Coober Pedy and Outback SA

In our guide book, the people of Coober Pedy describe their town as ‘unique’. We definitely agree and would perhaps add the word ‘dustbowl’ to the description. Founded after the first opal was discovered in 1915, Coober Pedy was once a booming town of 6,000, but now has a population of just 1,400 people along with hundreds of thousands (if not millions) of mining holes in the ground and just as many mounds of dirt in varying sizes. The town’s name is derived from the Anungu words Kupa Piti meaning ‘white man in hole’.

During our short stay we tried our hand at noodling, attempting to find our own opal stones in some public mounds of dirt located in town. We did actually finding a rock with some potential - if we can just work out how to whittle it down without the help of any opal cutting tools…

After sampling some delicious local pies, we went underground to visit a Serbian Orthodox Church and to take an exciting tour of a working opal mine, complete with an opal search. Josh hit the jackpot, winning his very own boulder opal pendant as the prize. The kids even got to barter with the mine owner, ‘selling’ the opals they found for chocolate, lollipops or a couple of dollars, and the complimentary scones and coffee / chocolate milk at the end rounded off a fun visit perfectly.

Some other notable mentions for our drive through the South Australian outback plains include sightings of emus, an echidna, goats crossing the road, eagles feasting on roadkill and the incredibly beautiful Hart salt lake.Read more