South Australia (Outback Region)
Coober Pedy
COOBER PEDY is the most enduring symbol of the harshness of Australia’s Outback and the determination of those who live there. It’s a place where the terrain and temperatures are so extreme that homes – and even churches – have been built underground, yet which has managed to attract thousands of opal prospectors. In a virtually waterless desert 380km from Woomera and considerably further from anywhere else, the most remarkable thing about the town – whose name stems from an Aboriginal phrase meaning “white man’s burrow” – is that it exists at all.

Opal was discovered by William Hutchison on a gold-prospecting expedition to the Stuart Range in February 1915. The town itself dates from the end of World War I, when returning servicemen headed for the fields to try their luck and used their trench-digging skills to excavate dwellings.
Coober Pedy is on the main Stuart Highway. Its most notable feature is the moon-like landscape of opal mines, holes in the ground dug by several generations of miners and simply left there untended after being discarded. Care should be taken when walking around the area. The mines area is made up of around thirty working fields stretching outwards in a radius of up to fifty kilometres from the town.

In summer Coober Pedy is seriously depopulated but, if you can handle the intense heat, it’s a good time to look for bargain opal purchases – though not to scratch around for them yourself: gem-hunting is better reserved for the “cooler” winter months. At the start of the year, spectacular dust storms often enclose the town for hours in an abrasive orange twilight.

The local scenery might be familiar to you if you’re a film fan: the unique landscape was used to great effect in Mad Max III and Wim Wenders’ epic Until The End Of The World. There’s not much to it, just a plain disturbed by conical pink mullock (or slag) heaps, with clusters of trucks and home-made contraptions off in the distance, and warning signs alerting you to treacherously invisible, unfenced thirty-metre shafts. Be very careful where you tread: even if you have transport, the best and safest way to explore is to take a tour, examine a map, then go back on your own. Past the diggings, the Breakaway Range is a brightly coloured plateau off the highway about 11km north of town, of interest for the views, close-ups of the hostile terrain, and bushwalking through two-hundred-year-old stands of mulga.

Wandering around the dusty streets, it can be hard to tell whether some of the odd machinery lying about is bona fide mining equipment or left-over props from the increasing number of films using the town as an apocalyptic set. The Big Winch Lookout in the centre gives a grandstand view of the mix of low houses and hills pocked with ventilation shafts. The welded metal “tree” up here was assembled before any real ones grew in the area, though in the last few years there have been some attempts to encourage greenery with recycled waste water.

For more on mining, check out one of the several mine displays and museums: try Old Timers Mine, Crowders Gully Road (tel 08/8672 5555; $4), or Umoona on Hutchison Street (tel 08/8672 5288; $5). Numerous tours are on offer for around $25: they all feature a town drive, a spot of noodling and a visit to an underground home – which you might find embarrassingly like visiting a zoo. Book through your accommodation, or try Radeka’s five-hour tour (tel 08/8672 5223) which includes a look at the Breakaway Range.

Coober Pedy has lately achieved a bit of a reputation for violence, which is perhaps not surprising given such an extreme climate where most people have access to explosives. However, signs warning “no parking unless your car is dynamite-proof” are really for amusement value only and visitors are unlikely to be the object of any discord.

There are certain rules of behaviour visitors should observe - including avoiding fossicking for opal in and around miner's claims. Ask permission before searching for opal in tailings heaps ('mullock' heaps). Visitors can stay in a choice of underground accommodation.

Attractions
  • THE BIG WINCH This lookout and landmark above the town centre is Coober Pedy's largest opal and art gallery. The display includes rough and cut crystal, black opals, and the largest opal fossil in the world. The Big Winch lookout features a giant miners' winch.
  • THE BREAKAWAYS This remarkable natural attraction is thirty two kilometres north of Coober Pedy in the Breakaways Reserve, approximately forty square kilometres of some of the most colourful landscape in the area. The colours of the Painted Desert change with the passing of the sun and give the area a surreal atmosphere no one should miss.
  • OLD TIMER'S MINE An original opal mine & underground homes dating back to 1916 The Old Timers Mine is one of the most unusual “Museums” you will ever visit. The Old Timers Mine is situated in the outback town of Coober Pedy in South Australia. The exhibits have been set up by miners to demonstrate the mining techniques and lifestyle of those who worked in the original mine. The actual mine however is not a mock up, it is an actual mine that was buried and forgotten until an excavation for an underground home extension broke through the sandstone earth wall and the mine was rediscovered. The displays have been made extremely life like and organized into an underground tour. By following the tour and viewing each display, the visitor will get a much better understanding of a miners life underground in the 19th century. Pick and shovel were the first tools used and visitors will see how the early miners worked by candlelight to find a trace of opal. You can see the early shafts used to get access to the underground mine - or walk through an original 1318 underground home.
  • THE OPAL CAVE This underground complex features a display of high quality jewellery, opal cutting demonstrations and an opal museum. Visitors can see the original underground house over fifty years old, visit an underground mine, see opal being mined and learn the history of opal.
  • OPAL QUEST This working opal mine offers visitors a chance to see how the rare and precious stone is mined today. You're given a hard hat and miners pick to go and fossick for your own souvenir. Common opal is readily obtainable from the mine's walls. But first a tour familiarises you with the mines, geological formation of opal and its mining.
  • UMOONA OPAL MINE This underground complex has a museum covering the development of European settlement in Coober Pedy, including all aspects of opal mining and Aboriginal culture. A special feature is the extensive display of opals. A guided tour takes you through real opal workings where all aspects of opal mining are explained.
  • UNDERGROUND CHURCHES Coober Pedy's fascinating attractions also include underground churches - the Church of Saint Peter and Paul (classified by the National Trust) and the Catacomb Church.
  • CULLLYAMURRA WATERHOLE A picturesque spot on the Cooper Creek, excellent for fishing. Evidence of the occupation of the area by the Yantrwantas Aboriginal tribe can be seen with rock carvings at the eastern end of the waterhole.

