Coober Pedy Guide
Located in northern South Australia, Coober Pedy is known as ‘the opal capital of the world' and famous for having underground residences or ‘dugouts' as protection from the fierce daytime heat.
The unique mining town of Coober Pedy has a strong Aboriginal heritage and offers an extraordinary opportunity to the traveller to live in the dugout style. Even worship is carried out underground and the local churches include a Serbian Orthodox Church, the St Peter and St Paul Catholic Church and the Anglican ‘Catacomb' Church. Faye's Underground Home, built by hand more than 60 years ago, is still occupied as a residence and is open to visitors.
Opal was first discovered in Coober Pedy in1915 and since then the town has been supplying most of the gem-quality opal in the world. Today a trip to Coober Pedy wouldn't be complete without a chance to have a go at finding a few gems in one of the 70 opal fields. Of course, the most important discoveries are featured in the museums, although there are reports that some of the fields still yield flashes of colour.
Coober Pedy specialises in the unusual and the graveyard there is definitely worth a visit. Steeped in history and information, many of the original miners buried here came from Serbia, Greece and Croatia. These families spent more on headstones and memorials than did other nationalities in the area, and the collection is a mixture of beauty and folly - one headstone looks like a beer barrel, another features intricately carved porpoises. Be sure to take a camera!
Just like the local houses, Coober Pedy accommodation in the dugout style is a popular and unique experience for visitors. Several of the cheap hotels in Coober Pedy have some or all of their facilities located underground and enjoy quirky names that reflect the outback heritage of the town.