody out.
It's a prospectors paradise, where everybody's free to give
things ago. Either searching for opals or something else
entirely. I hear there's much more to White Cliffs than meets
the eye. I want to find out what's beneath the surface.
This is called a pineapple this thing. We found it yesterday and
it's got a little bit of color in it. It's a very rough one.
We're not talking fruit here. This is a rare opal potentially
worth tens of thousands of dollars. White Cliffs may not be
as famous as Coober Pedy. But it's the only place in the world
where you can find pineapples like these. Most are sold to
overseas collectors. That's not a pineapple bert. Now that is a
pineapple.
I reckon you're a bunch of showoffs. So what, this is
another pineapple?
The bloke they all talk about is Ken Harris. He's made a good
living from opal and gold mining, but he's best known for
his once in a lifetime discovery.
What actually is a plesiosaur?
An extinct marine reptile that existed during the Cretaceous
period, roughly 70 billion years ago. Similar to what they
think could be in Loch Ness. So you got a long neck, flippers
fish-eating critter
Ken found the precious fossil while sinking a mineshaft 40
years ago. He knew he was onto something special. So he called
the Australian Museum to check it out.
The museum made me an offer of $10,000 which, even back in '76,
that didn't go anywhere. So I agreed to give them an option if
I wanted to sell it. Then I brought it back here because I
could see that it'd be worth much more back here as a tourist
attraction.
I never wore shoes at all, the whole time I was here. The best
part of being barefoot in contact with the cosmic rays and
nature is amazing and how good for your health? You wouldn't
believe it. I'm 88 next February.
Those cosmic rays are why most people live underground, where
it's always a moderate 22 degrees. There are some
seriously luxurious dugouts. And I hear local artist Cree
Marshall is right up there.
Hello, Cree.
Heather, how do you do?
Cree moved from Sydney 25 years ago in search of artistic
inspiration.
We're following where the miners went looking for opal to a large
extent. And that's why the dugouts just seem to wind here
and there.
Do you think a lot of people would drive through this town
and not have a clue about what's really going on here? It's a
surprise?
Absolutely. Because most of its hidden underground if you don't
stop and just take a bit of time to have a look around, you would
just miss it completely.
Whether you're into the arts, ancient marine skeletons,
or just living and working underground. White Cliffs is
brimming with surprises. You can be whatever you want to be here
and no one takes things too seriously. Unless of course they
are digging for opals.
It actually is heaven on earth. That's how good it is.