Coober Pedy is situated 846 km north of Adelaide, in the middle of one of Australia's most severe environments; described as being like the moon, dotted with mine shafts and mullock heaps, the remains of opal mining activities.
With daytime temperatures which can rise to 60°C, many of Coober Pedy's
residents retreat underground, to below-ground residences, called "dugouts", to escape the heat. A labyrinth of underground churches, shops, bars,
museums and an entire hotel and underground campsite, also provides a reprieve from the unforgiving desert temperatures of summer.
The name "Coober Pedy" comes from the local Aboriginal words, kupa-piti, which means "boys' waterhole".
The Arabana People
Coober Pedy is considered to be part of the traditional lands of the Arabana people, although the Desert Kukata and Yankunytjatjara people also have ties to the region.
The name Coober Pedy comes from the Arabana dialect as Kupa (or Goober), means boy child or adult who has not been initiated by circumcision and sub-incision, and Piti, means, hole in the ground. Some have
interpreted the name as meaning "white man in a hole", as mining here was instigated by Europeans who are also uninitiated people, according to Aboriginal ritual. If true, this means that the name Coober Pedy is Aboriginal in origin, but from a post-colonial context.
Aboriginal people often express their connection to country and the spirit world through Totems, which are integral to identity. Totem animals are also connected to the Dreamtime, a time when everything was created,
according to this belief system. These Totems connect Aboriginal people with nature and the spiritual realm.
_(14770988874).jpg) |
| Performance of tritichinna ceremony of snake totem, Urabunna Tribe, Lake Eyre (pub. in The commonwealth of Australia; federal handbook, prepared in connection with the eighty-fourth meeting of the British association for the advancement of science, held in Australia, August, 1914[1] by George Handley Knibbs. British Association for the Advancement of Science. Federal Council in Australia; Australia. Commonwealth Bureau of Census and Statistics; Knibbs, George Handley, 1858-1929 |
Aboriginal resident and opal miner, Barney Lennon, said that he believed that there were about twelve Europeans, who he described as “old blokes”, and 200 Aboriginal people in Coober Pedy when he arrived there in about 1938.
Following a visit to the Coober Pedy fields in 1962, the Mining Warden reported that of the total population of approximately 700, about 250– 300 were Aboriginal persons (
J.W. Thoroughgood)
The Europeans
Scottish-born John McDouall Stuart was the first European explorer to pass near the site of Coober Pedy. The area became known as Stuart's Range field, in 1858. Stuart was accompanied by two men, one of whom was an Aboriginal and the journey was arduous, and the landscape reminiscent of Sturt's Stony Desert. The explorers did not, however, realise that a treasure trove of opals lay under their feet.
.jpg) |
| John McDouall Stuart – British explorer, circa 1960 |
Opals were first found at Coober Pedy in February 1915 by 14-year old Willie Hutchison, who has since had the main street named after him. Willie's father, working for the New Colorado Prospecting Syndicate, was prospecting for gold in the incredibly hot month of February but the group needed water and so set off leaving Willie to
attend to camp duties. While they were away, Willie found water to sustain them and a bag of opals, after he went out prospecting by himself. A relative,
J. R. Hutchison, wrote in his diary about the finds:
"Young Bill had gone bush, and left his water bag behind him, but took his pick and shovel. It was too late to attempt tracking him, so we
collected all the wood we could find, which wasn't much, and intended lighting it as soon as it got properly dark, to serve as a guide back to camp, but before we lit it he came quietly into camp and throwing down a sugar bag at my feet said; "Have a look at that dad, old dear. You will find some good stuff there".
Sadly, Willie whose find sparked an opal rush and the creation of Coober Pedy one of South Australia's most interesting historic town's, drowned a few years later, in the Georgina River whilst driving cattle on the Birdsville Track.
In the winter of 1915, the O'Neill brothers arrived at Cobber Pedy at midnight, according to old-timer, Frank Richardson; everyone was so joyful at their arrival, that they talked till morning. The O'Neil brothers did very well and made £28,000 worth of opal in one claim. Two years' later, four hundred men were at work on the opal fields of Coober Pedy.
 |
| Men standing outside cave dwellings in South Australia, SA, State Library of South Australia, circa 1919 |
 |
| Transcontinental (Port Augusta, SA : 1914 - 1954), Friday 1 December 1922 |
 |
| Bank and post office at Coober Pedy, SA, Chronicle (Adelaide, SA : 1895 - 1954), Saturday 20 June 1925 |
 |
Mr and Mrs Ted Stewart at tho entrance to their dug-out on the Coobcr Pcdy, SA, opal field Herald (Melbourne, Vic. : 1861 - 1954), Saturday 16 November 1929 |
 |
| The water and wood Carter at Coober Pedy. Advertiser (Adelaide, SA : 1931 - 1954), Saturday 11 October 1947 |
During the 1919-20 miners strike at Broken Hill many those unemployed men came to Coober Pedy to try their luck. These men were strong unionists and the area became known as Bolshevik Gully.
