Thick Skins

We met Rhino one night at The United Bar. Over a dozen Bourbon and Coke’s and a Jager shot or two, we found him to be a truly agreeable and pleasant dude. At the end of the binge Travis, our photographer, asked him how he got his nickname and Rhino head-butted him so hard he nearly went down. Interestingly, Trav suffered one of the worst hang-overs of his life the next day while Rhino was unfazed and ready to go again the next afternoon.

ot surprisingly, I’m an opal miner. You could say that I try to find opal but it doesn’t always work that way. In this day and age, all you do is shift ground and hope for the best. They call me Rhino because one night a stupid guy tried to fight me and I went through him like a bull in a china shop; that and somebody just came up to me one day and said “You have really thick skin and look like a rhinoceros.” It stuck. My best party trick is actually putting my head through a wall. For some reason it doesn’t hurt me and it looks really impressive, so it’s worth it. People always ask me about the scar above my eye. That happened once when I was coming out of a pub and 30 aborigines attacked me—one with an iron bar. One of them hit me across the head. I think they were saying something I didn’t like to someone so I let them know it. It was nothing really. I have an indigenous guy working with me now and even he believes it was just a case of wrong place, wrong time. This was a really, really hard town back in the 50s and 60s. They’re trying to change the image of the town but you have to admit that CP is a life away from life. Everybody’s a hard bloke here, and if you ever upset someone, you have to remember that there are a lot of holes to get lost down! I’ve done most things I set out to do in life: I have nine kids, I’ve been an interstate truck driver and I helped build the O-Bahn in Adelaide. I’ve always worked in construction but now this just feels like home. If I wasn’t here I’d like to be a multimillionaire tycoon, but believe me when I say that opals get in your blood. If I found a million-dollar opal, I’d go on a big holiday, then come straight back and keep doing what I’m doing. RHINO