The down-side of the pause has been the drop in trade, particularly from the United States Embassy.

Apparently, American diplomats like opals as souvenirs - Peter Blythe once made a pair of pendants for Ronald Reagan.

They were ordered from the Mineshaft shop by the then-ambassador who was a friend of the American president.

But the stoppage has also given the shop-keeper time to think. He's been taking stock, literally and figuratively.

He has dust in his veins and mining in his blood.

The result is that the 72-year-old is resolved to resume the hardest manual labour known to man or woman, the back-breaking work of digging for opals in Australia's least hospitable terrain.

"I have some places up in Queensland that I want to have a look at," he said.

He has lived in Canberra since before traffic lights came and before Lake Burley Griffin. As a five-year-old in Duntroon, his grandfather gave him an enthusiasm for mining which has never left him.

It has been a pleasure and a profit.

As a child, he used to scour quarries and creeks in the ACT for fossils and minerals - and that bug has never left him.

On top of that, his grandfather had a gold mine. He got to love and learn the craft and trade of mining.

"I used to crawl round his mine when I was a kid. He said he knew where there was a fortune out there. It's just that he had run out of time," he said.

He grew up in Canberra as the son of two teachers who came for work as the city was developing. As well as his grandfather, his parents fed his passion for, and curiosity about, rocks.

When he was 13, his mother called the telephone exchange in the opal mining hub of Coober Pedy in South Australia and asked to speak to a miner.

The miner came to the phone. The mother ended up buying a bundle of opals for her son, and he started cutting them when they arrived.

After the young Peter finished at Dickson High, he joined the Bureau of Mineral Resources and learned of the mineral-rich areas of Queensland.

In 1977, he was told that field trips would cease and he would have to learn how to use a computer.

He says he hated computers so he decided to trade the screen for the rock face. In 1978, he opened a store at Cooleman Court in Weston Creek. The store has moved around and ended up in the Canberra Centre.

But in the 40 years he's been selling gems in Canberra, he has continued to make long forays to remote areas to search for the stones he then crafts and sells.

After three years in the shop, he went mining at what he calls "the new and wild opal field of Mintabie, a few hours north of Coober Pedy".

He stayed for 10 years.

READ MORE:

He feels he still has time to find the fortune his grandfather said was out there, somewhere.

His advice to anyone starting up in business is: "All small business starts with a dream, a desire, a gamble and a lot of bloody hard work".

"All small business has a story. They don't just appear; they evolve," he said.

"Those that make it and go the distance are few and far between and become a part of the makeup of their local area. The journey can be fascinating."

Our journalists work hard to provide local, up-to-date news to the community. This is how you can continue to access our trusted content: