Coober Pedy

From 1915, when the first opal was discovered, until the present; the tiny Outback town of Cooder Pedy has been famous for its high quality opals and has become a tourist destination. You will be utterly amazed at the amount of interesting things there are to do and see in and around this remote town with its population of under 4000. For a small town, it packs a big wallop.

The distances that this unique town is from major cities will stun you. Roughly halfway between Alice Springs and Adelaide, the term “in the middle of nowhere” is a term that could aptly be applied to Coober Pedy. Known as the opal capital of the world, Coober Pedy is the largest opal-mining town in Australia.

The Australian Outback is renowned for its unforgiving environment and searing temperatures. Cooder Pedy is no exception. With temperatures of over 100F most of the year, except in the winter when the temperature drops to the 90F range, many residents of this small town have adapted their lifestyle to accommodate those grueling mid-afternoon temperatures.

Underground homes are the norm, as opposed to the exception here. Abandoned mines have been converted to subterranean abodes that remain at a fairly constant temperature year round, negating the need for air-conditioning. Other homes have been purpose built in underground for about the same cost as a traditional above ground house. The underground world scenes in the movie “Mad Max – Beyond the Thunderdome” were filmed in one of the best known homes in Coober Pedy, Crocodile Harry’s Underground Nest.

The first church to be built underground in Coober Pedy was the little church of Saint Peter & Paul’s Catholic Church. Starting out as a non-denominational place of worship, this unique church became a reality through the sweat of the community. Other churches have since followed suit providing residents with a comfortable place to worship.

Some shops, art galleries, and hotels incorporated the underground lifestyle into their business. The Desert Cave Hotel, Comfort Inn Coober Pedy Experience Motel, Desert View Motel, Radeka’s Dugout Motel, and The Underground Motel all offer the opportunity of living underground, albeit only for the length of your visit. Radeka’s was originally an opal mine that was converted to a motel in the mid-1980s. If your taste runs to B&Bs, there are dugouts B&Bs as well.

You can stroll to the Temptation Café and have a bite to eat in one of only three underground cafes in the world. Once you leave the delightful café, you can go “noodling”, or searching for opals, in the public area. Who knows, you may find a decent opal to memorialize your visit to this amazing town…others have.