Mac has been outback to those elusive, ever calling opal fields. He left after a public reading of 1 Kings 9: 10-23 in the Bonville Kingdom Hall and headed for Inverell, with the intention of sleeping at the wheel. His destination was Koroit, which is 150 kms or so further on from Cunnamulla, which is deep in the south-west of Queensland. He was intent on shifting mining equipment from his ex-lease to Lightning Ridge. He had decided that it was time to sell the compressor and the hoist, and to leave the mining to others. His delicate, white long fingers were more inclined to creating artistic pieces weaving gold and silver around the beauty of the colour of the opal. On the tray of his ‘u beaut ute’, were buckets of rough that he was taking to the Yowah Festival, and on the passenger seat was an artistically created belt of sting ray leather with a buckle of barramundi set with a large, unique South-West Queensland opal of green colour displayed on an ironstone background. This was his 2010 entry into the Yowah Opal Competition.