Coober Pedy - Opal Capital of the World
with Keith ConlonUnbelievable out-of-this-world terrain..Incredible fortunes dug out of itan unlikely outback town for a firm place on the international tourist map they're the makings of a very colourful Postcard from Coober Pedy, the "Opal Capital of the World". It's about nine or ten hours north of Adelaide, via the Stuart Highway, but I took the new Kendell direct air service that lands you in the opal fields in an hour-and-a-half.
Coober Pedy is an ugly duckling of an outback town that swans into Hollywood movies and onto plenty of must-see lists of international tourists. And that's despite being well beyond the black stump and sharing a desert climate. It is a town, however, that is much bigger than it looks from the big winch lookout. That's because half of it is underground. That includes churches, motels and hotels.
The revivalist pastor, for instance, is expanding his "Experience Motel" next door by tunneling further into a ridge and it's known he's found enough opalised shells from an ancient sea to pay for the extensions. On top of that, one of the "Small Luxury Hotels of the World" group is in town and mostly underground. The Desert Cave Hotel (www.desertcave.com.au) is again housed in great tunnels dug for memorable stays in the cool, with original sandstone d'ecor by nature.
Our Postcards mission was to discover more of what brings up to 1000 visitors at a time into this small outback mining community of about 3500. A reputation that makes the wildwest sound tame doesn't go astray, but it's pretty civilised these days. You wouldn't want to pinch a bag of opals from a neighbor though. There's still a touch of gelignite justice!
Dawn touches the dusty and sprawling settlement. Will this be the day? Will they see the fire in the stone? That's the hope of about 300 or so miners who head for the opal fields and they're vast. For every $1,000 spent on raw opal in the world, $800 of it comes here to Coober Pedy. The quest has gone mechanical, with bulldozers gauging open cuts through old mine leases, "blowers" sucking mullock out of tunnels and tunneling machines munching at the mine face.
Another first for me as we headed for an operating mine the way down is via a one metre diameter shaft. With about six storeys or twenty metres to descend, I hopped on a very basic "backyard swing" attached to a winch on the back of a small truck. Press the down button attached to the swing, and the deep and ever darker descent is on!
Minar works this mine with partner George, and with the addition of a finance-providing partner in town, that's it. Coober Pedy is all about small syndicates working small mining leases in search of a big find of opal.
We wove through narrow tunnels that frequently came into a "ballroom" (a larger carved cavern) which could have as many as eighteen tunnels snaking away from it. In these catacombs, George was driving the newest tunnel with a metre-wide machine. At every sign of a level of colour or milky quartz-like patch, it was back to the old way a miner's pick. They had a small bucket of maybes to keep them going. They know that recently one syndicate took out two million dollars worth of opal in six months digging. They don't want to remember, however, that another group went three years without a trace.
Why stick with the back-breaking lottery? Why do people stay? The locals say if you drink the Coober Pedy water, you'll come back. Many do, and they carve out much more than an existence. Our Postcards crew were invited into a comfortable and well appointed five bedroom haven underground.
This wasn't a dugout it was a real home. There are some very expansive homes right in town, in fact, partly due to the mining regulations. There's no mining allowed in town, but there's nothing to stop you digging out another rooman another.
The story of Coober Pedy's opal mining began in the remote Stuart Ranges. The town is actually built on them. A half hour's drive north of the town, the Breakaways speak of ancient stories of the land, with their red and white ochres in cones and mesas rising as breakaways from the main range. In rich afternoon colour, their aboriginal dreaming locations are strikingly beautiful. A red and white pair of outcrops are two dogs sleeping together, while a rounded brown hill has a series of streaked shapes beneath it to become an emu tending his chicks.
In 1915, a gold prospecting party was in the vicinity. Teenager Willy Hutchinson was left in charge of the camp while the others searched for water, but he wandered off to find not only fresh water, but also half a sugarbag full of opal. By 1919, the rush was on, supplemented by returning World War I diggers who were well used to trenching and tunneling in the battlefields of France. They helped open what is still the biggest opal field in the world. The aborigines had a name for this phenomenon kupa piti, or "white man in a hole". The miners adopted it.
Today there are thousands of small shafts in the fields, and with many of them unmarked and open, they make the area very dangerous. Tour guides in the mining areas are rightly very careful to warn visitors about keeping a wary eye for the holes that accompany the mass of pimply white cones of mullock.
Back in town, as a busload of backpackers poured out of their underground accommodation, I mused about what brings these young international visitors here. Partly, it is the extraordinary nature of the township as it struggles over the ridges of the Stuart Range and burrows into them. This is a community that eats, sleeps, shops, makes pottery and goes to church under the ground.
Then there's the opal, of course. Tourists can "noodle" or search for opal pieces in the old mullock heaps right in town. For a special momento, there are opal retailers everywhere. The award-winning Umoona Opal Mine and Museum (www.umoonaopalmine.com.au ) tells the story of opal very well in a specially produced documentary shown in its underground cinema. With parts of an old mine to explore, it also has a large retail shop. We watched a coachload of visitors making sure they had opal to impress their neighbours with. Umoona's owner, Yanni, was behind the counter. He came from Greece as a teenager and stayed to raise a family, develop several businesses, and mine for opal. The video "The Story of Opal" is available only from Umoona Opal Mine, Coober Pedy.
The Romans revered "opalus" as a prince among gems because of its fiery and brilliant multi-coloured flashes of colour. Umoona's documentary explains its formation here over hundreds of millions of years. Silica was leached from sandstone to form solid layers and pockets, and in a series of transformations, has become the gem which seems lit with colour from within. The effect is created by refraction of light with perfect grids of spherical silica.
Our Postcards expedition to Coober Pedy left us in no doubt that all this adds up to an international tourist magnet. For South Australians, the trip has become more attractive with Kendell's new direct service. They are offering an introductory price of $105 each way until October 2, 2000, with holiday packages to look after the details.
There's also a very helpful and informative website run by the local council. Have a look at www.opalcapitaloftheworld.com.au. It is a great introduction to the Opal Capital of the World Coober Pedy.
Contact Details:
Coober Pedy Tourist Information Centre
Hutchinson Street
Coober Pedy. South Australia
9.00am 5.00pm, Monday to Friday
Phone: 1800-637-076Kendell Airlines
Bookings Phone: (08) 8672-5692
Or 131 300If you need additional help, please email info@postcards.sa.com.au for any further enquiries.
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