Coober Pedy

Aboriginal people have a long-standing connection with the area. The first European explorer to pass near the site of Coober Pedy was Scottish-born John McDouall Stuart in 1858. The town was not established until after 1915, when opal was discovered by Wille Hutchison.[8] Miners first moved in about 1916. By 1999, there were more than 250,000 mine shaft entrances in the area and a law discouraged large-scale mining by allowing each prospector a 165-square-foot (15.3 m²) claim.[9]

The harsh summer desert temperatures mean that many residents prefer to live in caves bored into the hillsides ("dugouts"). A standard three-bedroom cave home with lounge, kitchen, and bathroom can be excavated out of the rock in the hillside for a similar price to building a house on the surface. However, dugouts remain at a constant temperature, while surface buildings need air conditioning, especially during the summer months, when temperatures often exceed 40 °C (104 °F). The relative humidity rarely gets over 20% on these hot days, and the skies are usually cloud-free. The average maximum temperature is 30–32 °C (86–90 °F), but it can get quite cool in the winter.

Coober Pedy is a very small town, about halfway between Adelaide and Alice Springs. It has become a popular stopover point and tourist destination, especially since 1987, when the sealing of the Stuart Highway was completed.

Entrance to an underground motel, Coober Pedy, 2007.

Coober Pedy underground motel room, 2007. The inverted umbrella in the ceiling catches loose dirt that falls down the ventilation shaft from the surface.

Visitors attractions in Coober Pedy include the mines, the graveyard and the underground churches (the Serbian Orthodox Church and the Catholic Church).[10] There are several motels offering underground accommodation, ranging from a few rooms to the entire motel being a dug-out.[11] The hybrid Coober Pedy Solar Power Station supplies power to the off-grid area.[12]

Coober Pedy has a number of heritage-listed sites, including:

• 13 Hutchison Street: Three-Roomed Dugout[13]
• 9 Hutchison Street: Coober Pedy Catholic Church and Presbytery[14]

The District Council of Coober Pedy estimates the population to be around 2,500. Approximately 60% of the people are of European extraction, migrating from southern and eastern Europe after the Second World War. In all, there are more than 45 nationalities represented.[15]

Coober Pedy is home to the Coober Pedy Regional Times, a free community publication released fortnightly since 15 March 2001.[16] Under a previous name, it had begun as a newsletter called the Coober Pedy Times, which was first issued in August 1982,[17] itself continuing from a publication known as "Opal Chips".[18] After some financial difficulties, the Times was bought by its editor, Margaret McKay,[19] in 2006 and now includes online versions too.[18]

The local golf course – mostly played at night with glowing balls, to avoid daytime heat – is completely free of grass, and golfers take a small piece of "turf" around to use for teeing off. As a result of correspondence between the two clubs, the Coober Pedy golf club is the only club in the world to enjoy reciprocal rights at The Royal and Ancient Golf Club of St Andrews.[20]

The town also has an Australian rules football club, the Coober Pedy Saints, established in 2004 and compete in the Far North Football League (formerly the Woomera & Districts Football League). Due to the town's isolation, to play matches the Saints must make round trips of over 900 kilometres (560 mi) to Roxby Downs, where the rest of the league's teams are located.

The town has a drive-in theatre. It opened in 1965, but became less popular after 1980 with the arrival of television to the town, and ceased regular operation in 1984. It was re-opened in 1996.[21][22]

Coober Pedy has a hot desert climate (Köppen climate classification BWh). Typical of a desert climate, diurnal ranges are wider than in most places, with an annual average high of 27.5 °C (81.5 °F) and an annual average low of just 14.1 °C (57.4 °F). Summer temperatures range from 35 °C (95 °F) in the shade, with occasional dust storms. The annual rainfall in the area is low and amongst the lowest in Australia, at around 130 millimetres (5.1 in).[23][24] Precipitation is well-distributed through the year, although the lowest amounts are recorded in the winter months (although precipitation is very low in all months).

