Travel: Coober Pedy, SA

It's very much an Australian bush story, of trying your luck prospecting in the gold fields of the 1800s and the following century, or in the Opal fields in places like South Australian outback town, Coober Pedy.

Of course, the gold rush is long gone and while prospectors still work Coober Pedy’s opal fields, but they're not what the town is all about anymore. That's because about half the town’s income now comes from tourism.

The precious gemstones were first discovered in Coober Pedy in 1915, which at last count (2016) had 1762 residents. While the majority of locals are Australian-born (57.9 per cent), there are a claimed 45 nationalities represented in Coober Pedy, many drawn by the prospect of striking it rich with opals.

You can still try your luck with a precious stones claim. Permits costs about $100 to kick off with a small claim for three months and a bit over $100 to renew it every year. Some find next to nothing of worth in their claim, while others have made their millions mining opal in and around Coober Pedy.

Pyramids on the horizon

To reach Coober Pedy you need to take a long drive deep into the Outback (although you can also get there by bus, train or plane). It’s about 800km from Adelaide and about 600km from Alice Springs, and you know you’re close as the sparse, flat desert changes as you approach the town.

The landscape begins to fill with dozens and dozens of pyramids of tailings as you shoot down the smooth Stuart Highway towards the opal mining centre.

If you like a neat, ordered town you might want to drive on by. Coober Pedy is a wreck of a place, with old cars and mining equipment seemingly strewn randomly about but for many, that's part of its charm.

It has the feel of a frontier mining town of the wild west, albeit one that's been tamed by tourism.

The majority of residents live underground in ‘dugouts’. The reason? The temperature – summer and winter - remains a more liveable 23 degrees C underground, as opposed to  a desert-like 50 degrees C, above ground in summer.

The main Hutchison Street and those running off it provide a cornucopia of shops including a bookshop, a pub, a couple of servos, opal caves, eateries, caravan parks and underground hotels. There’s even a supermarket here to stock up your caravan’s pantry, although like the fuel at the servos, don’t expect cheap groceries in this remote area.

Underground happenings

The main appeal of Coober Pedy is below the surface, of course. Aside from dugout hotels and shops (such as the bookshop on Post Office Hill Rd) you can visit the underground churches – the Serbian Orthodox church on Potch Gully Road and the Catacombs (Anglican) church on Catacomb Road.

There are four caravan parks in or close to town, such as the Big 4 Stuart Ranges Outback Resort just off the Stuart Highway. While the pressure on camp grounds in Coober Pedy during peak season is not like at Uluru,you still need to remember to book at least a day or two ahead in peak season – and don’t expect the lush green lawns of a coastal caravan park. This is in the middle of the desert after all, and most of the caravan parks are pretty basic.

We stayed a few minutes out of town at Riba’s Underground Camping and Caravan Park on William Creek Road, where you can for an extra fee get an informative evening tour of the (now inoperative) mine on the site. There are shaded caravan sites or underground tent camping available, and spotless toilet/laundry facilities.

You don’t need to head out to Riba’s if you only want to go on a mine tour though - there are several in town, such as The Old Timers Mine on Crowders Gully Road.

Noodling for free

If you feel like doing some opal mining yourself, there’s a free area on Jewellers Shop Road called - not surprisingly - the Jeweller’s Shop. This public noodling area was one of the earliest and richest Coober Pedy opal fields since it was first worked by hand (with pick and shovel) in the 1920s.

In 1971 a thick vein of opal was discovered and modern machinery used to explore the site. As the town grew closer, the area was closed to commercial mining and the Jewellers Shop is open to public fossicking or ‘noodling’. You can still find good pieces of opal that the miners missed by sifting though the tailings.

Crocodile tales

The ramshackle nature of the town will seem quite orderly if you drive out of town on Seventeen Mile Road to see Crocodile Harry’s Underground Nest.

Crocodile Harry was a Coober Pedy character whose dugout is now part kitsch museum and part tourist graffiti.

Born as Arvid Blumenthal in Latvia in 1925, Crocodile Harry emigrated to Australia in the early 1950s and after a couple decades up north hunting crocodiles (hence the name) he settled in Coober Pedy in 1975 to try his luck with opal mining. Although he died in 2006, his dugout remains as a museum run with voluntary donations.

The ‘garden’, with features such as an HT Holden Kingwood wagon planter box, is just a taster of what’s to come inside. In the main area of the dugout is a mix of kitsch art and period furniture overlayed with visitors signatures and paraphernalia over the walls.

Harry was a 'ladies man' by his own account, and the women’s underwear he claimed from his conquests are on display. In the outer caves there's an odd assortment of old machinery.

The best views in Coober Pedy are from the hill overlooking the town adjacent to The Big Winch, a tourist attraction that seems to have stalled (signs at the site say it was due to be finished in 2017). While most of the town is underground, you gain a great perspective of the town and the surrounding mining operations.