Coober Pedy – Mar. 6th

On day #2 of the tour, we went from Quorn to Coober Pedy which was another six hours on the bus. Coober Pedy is known for its opals. While its population is only about 3.000 people over 44 nationalities are represented as people come from all over the world to try to get rich on opals. Because of the heat (it gets up to 50°C/122°F), people have built homes that go underground. Seeing this, the aboriginals named the town Coober Pedy, meaning “white man’s hole.” The underground dugouts stay at a constant 23°C/74°F so air conditioning isn’t necessary. The underground houses are cheaper to make than above ones and it’s also cheaper in the long run since air conditioning and heating aren’t required. Aborigines have always built above ground since they believe that only the dead should be below ground. Also there aren’t many locations suitable for an underground dwelling so many of the newer houses are above ground.

Welcome to Coober Pedy

Anyone can go to the city council and after paying $60 they can stake a 165-square-foot (15.3 m2) claim to try their luck at finding opals. They say that there’s more than a million openings around the township.

Because of all the open mine entrances, it’s quite dangerous to walk out onto the mine area.

A typical 1920s miner’s dugout.

An acutal home during the 1970s that is now part of a museum. The owners added the curtain even though the home is underground to make it seem more homey.

It’s now illegal to mine for opals in the town limits, so people will add extensions to their underground houses as a way to work around that law. There’s one family that has a house with 18 bedrooms. Another family ran out of ideas for rooms for their permit to the town council so they put in an underground swimming pool.

People need air in their underground dugout houses so they build in chimneys so that air can get in.

Since there are literally no trees in Coober Pedy, the town council had this metal one constructed so kids could be able to climb and play in it.

Because of the desolate landscape surrounding Coober Pedy, many end-of-the-world apocalyptic movies have been filmed here such as Mad Max, Red Planet, and Ground Zero. This is from Pitch Black.