Extremes of annual rainfall since 1921 range from 30.6 millimetres (1.20 in) in 1929 to 427.2 millimetres (16.82 in) in 1973.[25]

Coober Pedy was flooded when 115 millimetres (4.5 in) of rainfall was recorded in 24 hours (which is over three-quarters of the mean annual rainfall) on 10 April 2014.[26]

Coober Pedy – Sunset on the Breakways.

Coober Pedy is situated on the edge of the erosional scarp of the Stuart Ranges, on beds of sand and siltstone 30 metres (98 ft) deep and topped with a stony, treeless desert. Very little plant life exists in town due to the region's low rainfall, high cost of water, the sandstone and lack of topsoil.

The Mail Truck to Oodnadatta, 2007.

The town is served by daily coach services from Adelaide by Greyhound Australia. The Ghan train serves the town through the Manguri Siding, 42 kilometres (26 mi) from Coober Pedy, which is served by trains once weekly in each direction. Passengers on The Ghan are not usually allowed to disembark at Manguri unless they have prearranged transport, due to the siding's isolation and the extremely cold temperatures at night.[28]

Coober Pedy is a gateway to the outback communities of Oodnadatta and William Creek, which are both located on the Oodnadatta Track. There is a twice-a-week mail run from Coober Pedy to these communities and other outback homesteads. It carries the mail, general freight and passengers.[29]

Regional Express also has direct flights to Adelaide, from Coober Pedy Airport.

Opalised mollusc shell from a Coober Pedy mine.

In May 2009, South Australian Premier Mike Rann opened the $1.15 billion Prominent Hill Mine, 130 kilometres (81 mi) South East of Coober Pedy. The copper-gold mine is operated by OZ Minerals.[30] In August 2010 Rann opened the Cairn Hill iron ore/copper/gold mine operated by IMX Resources near Coober Pedy. It was the first new iron ore mining area opened in South Australia since the 19th Century.[31] Due to low iron ore prices, the Cairn Hill mine was closed in June 2014.[32] It was sold to Cu-River Mining who reopened the mine in 2016.[33]

In 2013, it was reported that a potentially significant tight oil (oil trapped in oil-bearing shales) resource has been found near the outskirts of Coober Pedy in the Arckaringa Basin.[34] This resource is estimated to hold between 3.5 and 223 billion barrels (560×10^⁶ and 35,450×10^⁶ m³) of oil, which provides the potential for Australia to become a net oil exporter.[35][36]

An underground jewellery shop in Coober Pedy.

Both the town and its hinterland, for different reasons, are photogenic and have attracted film makers.The town itself was the setting for[37][38]

• Fire in the Stone (1984)
• Opal Dream (2006)
• Until the End of the World (1991)

Its environment also attracted movie producers, with parts of these movies filmed in the area:[39]

• Mad Max 3: Beyond Thunderdome (1985)
• Ground Zero (1987)
• The Blood of Heroes (1989)
• The Adventures of Priscilla – Queen of the Desert (1994)
• The Chronicles of Riddick: Pitch Black (2000)
• Red Planet (2000)
• Kangaroo Jack (2003)
• Science Fiction Volume One: The Osiris Child (2016)

The town is featured in the 2016 racing game Forza Horizon 3 and is the location of the Horizon Outback Festival.

A rare exhibition cachet, signed by Coober Pedy Postmaster Alfred P. North, was discovered in Memphis, Tennessee on 3 February 2016. To date, it is the only known example of this cachet in the world.[40][41]

• Kupa Piti Kungka Tjuta

Wikimedia Commons has media related to Coober Pedy.

• Coober Pedy travel guide from Wikivoyage
• Official website from The District Council of Coober Pedy & the Coober Pedy Retail Business & Tourism Association
• Photographs of Coober Pedy in 1994, National Library of Australia