Coober Pedy from The Big Winch

Coober Pedy
Fascinating opal town where most of the residents live underground
Of all the opal mining towns in Australia there is none quite like Coober Pedy. It is, for starters, much larger than other notable places like White Cliffs or Lightning Ridge or Andamooka and it is this size which has produced a diversity of people and activities guaranteed to keep the visitor engrossed for at least a day. There's the grassless golf course, the underground church, the noodling for gems on mullock heaps, the tourist shops, the expensive and sophisticated accommodation, the mixture of nationalities, the frenetic searching for wealth. And all this is set against a backdrop of one of the harshest environments in Australia.

Colin Thiele in his novel The Fire in the Stone seemed to get to the essence of the town when he wrote: 'The opal fields lay six hundred miles northwest of Adelaide, midway between Port Augusta and Alice Springs. A flat, bare landscape it was for the most part, with undulations here and there and flat-topped hills and breakaways and wind-swept plains. An old land, eroded and wrinkled, worn down over endless ages, peneplain on peneplain, until even the hills were remnants of ancient plains. And in the sides of the slopes, cut into every knoll and knob, were doorways and entrances and burrows as if the whole place was inhabited by five foot high rabbits walking about on their hind legs.'

Gopher holes at Coober Pedy

Coober Pedy is located 846 km north of Adelaide and 213 m above sea level. It has an average annual rainfall of 139 mm.

About 80 per cent of the population of Coober Pedy now live underground. The reason for this is that the temperature can rise to 50°C in summer and it has been known to rise to 60°C. To most outsiders the idea of living underground sounds terribly primitive. In fact the motels which have been built underground are as good any built above ground. The floors are tiled and the mechanical equipment which digs out the rooms leaves attractive patterns in the red and white walls which are sealed to prevent dust and decay. There is certainly no likelihood of a sudden cave in. A good, new underground house in Coober Pedy with five rooms can be constructed by a tunnelling machine for around $25 000.

At the moment there are about 4000 people living in and around the town and over 45 nationalities are represented. The majority of the population are Greek, Yugoslav and Italian (the town has a remarkable similarity to a dusty Mediterranean village) with many Chinese buyers of opals.

There are no large companies operating in the area and this has been maintained by the fact that a mining lease can only be acquired for an area of 50 square metres and then the miner is obliged to work at his lease for about 20 hours per week.

The opals at Coober Pedy were discovered by a teenager, Willie Hutchinson (the main street is named after him), in 1915 and by 1916 miners had moved to the area. It is claimed that the first people to live underground where miners who had been soldiers in Europe during World War 1. Used to living in trenches they knew the climatic advantages gained from living in the constant temperature of a dugout.

The town was officially named by the local Progress and Mining Association in 1922. The most widely accepted translation of the Aboriginal name is that 'coober' means either boy, uninitiated man or white man (all of which may well be interchangeable) and 'pedy' means hole or rock hole. Thus Coober Pedy is a description of what the local Aborigines regarded as peculiar activities (both mining and living underground) and so the town means 'white men down holes'.

Progress in the town has been slow. All development has come a bad second when compared to the need to find opals. For example the town has only had a regular water supply since 1985. The water comes from an artesian basin and in 1990 cost $22.00 per 4 000 litres.

Things to see:  

Miners fossicking for opals at Coober Pedy

Coober Pedy
There are a number of truly remarkable attractions around Coober Pedy and the most sensible, and most reasonably priced, way of seeing them is to take a bus trip which usually lasts for about four hours.

Crocodile Harry
The highlights include a visit to the underground house of a man calling himself Crocodile Harry. This wonderful old lecher (his walls are festooned with the addresses of girls who he claims to have seduced) declares himself to be Arvid Von Blumentals, a Latvian Baron who was forced to leave his country after World War II. He claims to have worked as a crocodile hunter in Northern Australia before coming to Coober Pedy to fossick for opals in about 1975. Although his story seems implausible - a good piece of bush mythology - it is interesting to note that Roger Jose, the Hermit of Borroloola, who lived in a damaged 1000 gallon tank at Borroloola on the Gulf of Carpentaria in the Northern Territory until his death in 1963, reportedly sold his unusual accommodation to a crocodile hunter named Harry Blumental. Are these two one and the same person? And are all of Harry's larger than life stories true?

Crocodile Harry's underground house featured in Mad Max: Beyond Thunderdome and before they left the crew created a singing sculpture out of metallic trash which they called 'The Orchestra'. It rattles in the breeze.

The Catacomb Underground Church

Coober Pedy Underground Catacomb Anglican Church
At the eastern end of Coober Pedy is the town's famous Underground Catacomb Anglican Church which is a unique expression of the materials and activities of the local area. The altar is made like a winch and both the crucifix and the lectern are made out of mulga wood. Behind the altar are two air vents.