Many of the early miners at Coober Pedy were returned soldiers from WWI who were used to digging and living in trenches and so living in the holes dug whilst mining for opals was no great stretch. Over the years, however, these "dugouts", developed in large and comfortable underground homes, in many cases.
 |
| MR. J. O'Loughlin, an old-lime opal gouger, and his home. Chronicle (Adelaide, SA : 1895 - 1954), Thursday 4 January 1934 |
 |
| The Coober Pedy post office and Commonwealth Bank(underground), alongside a dynamite dump. Circa 1927, State Library of SA |
 |
| Police Station of galvanised iron on Stuart Range ( Coober Pedy ) opal field was opened in 1921. Photo by Walter H Mengerson. 1932. from S.A State Libary |
 |
| An opal miner beside his shaft, Coober Pedy, SA. Herald (Melbourne, Vic. : 1861 - 1954), Saturday 16 July 1938 |
 |
| Coober Pedy, SA, Herald (Melbourne, Vic. : 1861 - 1954), Wednesday 24 July 1946 |
 |
| Inside Bill Oliver's dugout, Coober Pedy, SA, Sun (Sydney, NSW : 1910 - 1954), Saturday 10 August 1946 |
Tottie Bryant
By the 1940s, opal mining at Coober Pedy was not very active. Then Tottie Bryant, a woman of Aboriginal and European descent, found opal at the Eight Mile field in 1945, rejuvenating the opal industry there. Bryant Street, Coober Pedy is named for Tottie and her husband Charlie. In fact, the Eight Mile Rush was
one of the richest areas ever found at Coober Pedy. Interestingly, several opal fields in the Coober Pedy region are named after Aboriginal people who made discoveries; for example, Larkins Folly discovered around 1946, and Browns Folly and the Lennon fields in the 1960s. See
more
 |
| Tottie and Charle Bryant, Cobber Pedy, SA |
 |
| Aboriginal women mining for opals at Coober Pedy, Sun (Sydney, NSW : 1910 - 1954), Saturday 10 August 1946 |
 |
| Aboriginal woman, Nora, works on the opal fields at Coober Pedy, Herald (Melbourne, Vic. : 1861 - 1954), Thursday 15 August 1946 |
Bert and Ethel Wilson
Bert and Ethel Wilson arrived at Coober Pedy in the mid-1940s, right at the time of the 8 Mile rush. Bert bought 2 truckloads of WWII construction steel and built a general store and post office. Ethel Wilson, who was known as "The Queen of Coober Pedy", had only a radio transceiver for many years to receive and send message to the outside world.
Every week the Wilsons would
travel great distances to purchase food and essentials for their store.
In 1956, Bert Wilson and his partner Frank Titheradge found the
Olympic Australis, the world’s most valuable opal, at the Eight Mile opal field. Bert was an old-timer but Frank came to Coober Pedy to make a documentary film and then took up mining.
 |
Ethel Wilson presides. An opal buyer and ex-miner, shealso runs the general store and
post office, and has taken over the job of cutting opals done
by her husband before he became ill. Australian Women's Weekly (1933 - 1982), Wednesday 7 October 1953 |
King of the Opal Mines
 |
| Paddy Tierney, 'King of the Opal Mines."He is working by the lighl of a candle stuck in a spike - an arrangemcnt known as "a spider." News (Adelaide, SA : 1923 - 1954), Tuesday 13 August 1946 |
Faye Nayler
 |
| Faye Nayler, 1932-2015, Coober Pedy, SA |
Faye Nayler, who arrived at Coober Pedy in the 1960s, bought a dugout used by
the mail carrier and over ten years, Faye and two of her female friends made the underground home, with a swimming pool, that you can visit today.
Underground Church
Croatian Catholics at Coober Pedy helped build the first underground church in Australia. The hole in the ground was bought by the Catholic Church in the 1960s for $280.
 |
| Church of Saint Elijah the Prophet, is the Serbian Orthodox church in Coober Pedy, South Australia, built in 1993 |
John Andrea
In 1968 John Andrea who owned a licensed restaurant at Coober Pedy made plans for the Desert Cave Hotel, 28 ft below ground level.
 |
| Inside the Desert Cave Hotel, Coober Pedy, SA |
 |
| Western Herald (Bourke, NSW : 1887 - 1970), Friday 9 February 1968 |
The Coober Pedy Store was operated by Gordon and Rhonda Traeger in the 1960s and by the Moustrides family in the 1970s. Traeger Street Coober Pedy is named for the couple.
Crocodile Harry
 |
| Crocodile Harry, Coober Pedy, SA |
Crocodile Harry, the real-life inspiration for the character played by Paul Hogan, Mick “Crocodile” Dundee, in the Crocodile Dundee series of films, was an eccentric character who lived in a bizarre dugout at Coober Pedy. He claimed that he was a Baron from Latvia, who had to flee the country after World War 11 and that his real name, was Arvid Von Blumental. In reality, his name was Arvīds Blūmentāls and he was born on a farm near the village of Dundaga, Latvia in 1925.
