FOR years Helen Playford was one of the first to know when a new potential goldmine had been identified in the outback near Perth in Western Australia.
As a professional cartographer she would talk to the pioneers - the geologists and the entrepreneurs - who were fresh out of the bush with their grab-bags full of rock samples and their minds full of dreams about glittering opportunities of getting rich quick.
Then, working from their maps and their descriptions, she would draw plans of the area that was thought to conceal a goldmine, in order to entice investors into the project.
She even had early rights to buy shares in those mining ventures that she was persuaded would take off.
'We called the penny shares 'moose patches' because they were good for grazing,' she said.
Nothing really hit the big time, but it was enough to fund a succession of classic cars until three years ago when, at the age of 46, she sold her last and favourite MG to set herself up as a full-time artist - her personal glittering dream.