You have just purchased an extremely rare and precious Queensland ironstone opal. There is no other stone like it in the world. You take it home, and now you want to know how best to care for it. Opal is a relatively soft stone in the world of semi-precious gemstones. It can scratch and crack if it is dropped. It is a brittle stone. If you have set your opal into a ring, you must remember that is cannot take hard knocks. A butcher friend of ours wanted an opal ring to wear all the time. Mac had to tell him in all honesty that his meat market trade would knock the stone about too much. He ta...

Earth’s Curve has been with Mac for a lot of years. Its creation was stirred by an exquisite piece of opal that had been uncovered on a newly bought land claim in South West Queensland. This Aussie farmer turned opal miner literally discovered opal on top of the ground. Mac spent hours giving this particular stone the time that it deserved to turn it into something worthy. When the Australian Gemological Design Awards came along, Mac decided that this opal could be a part of specialty pieces that the trade would appreciate. Earth’s Curve came into being. On the final night of its creation, ...

So reads the hype for ‘The Winds of Jarrah’, a 1983 movie that was filmed in Dorrigo and Bellingen. The story reads like a Mills & Boon novel, for that is what it was based on. ‘The House in the Timberwoods’ was written by Joyce Dingwall and tells the story of Diana Venness who runs away from an English failed romance into the Australian bush to become governess to 3 children. The father, of course, has had bad experiences with women and doesn’t trust them. His name is, classically, Timber Marlow. Perfect. “It is 1946. On a train rumbling deep into the timberlands of New South Wales, D...