The top piture shows a tipical piece of opal mining plant, Its a dust extractor and picks up material to be loaded onto a truck and shifted from the work site.
The piture above shows a view from a mullock pile looking over part of the town from German Gully, A popular part of the opal mining lease for the miners and produces some top class opal, parts are still mined today. Mullock is the opal dirt that has been surfaced and placed around the mine. Opal can still be found in these piles that the miner may have missed.
Kyms Two story home, He is a cutter. and two the right, To the right is the town hall. You can find the public toilets out the front of the town hall to the right of it near the IGA shop and fuel station.
Below is a pick swinging around from the same location to the left and looking in the Tuckerbox direction.
How the hell did he get in there oh well that one our mutts Zafin with what looks to be stolen goods from god know where. Its like a cut assett he playes it well and this look he knows gets him lots of attention and treats off the local kids. In short hes a scamer.
This is what we like to see the towns hard effort put to good use, A couplw sitting down and enjoying a quiet brake from traveling. This is the some of the cottages and there is tables and a bbq there waiting for you.This pic dose not show the full area but it is a large area and there are plenty more tables. And plenty of room for the nomads to park there vans.
There thinking of booking in down the main street for the night, wishfull thinking guys, it ain't happinen.
Any website of Andamooka without a pic of the longbus is simply incomplete its is one of our landmarks and used to be an opal showroom. One of the questions one the scocial club car rally years ago i recall was how many white tyers are there under the man. That was just to give you an idea of what its about.
This is one of the creek beds that gushes with water bringing it down the main street sometimes even a meter high Note the Tuckerbox wall, Note the Post office being up high, and the Opal pub all raised up to prevent water damage. There's been people chased by empty water tanks down the main street.
It sound messy and it is the kids go mad swimming in it even some crazy adults when there on the singing syrip its cloths off and spash around down the main street. well it used to be like that not so much now.
The power of the water from miles away dose do some damage but not enough to break the town spirit and enjoyment of watching it flow with fury. The clean up begins a few days after.
And sometimes this is how we like to wait for the rain to come. Zoe
So there ya go a better shot of the Function area by the cottages, Like i said tables, fire drums a BBQ set up under shelter. Theres another one by the tourist caravan area with a huge kids play ground and a roper public noodling area. (remember a spray bottle and bucket) then Opal Fever then a pick and shovel then Opal fever then a jack hammer or air legger then Opal fever ok i'll shut up.
You know we even have pro fishermen live here they come and go seasonal infact the guy that played the top role in the sucsess in this park Greg and he should be commended for his efforts, Its really taking shape we'll he was a fisherman from Western Australia up at port Samson and he come here and got opal fever i guess. He still mines the old way and takes his daughter down under ground and has her set up with a tv and stuff while he digs away as he used to have to take her in a wheel barrow when she was a little one. he mentioned his site www.opallovers.com.au but i looked and maybe i hit a wrong button it was late at night. So have a scout there if you like and i'll get more info later. in any case was a lot of good opal sites.
But like i say we probably use the beach more than people that live by it. The last time i was down at Whyalla i went for a swim and there was no one in site, i thought the weather was alright apparenty not to the locals. It not like we don't have access to the beach its only 2.5 hrs to Port Augusta and even closer to lake Mary or the big dams around the town here.
So don't go straight past Spuds Roadhouse at Pimba head towards Woomera and pass that turn right after the town then keep going i'll see you in about 1.5hrs see Andamooka first then look at the rest on the way back.
Above is a pic of one of the cottages but look infront of the cottage there is a shaft with what we call a windlass and it has been known in the early days as a man hoist as well as for lifting buckets of Opal wich is all the used for today of course.
Part of an old liester power plant is another thing you see just near the fence.
Geof Wattson has a couple of fully restored ones and are in top condition i mean the ones with the huge fly wheels that you gotta put ya foot into, Hes started them up for me a couple of times hes a good bloke and his missus is nice she makes me a nice cuppa and brings out the cookies.
Next door to Geof is Joe and Deb they are a nice couple she used to work as a nurse here and Joe used to have the powder monkey ticket and shift alot of dirt, then things got tuff with the anti terrorist laws and explosive and to costly to worry about. Anyway Joe loves the Motorcycles and is/was a bit of a mad man he has some Czechoslovakian 3 wheel machienes with the JAWA motors in them see im into the vintage bikes and stuff my self so this is how a lot of this fits together.
Im also trying to paint a piture of the community with some light entertainment.
Keep an eye out i'll up grade and put better quality pics in later but i think they are alright for the subject they give an old authentic feel to the site and don't give away everything that you don't have to come here at all.
But some will be replaced with better quality later. Don't forget to check and keep an eye out on my youtube site for vids the links on the main page just click and your there.
