Coober Pedy Dugout B&B: Ali cools off underground in the Outback region of South Australia

In Coober Pedy to make sense of what at first glance seems a fairly chaotic place you need to go underground. After all, that's where most of the population work and live.

A few years back this place endured the mother of all heatwaves - 45 days with daytime temperatures in excess of 43 degrees. The coolest place to be was deep below the earth. And as you scour the township you can see there's no shortages of dugout dwellers in a town of about 3,000 residents.

To better understand Coober Pedy's subterranean psychology I paid a visit to Anne Johnson - self published author and owner of her very own dugout. Anne came to Coober Pedy in the early seventies. While on holidays from America, she went searching for the exotic and the unusual and she certainly found it here - a good ten hours drive north of Adelaide.

She and her former opal mining partner Joe purchased their underground home in the mid 90s. It's been dugout of what's known locally as Koska's Hill. On the wall, there's a photo of old man Koska, a polish miner who dug the first shafts in this hillside.

The guest's room in Anne's Coober Pedy B&B is a little different to most in town because there's considerably more light, thanks to the efforts of those who first mined Koska's Hill.

"It incorporates an old hand dug mine that possibly was done in the 1920s," said Anne. "We found bits of old newspapers in the shaft that go back to 1930. We know that the hill was being mined in the 1920s."

In fact behind the pick and mining paraphernalia, lies another tunnel leading off to who knows where. It's been sealed off, after Anne felt a draft emanating from one of the old tunnels that create a honeycomb effect throughout Koske's Hill. The search for opal in this area, which is one of the oldest parts of town, is officially over... but you never know - you still might strike it lucky.

"We extended our bedroom and found a handful of opalised shells," laughed Anne. "One was full colour which I sold to an American collector for $400".

Usually, renovating costs money but in Coober Pedy sometime you can actually make money!

Anne's written a book about Coober Pedy's heritage and its characters. You can get plenty of tips from her and plenty of sleep at her dugout B&B because the first thing that strikes you when spending any time In a dugout is the lack of noise and ambient light. That means you need to bring an alarm clock if you want to get up early. When they say "lights out" they mean it.

Anne Johnson's B&B is located on Koska's Street in the heart of Coober Pedy. To book contact 8672 5541.

Coober Pedy Dugout B&B
Koska's Street
Coober Pedy
Bookings 8672 5541.

Published 14th October 2007