Paj and Heather's Big Adventure 2008
Part Ten - Coober Pedy
Coober Pedy is an Opal Mining
town in the centre of the Australian Outback. It is the largest opal
producing area in the world. The name Coober Pedy is said to come from
aboriginal words “kupa piti” which is assumed to mean “white man in a
hole”. There is an area of about 40 ks around the town dotted with
piles of tailings and shafts from mining activity. It looks like a
moon landscape.
About 50% of the locals live in dugouts where it is cool in summer and warm in winter. We had temperatures in the mid 30s when we were there but from November through till about March it can get up to 48 degrees in the shade. So living in the dugouts and working in the underground shops I am sure is very appealing.
Coober Pedy has a population of around 3500 and about 60% of those are of European decent, families having migrated here after the 2nd World War. There are more than 45 nationalities in the area making it one of the most ethnically diverse communities in Australia. Greeks, Serbs and Croats make up the larger percentage of the population.
On our first day we did a half
day tour of the town which was well worth doing. It gave us an idea of
where to go and what there was to see during the rest of our stay. The
guide was very informative. Our first stop was the Serbian Underground
Church which was amazing. Our guide pointed out various points of
interest as we headed for the Golf Course, then the public noodling pits
where we were shown how to search for our own opals and then on to the
Umoona Mining Museum. Here we saw how mining had changed over the years.
They had a modern dugout set up for us to see and we learnt quite a bit
about the different types/colours of opals.
Another interesting museum we visited was The Old Timers Mine. This was similar to Umoona but the dugout on display was an original old dugout and was furnished accordingly. They also had their own noodling pit so Paj and I spent some time sitting there noodling and got quite a few interesting pieces of opal of varying colors. Not very big but finding them really gave us the feel of what it would be like to strike a big one.
We did a trip out to the
Breakaways, a fascinating area of rocky outcrops. The colours are
amazing as they change with the sun. The Dog Proof Fence was nearby.
This was built to keep the Dingoes out of the sheep farming area and
extends from the Nullarbor Plain in South Australia right up to
Queensland. It is supposedly the longest fence in the world.
The Church of England was another underground Church we visited. It was plain and simple compared to the Serbian Church and the Alter and Pulpit were constructed from old mining equipment and relics.
We found Coober Pedy a fascinating place and something completely different. We really enjoyed it.