The Big Winch and the Oldtimers Mine
Nearby are the town's two overt tourist attractions. The Big Winch (a good quality gift shop) and the Oldtimers Mine which shows underground mining and some of the old equipment which was used. It also has an opal reef on display. When the door was being cut they came across a seam of opals in the wall.

The Underground Pottery
The Underground Pottery is another popular tourist shop. It has some superb photographs of the area for sale. But don't be fooled. The pottery may be locally made but the clay comes from Melbourne.

Coober Pedy Golf Course
No visit to Coober Pedy would be complete without seeing the local Golf Course where there is not a blade of grass on the fairways and the greens are oiled sand.

There is an excellent book on the town by Kerry E Medway titled Coober Pedy: Opal Wonderland of Australia which covers both the modern town and the history of the place from the first discovery of opal.

	Tourist Information
	Flinders Ranges & Outback Information Coober Pedy SA Telephone: 1800 633 060 Facsimile: (08) 8223 3995
	Motels
	Lookout Cave Motel Hospital Hill Rd P.O. Box 79 Coober Pedy SA 5723 Telephone: (08) 8672 5118 Rating: **
	Mud Hut Motel St Nicholas St P.O. Box 219 Coober Pedy SA 5723 Telephone: (08) 8672 3003 Rating: ***
	Radekas Downunder Motel Oliver St P.O. Box 808 Coober Pedy SA 5723 Telephone: (08) 8672 5223 Rating: **
	The Underground Motel Catacombe Rd P.O. Box 375 Coober Pedy SA 5723 Telephone: (08) 8672 5324 Rating: ***
	Opal Inn Hotel Motel Hutchinson St Coober Pedy SA 5723 Telephone: (08) 8672 5054 Rating: ***
	Hotels
	Coober Pedy Budget Private Hotel Cnr Oliver & Brewster Sts P.O. Box 249 Coober Pedy SA 5723 Telephone: (08) 8672 5163
	Desert Cave Hotel Hutchinson St P.O. Box 223 Coober Pedy SA 5723 Telephone: (08) 8672 5688 Rating: ***
	Umoona Opal Mine Private Hotel Hutchinson St P.O. Box 372 Coober Pedy SA 5723 Telephone: (08) 8672 5288
	Apartments
	Desert View Apartments Shaw Place P.O. Box 373 Coober Pedy SA 5723 Telephone: (08) 8672 3330 Rating: ***
	Cottages & Cabins
	Coober Pedy Oasis Caravan Park Hutchinson St Coober Pedy SA 5723 Telephone: (08) 8672 5169 Facsimile: (08) 8672 5169 Rating: ***1/2
	Stuart Range Caravan Park Hutchinson St P.O. Box 345 Coober Pedy SA 5723 Telephone: (08) 8672 5179 Facsimile: (08) 8672 5148 Rating: **
	Caravan Parks
	Coober Pedy Oasis Caravan Park Hutchinson St Coober Pedy SA 5723 Telephone: (08) 8672 5169 Facsimile: (08) 8672 5169 Rating: ***
	Opal Inn Caravan Park Hutchinson St P.O. Box 223 Coober Pedy SA 5723 Telephone: (08) 8672 5054 Rating: ***
	Riba's Underground Camping & Caravan Park Lot 1811 William Creek Rd Coober Pedy SA 5723 Telephone: (08) 8672 5614 Facsimile: (08) 8672 5614
	Stuart Range Caravan Park Hutchinson St P.O. Box 345 Coober Pedy SA 5723 Telephone: (08) 8672 5179 Facsimile: (08) 8672 5148 Rating: ***1/2
	Restaurants
	Ampol Restaurant Coober Pedy Hutchinson St Coober Pedy SA 5723 Telephone: (08) 8672 5199
	J's Restaurant & Takeaway Hutchison St Coober Pedy SA 5723 Telephone: (08) 8672 3344
	Mud Hut Motel St Nicholas St P.O. Box 219 Coober Pedy SA 5723 Telephone: (08) 8672 3003
	Opal Inn Hutchison St Coober Pedy SA 5723 Telephone: (08) 8672 5054
	Opal Inn Chinese Restaurant Wright St Coober Pedy SA 5723 Telephone: (08) 8672 5430
	Tom & Mary's Taverna Restaurant Hutchison St Coober Pedy SA 5723 Telephone: (08) 8672 5622
	Traces Restaurant Hutchison St Coober Pedy SA 5723 Telephone: (08) 8672 5147
	Cafés
	Old Miners Dugout Cafe Hutchinson St Coober Pedy SA 5723 Telephone: (08) 8672 5541