Opal Eggs of Fire

Book excerpt: The drought in South Australia was really biting hard, especially for the people in the marginal rainfall regions . The Nickols family at Kimba on the Eyre Peninsula were having a hard time after three bad drought years. Bank interest had sky-rocketed and all of the off-farm income as shearing or harvest work had dried up also, as the sheep and grain numbers had vanished. The bank is threatening to sell the farm to recover the debt. Neighbours of the Nickols Two bachelors Bert and Harry Kelly had been opal mining at Coober Pedy and had paid off the bank overdraft. John and Tony Nickols travel to Coober Pedy and drill onto a seam of good opal. The men find a nest of opal dinosaur eggs worth a lot of money .What ensues is some cunning thieves trying to rob them of their money and opal . These men are killed in an accident in a very strange way which makes world news and the opal eggs very famous.