Vocabulary

claim: place which has mine
Mum asked one night when she’d got back from her job on the checkout at Khan’s and me and Dad were relaxing after a hard afternoon’s work out at the claim.

wobbling: shaking
The noise of a car drove into our ears and a four-wheel-drive police jeep came wobbling down the creamy red track that leads to our claim.

startled: excited by a sudden suprise.
My dad turned around, startled. He was totally off his guard.

figment: something unreal and come from imagine.
Kellyanne glared at me through tears the way she did the time I slammed the door of the ute in Dingan’s face or the time I walked over to where Pobby was supposed to be sitting and punched the air and kicked the air in the head to show Kellyanne that Pobby was a figment of her imaginings.

rummaged: search
He rummaged through piles of rocks.

ute: a member of an American Indian people of the Utah and W Colorado
Kellyanne glared at me through tears the way she did the time I slammed the door of the ute in Dingan’s face or the time I walked over to where Pobby was supposed to be sitting and punched the air and kicked the air in the head to show Kellyanne that Pobby was a figment of her imaginings.

crackpot: idiot strange people
Lightning Ridge was full of flaming crackpots as far as I could see.

Mello Yello: kind of drink which is orange flavor
I said, hiding my anger in a swig from my can of Mello Yello.

mates: friends, people that stay together with a good relationship 
“I still say Kellyanne could do with some real-live mates,”

opal: a translucent mineral consisting of hydrated silica of variable color; some varieties are used as gemstones
My dad would come back from the opal mines covered in dust

fairdinkum: Fair truth
“Fairdinkum?”

imaginary: something which comes from people's mind, unreal
but I wasn’t crazy enough to talk to imaginary friends

grub: worms
She said they were quieter and better behaved than me and deserved the grub.

fossilized: transfer in to a fossil 
There’s rumours going that Lucky Jes has taken out a million-dollar stone and a fossilized mammoth tooth with sun-flash in it.

mammoth: an extinct animal
There’s rumours going that Lucky Jes has taken out a million-dollar stone and a fossilized mammoth tooth with sun-flash in it.