After a full day of driving we had finally arrived at the famous Opal Town of Australia also better known as Coober Pedy. We turned right off of the Stuart Highway and straight into the driveway of the Big4 Caravan Park, after a small wait we were greeted by the park ranger who assisted in directing us to our site and reversing into the bay, maximising the space.
The caravan park itself looked a million bucks on the website and promised a lot, unfortunately it delivered nothing except for a place to house the caravan. Rocky and dry dirt was the base all around the park and it felt like we were in the overflow area even though we booked at least 9 months in advance. The camp kitchen next to us was unusable, the main camp kitchen was tired in reality and the amenities were extremely small – 2 showers and 3 toilets in the mens.
Unfortunately cleanliness was not on the radar for management as the toilet blocks (due to conditions) were extremely dirty with wet brown sand and the kitchen bins always overflowing. I had to keep reminding myself we were in the outback of South Australia but when I heard the owners were spending big bucks on another mini project, immediately my thoughts were priorities! Just to finish off the showers were on timers for 20 cents per 2 minutes as well as 20 cents for 40 Litres of water to fill your tanks. Our family review is 2.5 / 5 stars.
That being said this was only the accommodation side of Coober Pedy and besides all the reports that this town was only a stop over place it was a little surprise for us all. I would agree that once you have been once you might not need to spend another couple of the days there but if you havent been at all then I would make an effort to spend a few days exploring this quirky town.
Daniel was our local tour guide (due to being previously for work) and we headed down the main street, parked the cars and set off on foot to venture into the Underground Desert Cave Hotel for coffee. After a long wait coffee we walked through their opal shop and explored the underground opal mine which was full of information around the history of the cave and opal mining in general.
An early start to the day saw Mumma Bear join the over 70s bus tour around Coober Pedy sites while the young ones jumped into the 4wds and out we set for our own tour. We met at Outback Cafe for coffee to discuss the days plan – deciding to jump into the 2 4wds and head out to the following sites.
- SERBIAN CHURCH – The church was built by voluntary Serbian Australians who settled in Coober Pedy. The church is completely under ground and was built-in 1993 and took 6 months to complete. It is 30 metres long and 5.4 metres wide, 7 metres high and is 56 metres below ground level.
- DINGO FENCE – was built-in 1880 and is 5,614km in length and made out of wire mesh – it was completed in 1885. The purpose of building this fence was to stop the dingoes migrating from the Northern Australian regions down into prime sheep grazier farming land in the Southern areas of Australia.
- BREAKAWAYS – is a conversation park north of Coober Pedy and runs in parallel with the dingo fence.
- BIG WINCH – not a lot of history with this piece but the views from here over looking Coober Pedy are amazing, it also gives you an appreciation of how much Coober Pedy has been dug down as you look to the horizon and see the Stuart Highway.
Day 2
OPAL is what Coober Pedy is known for and we were keen to experience this for ourselves, with many mines offering tours we opted for a couple of different experiences with selecting Tom’s Working Underground Mine and then Faye’s Underground Home and Mine.
Before we tell you more about the sites we visited, let me tell you about how the Discovery of Opal was found in Coober Pedy.
The Discovery
January 1915, a small group of men were searching south of Coober Pedy for Gold but had been unsuccessful. On the 1st February they had set up camp and all the men went out searching for water with 15-year-old (William Hutchinson) staying to look after the camp. While William went out for a walk he stumbled upon opal on the surface and water due to the formation of opal found in sedimentary rocks. Eight days later the first opal claim was pegged and miners living beneath the ground to escape the heat while continuing to mine for Opal.
Back to our story….
- TOMS WORKING UNDERGROUND MINE – This was a great experience and worth the entry fee for our family. Grabbing our helmets we headed underground where we were shown how to locate the potential sites for Opals as well as the process to peg your site. The tour included live machine usage to shave the earth looking for opals as well as the blasting process for the hard rock. Interesting though that many opals are now found using UV lights as it shows the Opal clearer. The tour finished on a high as all the kids (and Adults) are given the opportunity to drill for Opal and take what they find away with them, this alone is worth the experience and Jason (our guide) was extremely patient for all to have a chance. YouTube Video
- FAYE’S UNDERGROUND HOME & MINE – what a rag to riches story this was and while I was a little over mining at this point I did find this tour very interesting. Faye was a lady who was employed as a cook at the local pub, after a small debate with the owner Faye left her employment. The local miners were not too happy with this and built Faye her own Cafe so they could still receive her great cooking. It was during this time that Faye also started to dig out her home, at some stage Faye invited 2 other ladies to her homestead and together they continued to dig out the “underground home”. Unfortunately for Faye during a mini cyclone her Cafe was destroyed but this is where her luck changed. 50 metres down from her front door she dug about 3 feet into the ground and struck it big time with Opal’s. Faye continued to dig her mine and was earning some serious cash before the local council banned all mining within the township (1970). It was here that Faye then decided to offer to take tourists for tours in her mine but continued to make plenty of coin while machines were brought in to make the shafts big enough for the tour operations. There is plenty more to learn about Faye and her adventure and this reflection is a quick summary of her journey.
Our Aussie Family 