NT & WA Trip 2013: Coober Pedy

I guess I begin this blog with: this is a place one should visit if given the opportunity, but Im sure its a place you will never return - unless you think you might strike it lucky & find a huge opal or two!

After driving for about 6 hours with only about a half hour stop in between for some lunch, we finally made it to Coober Pedy.

We looked in our books and decided to head to the Big4 Oasis Caravan Park. After checking in & talking to George who owns the park, we had our plans made for the next day too. His park also runs a town tour, so we booked in for that. The bathroom facilities are just as good as a 5 star hotel, awsome!!! There is a pool at this park, kids were keen to check it out.

And one thing we hadn't done yet this trip, we changed into our shorts! Yes, the temperature is getting warmer. Still cool over night & first thing in the morning, but beautiful warm days!

We took a drive around ourselves & found a few things to look at.

This is the Big Winch

The next few pics are taken at the top of town near the big winch.

Coober Pedy is an Opal mining town, just bigger than Andamooka as there is more opal here to be found. Opal mining is done privately, so no big companies. If you want to come and mine for opal you must buy a permit from the council & then basically stake your place in a mining area where you intend to mine.

We learned a lot on the tour this morning. We didn't realise that people still live in dugouts here in Coober Pedy. We took a visit to an underground church:

We were then taken to a place close to town to do some 'noodling'. This is where you can dig through the mounds that have been left over from miners digging their holes to mine or opal. Miners have to go about 28meters underground before they reach the opal line.

These next couple of pics are of the kids doing some noodling.

We also went for a drive past the 18hole golf course - if you can call it that.

This one is of the green, see the yellow flag in the middle? They cover the sand that is the green in some kind of oil so thst when the wind blows golfers can still see where the hole will be!

And finally we were taken to an opal mining museum where we watched a video on the big screen on the history of opal mining in Australia, were taken into an underground house and and underground mine. It was really good. I never thought that I could have lived inside a dugout but after looking at them all today, I perhaps could. They stay at a temp of around 24degrees, so I guess they are a good thing around here in Summer when it can be anything up to 48degrees! And of course nice and warm in winter time. There are plenty of people that live on top of the ground too.

There is also an Aboriginal community that lives here, approx 400 live in the community. We saw a few of them in town today, they stayed at the corner of the main street all day. Gathered in a

Circle & there was also a man who slept on the other corner for most of the day!

Coober Pedy's water is piped up from the artisian basin in QLD. Its then filtered and treated here at the water plant & then you have to pay for it. You get about 30lts for 20cents. Its very fresh & nice tasting.

Becuase there was a pool here we promised te kids if they were good that they could have a swim so even though the water was cold they had a swim anyway.