Sapphire mining magnate Ray Richardson was raised in a tiny dirt-floor home in Queensland's Gemfields with 10 other siblings.
"We lived in a little old, corrugated iron house here in Anakie, with your wood stove and a little round bathtub and everyone had to use the same water," he said.
Mr Richardson was only 13 when he left school to start crystal mining, but the industry has taken him from humble beginnings to showing famous sapphires at international gem shows in New York.
