Coober Pedy

Without a doubt, Coober Pedy is one of Australia’s iconic places.  The name always evokes and embodies some of the nation’s more compelling mythology about the grit and hardship of frontier living.  The township sits nestled on the edge of an erosional scarp of the Stuart Ranges. Wikipedia aptly describes the town as follows; "very little plant life exists in town due to the region's low rainfall, high cost of water, the sandstone and lack of topsoil".

Coober Pedy isn’t for the faint-hearted.  It owes its entire existence to the discovery of Opals by Wille Hutchison on 1 February 1915.  Today, the area surrounding town supplies a majority of the world’s gem-grade Opals. 

This barren outpost boasts an annual average high of 27.5 °C. Summer temperatures range from 35 °C and upwards in the shade, with occasional dust storms. The annual rainfall is amongst the lowest in Australia, at around 130 millimetres (5.1 in).  The harsh summer temperatures mean that many residents prefer to live in caves bored into the hillsides (commonly referred to as dugouts).

A standard three-bedroom cave home with lounge, kitchen, and bathroom can be excavated out of the town’s hillside rock for a similar price to building a house on the surface. However, dugouts remain at a constant temperature, while surface buildings need constant air-conditioning.  Garry and I stopped here for two days, basing ourselves at the truly immaculate Dugout B&B on the edge of town.

The dugout was one of those rare finds where the stunning online images more than match the reality you find upon arrival. We hired the largest apartment which sat on a dusty plateau overlooking the surrounding desert.  Each night we sat outside and watched the full moon rising over the Outback while warming ourselves in front of campfire blazing in the half-cylinder of a 44-gallon drum.

We spent an afternoon exploring Coober Pedy after a morning flying over Lake Eyre in flood (more about that adventure in a separate post!).  Highlights included a tour of an Opal mine, a local underground church and a leisurely stop at the town’s panoramic Big Winch Lookout.

The Umoona Opal Mine & Museum in the centre of town was a genuine highlight.  We joined a guided tour that took us through a local dugout home and then down into the depths of a former Opal mine.  The underground museum included a range of exhibits about opal mining, desert fauna and indigenous history.  We also enjoyed a fascinating 20-minute documentary about life in Coober Pedy in an underground cinema.

Australia’s opal capital also delivered a few unexpected highlights. Late one afternoon while standing on the edge of our dugout’s plateau we witnessed an empty Double B road train make its way along the unpaved Williams Creek Road. As it lumbered towards the horizon it threw up an enormous cloud of dust that swirled and bellowed in the setting sun’s golden rays. We saw a similar dust cloud tracing its way through the desert the following day while visiting Williams Creek.

However the most unexpected highlight of our time in Coober Pedy was the appearance of a wallaby and joey outside our apartment shortly after dusk on our final night in town.  The pair sat watching us for some time before eventually bounding away after curiosity got the better of us and we attempted to approach them.