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Published: June 28th 2023
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The long four and a half drive to Coober Pedy provided a good lesson for us in outback travel, and that is to fill up with fuel at every Roadhouse opportunity. We only just made it to Coober Pedy with zero kilometres showing on our petrol gauge range. Travellers we had met along the way had described Coober Pedy as being different. It certainly was, with large mounds of white rock from the numerous opal excavations dotting the horizon, similar to a moonscape.
The town was not established until after 1915, when the first opal was discovered by Wille Hutchison on 1 February of that year. Opal miners started moving in around 1916. The name "Coober Pedy" is thought to derive from the Aboriginal term
kupa-piti, which means "whitefellas' hole".
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 m
2) claim. Coober Pedy supplies most of the world's gem-quality opal, and has over 70 opal fields. The town itself is the setting for several films, and its environment has also attracted movie producers.
The harsh summer desert temperatures mean that many
residents prefer to live in caves bored into the hillsides, also known as dugouts. 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). We arrived at Coober Pedy without booking into a caravan park, not realising it was the weekend of the annual Opal Festival, with a concert that evening featuring Casey Chambers. We were fortunate to obtain a powered caravan site at Riba’s Underground Caravan Park, located around two kilometres out of town.
After setting up at the caravan park, we drove into town and had lunch at the Outback Diner, and then drove to the Opal Festival. We didn’t stay for the concert, as we were concerned about leaving our car full of our travelling goods in the car park, and we had previously seen Casey Chambers in concert in the Hunter Valley. We were able to see the fireworks later that night from our caravan park.
The following day we drove around the town, stopping off at The Big Winch and visiting The Catacomb Church of Coober Pedy, an underground Anglican Church. We had an enjoyable chat with the
local minister, and purchased a book from their book stand. After lunch, we joined our booked Nobles Premium Tour, which was outstanding value for money. Our guide showed us the sights of Coober Pedy, an amazing underground Serbian Church and an underground residential home, before driving out of town to view the Dingo Fence, the Breakaways and a working underground opal mine.
The Dingo Fence or Dog Fence was built to keep dingoes out of the relatively fertile south-east part of the continent (where they have largely been exterminated) and protect the sheep flocks of southern Queensland. It is one of the longest structures in the world. It stretches 5,614 kilometres (3,488 mi)
from Jimbour on the Darling Downs near Dalby through thousands of kilometres of arid land ending west of Eyre Peninsula on cliffs of the Nullabor Plains above the Great Australian Bight near Nundroo.
The Kanku-Breakaways Conservation Park got the name "
The Breakaways" because the mesas and low hills appear from a distance as if "broken away" from the higher ground of the escarpment.
Our five hour guided tour in an off road bus, included a detailed commentary along the way, and our guide answering
many questions about the area. An obligatory sunset photo at the Opal City sign completed a great day in this unique outback town.
It was time to move on the next morning, and after packing up we headed for Opalios, the guide recommended Opal Store in town, where Kim purchased some items. Water is a precious resource in Coober Pedy, and we had to line up to fill our caravan water tank with filtered bore water, having paid a fee at the local Council office. A long five hour drive today to Kulgara Roadhouse, where we are booked in for the night, prior to heading west to Uluru.
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