Noodler
The cost of opal mining versus the amount of time you can go without a find, plus the fact that this used to mean more theft of machinery from one miner to another, means that miners now make their own noodling machines by throwing together bits of ancient leftovers lying around the town or in junkyards. They look like film props strewn across Coober Pedy but they are genuinely working pieces of machinery. Also, not so long ago Coober was a pretty lawless place with miners simply blowing up each other's pubs, hotels, houses, vans etc in jealousy or for revenge for stealing from their claims. So it made no sense to own anything of worth. Today it is less dangerous to live here - only just though according to locals I spoke to.
Aboriginal settlers arrived on the continent from Southeast Asia about 40,000 years before the first Europeans began exploration in the 17th century. No formal territorial claims were made until 1770, when Capt. James COOK took possession in the name... ... read more 
