Living the opal dream

Opals Down Under owners Immo and Louise Stein are much more than opal retailers... they are opal people.

They don't just know how these uniquely Australian gems were created, they've dug them up, cut them, classed them... even lived underground at Coober Pedy.

They met in the opal fields at Andamooka in outback South Australia in 1968 - a fact extraordinary in itself, considering Immo was born in Austria and Louise was born in Zambia. Immo moved "Down Under" looking for adventure in 1961, while Louise grew up in Zimbabwe and migrated to Australia in 1962.

Immo worked briefly on the Snowy Mountains Scheme before finding himself in Andamooka for a "boys weekend" in April 1962.

"I ended up living there for a year in a tent before I bought a hut from Woomera," he said.

"I had no money but it was just a great adventure. I never found that million dollar opal I was looking for ... but I just found enough to keep me going."

He worked out there were better ways to make a living out of the precious gems, turning to opal cutting, classing and wholesaling. The couple married in Andamooka in 1969 before joining the opal rush to Coober Pedy in 1970 after news of some big strikes raced through the diggings.

"We lived underground for several years. We had our first two children there, and each one meant another bedroom had to be dug out," Louise said.

Deciding they would rather bring the kids up somewhere other than the arid opal fields, the family bought a 32 hectare hobby farm at Gympie, which Louise describes as a "paradise" compared to living in the Coober Pedy moonscape. Immo was still buying rough opal, cutting it and wholesaling the gems to dealers and retailers in Sydney, but after Louise put up a shingle at the property gate advertising opal, the customers started flocking in.

"We'd always had a dream to open an opal shop. As soon as we put the sign up we were inundated with German, English and American tourists. Overseas people seem to love opal more than Australians," Louise said.

The business did so well they did a feasibility study on a move to the Sunshine Coast, buying some land at Palmview and opening Opals Down Under in 1985. With the business downstairs and their home upstairs, they worked in the venture 24/7 for several years, eventually doing well enough to put on some staff.

"I was still doing the cutting and wholesaling - that was the most profitable avenue initially until the shop got going," Immo said.

The business now employs 10 staff, including manager Scott Coggan who has been there for 13 years, both owners describing the employees as "our secret weapon".

"They are really good, hard-working people. We recently spent two months in Europe and only had to ring up a couple of times... our staff ran the business like clockwork," Louise said.

Even after a lifetime in the opal industry, and with the business doing well, Louise said they had no plans to sell up just yet.

"As long as we're enjoying it, why would we do anything else?" she said.

Source: Adapted from "Most precious gem of all" article, Sunshine Coast Daily, September 26, 2007.