Coober Pedy - a most unusual place

It was very windy when we arrived at Coober Pedy and it didn't really let up in the 3 days we were here. We booked into the caravan park and also booked the 2 tours that George - the owner of the caravan park runs. The morning tour took us to the major sights of the town - the underground mine and museum, underground Catholic Church, the golf course where Brad did a posing shot (the wind was so strong it would have landed on the other side of town), an open cut opal mine and a tour of his own dugout house.

The afternoon tour I'll cover in a separate post because I'm limited to 20 photos per footprint.

The spare day we went to places that were not covered in the tour. Boot Hill cemetery had some interesting headstones - one fellow had a beer keg as his headstone inscribed with "have a drink on me". We saw the Siberian Underground church and also walked around the wellness labyrinth (which is becoming a little uncared for).

So, Coober Pedy was an interesting place to visit but I cannot for the life of me understand why anyone would choose to live there. Summers are excruciatingly hot and there is very little rain. I guess the hope of making it rich by digging up a perfect opal is the main attraction.Read more