Finding and buying opal
Opal is composed of fragile layers of silica and derives its colour from the refraction of light – characteristics that preclude the use of heavy mining machinery, as one false blow would break the matrix and destroy the colour. Deposits are patchy and located by trial and error: the last big strikes at Coober Pedy petered out in the 1970s and, though bits and pieces are still found – including an exceptional opalized fossil skeleton of a pliosaur (the reptilian equivalent of a seal) in 1983 – it’s anybody’s guess as to the location of other major seams (indeed, there may not be any at all). Because so much depends on luck, you’ll hear little about mining technique and more about beating the system. For instance, it’s now illegal to mine in town, but there’s nothing to prevent home extensions; similarly, non-mining friends are often roped in to register claims and sidestep the “one per person” rule. Working another’s claim (the “night shift”) is a less honourable short cut.

Unless you’re serious (in which case you’ll have to pay $25 a year to the Mines Department for a Miner’s Permit to peg your 50 x 50 metre claim), the easiest way to find something is by noodling over someone’s diggings – ask the owner first. An area on the corner of Jewellers Shop and Umoona roads has been set aside as a safe area for tourists to poke about freely without danger of finding open mineshafts. Miners use ultraviolet lamps to separate opal from potch (worthless grey opal), so you’re unlikely to find anything stunning – but look out for shell fossils and small chips.

The best time to buy opal is outside the tourist season, but don’t expect wild bargains and don’t deal through grizzled prospectors in the hotels unless you’re very clued in. There are three categories: cabochon, a solid piece; doublet, a thin wafer mounted on a dark background to enhance the colour; and triplet, a doublet with quartz lens. While cabochons are most expensive and triplets least valuable, it takes some experience to price accurately within each category as size, clarity, strength of colour, brightness and personal aesthetics all contribute. With about fifty dealers in town, it’s up to you to find the right stone; reputable sources give full written guarantees.

Getting there and around
Just about everything you’ll need in Coober Pedy lies around the five-hundred-metre strip between the Opal Inn Hotel and the water treatment plant on Hutchison Street (also known as Main Street) which leads north off the highway. 

Buses drop you off either at the Ampol service station (Greyhound Pioneer and Stateliner; tel 08/8672 5151) or at Radeka’s Motel (McCafferty’s tel 08/8672 5223). From the airport you may be able to get a lift with one of the hostel buses that meet most flights, or make an advance reservation to ensure that someone meets you. 

The council offices on Hutchison Street (Mon–Fri 9am–5pm; free tel 1800/637 076), opposite the Ampol service station, are a mine of local information. Underground Books (tel 08/8672 5558), on Post Office Hill Road opposite the Mobil service station, is a good alternative source – it stocks packs of local sketch maps which are a useful back-up to road maps. The Miners Store supermarket on Hutchison Street (tel 08/8672 5051) is also the post office and Commonwealth bank agent (there’s a Westpac branch opposite). Everyone shops on Thursday, as fresh meat and veggies arrive in a refrigerated lorry on Wednesday night and are scarce by the weekend.

Accommodation
Coober Pedy relies heavily on tourist income, so finding lodgings should be no problem. To some people, the idea of sleeping underground is disturbing but, while not all accommodation is subterranean, it’s worth spending at least one night in naturally cooled tunnels for the experience.

Desert Cave Hotel, halfway up Hutchison St (tel 08/8672 5688, fax 8672 5198). Offers a choice of below- or above-ground four-star accommodation. There’s a swimming pool, and scenic flights, tours and car rental can be arranged. $125 and over.

  • Coober Pedy Experience Hotel
  • Desert Cave Hotel
  • Joe’s Backpackers Hostel and Motel, Oliver St. Above-ground motel rooms sleep up to three people, backpackers go underground.
  • Mud Hut Motel, next to council offices. Its bare, rammed earth construction gives a flavour of the subterranean without losing out on daylight.
  • Oasis Van Park, opposite the water treatment plant, Hutchison St. The only place to camp under trees.
  • Opal Inn Motel, Hutchison St. A standard motel block behind the hotel of the same name.
  • Radeka’s Motel and Backpackers Inn, Oliver St. The best budget option in town. Recently extended with snaking tunnels and alcoves with two to six beds – it can be a long trek upstairs to the well-appointed kitchen and toilets. The new bar and pool table provide evening entertainment.
  • Underground Motel, Catacomb Rd. Clean, tiled rooms with views over the desert from the front porch.

Cafés and restaurants
Restaurants in town are good value and portions are huge – beware of over-ordering. All the following are on the main street.
  • Italo-Australian Miner’s Club. Big Italian dinners on Italian Club Rd.
  • John’s Pizza Bar. Takeaway fast food and coffee.
  • Last Resort Café. Upmarket place with pavement tables, excellent pastries and coffee.
  • Old Miners’ Dugout Café. Kangaroo dishes and budget specials.
  • Tom and Mary’s Taverna. Souvlakia morning to midnight.
  • Traces. Greek grills, plus dancing. Daily 4pm–late.