Crocodile Harry prospected for uranium up north but couldn’t find any, and so, he took up crocodile hunting in Northern Australia and New Guinea. After crocodile hunting was banned, he moved to Coober Pedy and later charged admission to his home. Read
more
Multicultural
In the 2016 Census, there were 1,762 people in Coober Pedy. Of these, 962 were male and 801 were female. There were 302 Aboriginal or Torres Strait Islander people that made up 17.1% of the population.
Coober Pedy was and is a very multicultural place. In 1935 the local store was run by Jacob Santing, from the Netherlands. He was also the mailman, assisted by a Swede, Victor Williamson. A great many Greeks migrated to Coober Pedy to try to make their fortune from the 1960s. There was even a kafenio and a Greek restaurant and today, many people of Greek descent own businesses in the town and attend the Orthodox Church (
read more). There is even an Italian miner's club.
 |
| Greek Orthodox Church, Coober Pedy, SA |
Fossils
Opalised fossils can be found at Coober Pedy, remnants from an ancient inland sea dating back 65 million years. Opalised pearls, shells and a pliosaur, an aquatic carnivorous reptile, nicknamed Eric, from the Mesozoic Era, was discovered in 1987 by an opal miner at Coober Pedy.
 |
| Kanku – Breakaways Conservation Park, which is 32km north of Coober Pedy is Aboriginal owned and the entire park is a registered aboriginal heritage site. Panorama Hill situated in the middle, features in Mad Max Beyond Thunderdome and Ground Zero |
 |
| The Fire in the Stone is a 1984 Australian TV film about teenagers in the town of Coober Pedy. It is based on the 1973 novel of the same name by Colin Thiele |
Activism
In recent years, a group of Aboriginal women of Coober Pedy called the Kupa Piti Kungka Tjuta Council, have
protested against Government plans to dump radioactive waste in the Coober Pedy region. Two women, Brown and Wingfield, were awarded the Goldman Environmental Prize in 2003 for their efforts and in August 2004, the Australian government abandoned its plans for the nuclear waste dump, after a court decision.
Today Coober Pedy still supplies the majority of the world's high-quality white opals.
Around Coober Pedy
 |
| Room in the Desert Cave Hotel, underground at Coober Pedy, SA |
 |
| Desert Cave Hotel, underground at Coober Pedy, SA |
 |
| Abandoned dugout, Coober Pedy, SA |
 |
| Underground dugout bedroom, Coober Pedy, SA |
 |
| Underground book shop, Coober Pedy, SA |
 |
| Tunnels that were mined in 1916, were hidden by the miners, but rediscovered in 1968, whilst a dugout home was being excavated. Today self-guided tunnel tours, a museum, and a re-created 1920s underground home exists here |
 |
| Tunnels that were mined in 1916, were hidden by the miners, but rediscovered in 1968, whilst a dugout home was being excavated. Today self-guided tunnel tours, a museum, and a re-created 1920s underground home exists here |
 |
| Old Timers Mine and Museum, Coober Pedy, SA |
 |
| Tunnels that were mined in 1916, were hidden by the miners, but rediscovered in 1968, whilst a dugout home was being excavated. Today self-guided tunnel tours, a museum, and a re-created 1920s underground home exists here |
 |
| Underground shop, Coober Pedy |
 |
| Dugout home, Coober Pedy, SA |
 |
| Opal mines, Coober Pedy, SA |
.jpg) |
| Coober Pedy, SA, Pavel Špindler |
 |
| Hotel in Coober Pedy. SA |
 |
| Spaceship from the film "Pitch Black" left in a car park at Coober Pedy, SA |
 |
| Lots of old cars lying about abandoned at Coober Pedy, SA |
 |
| St Peter's and St Paul's Catholic Church - built into the underground of Coober Pedy, SA |
 |
| The Opal Bug - an opal shop on the main street in Coober Pedy, SA |
 |
| Faye's underground house and mine at Coober Pedy, SA |
 |
| Faye's underground house and mine at Coober Pedy, SA. Faye's home was hand dug by three women in the 1960s |
 |
| Dugout home at Coober Pedy belonging to Crocodile Harry, whose real name, according to him, was Arvid Von Blumental. He said he was a Baron from a famous Latvian family but had to flee Latvia after World War 11 |
 |
| Dugout home at Coober Pedy belonging to Crocodile Harry, whose real name, according to him, was Arvid Von Blumental. He said he was a Baron from a famous Latvian family but had to flee Latvia after World War 11 |
 |
| Welcome to Coober Pedy, SA |
 |
| Coober Pedy, SA |
 |
| North of Coober Pedy is the dog fence, a 2m high wire barrier which stretches for over 5,300km across three States, to protect the sheep country in the south from the native dog, the Dingo |
 |
| Coober Pedy Hospital, SA, and information about the Royal Flying Doctor |
 |
| Coober Pedy region, SA |
 |
| Boot Hill Cemetery, Coober Pedy, South Australia. The grave of Crocodile Harry, an ex northern territory crocodile hunter who moved to Coober Pedy in the 1970s to fossick for opals, can be found here |
Things To Do and Places To Go
Hutchison Street – Bolshevic Gully Walk
Umoona Opal Mine Museum
Old Timers Mine
Faye's Underground Home
