At first the town of Coober Pedy might not look like much, but this is one town you shouldn’t overlook. Being referred to as the ‘opal capital of the world’, this mining town has an entire village under the ground.
Coober Pedy is located in northern South Australia and has over seventy opal fields, making it the largest opal mining area in the world. However, the intense heat makes living in this town almost impossible so residents have made homes underground.
The below-ground residences are called ‘dugouts’ and this unique way of living has attracted tourism that the town now relies on just as much as the opal mining industry for community employment and sustainability.
This underground city has everything from a church, to lounges, dining areas and even a bar. The temperature in the underground dwellings stay constant and the living areas are surprisingly spacious with almost two thousand people populating the town.
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The town’s name, Coober Pedy, comes from the aboriginal term which means, ‘White man’s hole’.
This scenic experience is unlike any other town and when the temperature cools down at night, Coober Pedy embraces the outdoors with attractions such as glow-in-the-dark golf and a drive-in movie theatre.
After opal was discovered in the town in February 1915, the town has been supplying most of the world’s gem-quality opal.
