All it took was one look into an opal and Rod Manning was hooked.
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"Once you look into a gem opal, it steals your soul and you spend the rest of you life trying to find it," Mr Manning said.
Mr Manning is one of the new stars of Outback Opal Hunters.
The opal miner has been chasing the thrill of finding the 'magic gems' since a friend invited him to have a look at his opal mine in 1979.
"You have times when you run out of money and food and you have to go and do something else. It can be a struggle, you can go years without getting pay," Mr Manning said.
"This last pay that we got, we didn't get anything for 18 months before. You're just living off what you can. It's pretty tough at times but that opal just keeps on calling for you."
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The opal chase has lead Mr Manning to the Sheepyard opal field near Grawin where the miner and his wife Amanda live totally off the grid.
"Where we live we don't even have an address. Roads have no names and we get absolutely no services. They have to put a phone line into your camp but other than that we have nothing," he said.
There are rooms in his corrugated iron camp that still have dirt floors. Solar and a generator are used for power and when they need water it has to be carted from the bore down the road.
The weather is also harsh. There are weeks when the temperature is above 45 degrees and it can get to more than 50.
But after living there for 10 years, Mr Manning said he wouldn't change it.
Mr Manning and his partner Les Walsh will be featured on season three of Outback Opal Hunters. He wanted to show the world what it was like for a 'down-and-out miner', while also promoting opals.
"Opal is Australia's national gem stone and if you walk into most jewellery shops in Australia there's no opal. This planet is a big planet and our opal is by far better than anything else in the world," he said.
Despite not knowing what to expect, Mr Manning said it had been a great experience.
"The only real difference is that a lot of the stuff you have to do more than once, like when you finish work and walk out of the mine they might get you to do it twice or three times just to get the lighting right," he said.
The new season of Outback Opal Hunters starts on October 17 on the Discovery Channel.