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Coober Pedy – Who would have thought???

Posted by on October 7, 2013

Day started with a trip into town so Kate could shop for opals. We all piled into the first store where we met a nice guy who let all the kids have a gem stone and also gave each family a small bag of raw opals that we can mine when we get home. “If you find a big one please bring it back” he pleaded.

The kids also all got their own pet rocks.

Kate certainly found lots of rocks she liked, but was not to be sold in the first shop we visit, so left empty handed. The main street is littered with opal jewlery stores, so it is not like there wasn’t a lot of choice!

So Fiona and Kate opted to walk down the street visiting everyone one of them that was open! Mark and I loaded the kids into the car and went for a drive around town. Pretty boring place really, with not much to see…at least that was our initial thought… in the afternoon we took a tour and got a whole new perspective on the place! More of that later….

Wasn’t long before the kids were bored, so Mark and I headed to the Shell roadhouse to refuel and get the kids an ice cream. Was here that Jess also joined Zac, Tara and myself getting a Kangaroo leather hat…. only one to go now…Fi!

Ice creams were done just in time, and as we piled back into the car I got the call from Fiona… “We’re done, come pick us up…” We cruised down the main street until we saw them on the side of the road. Time was getting on and we had to get back for the tour, so we raced around to an underground cafe for a feed. Unfortunately as we were getting out of the car, an old guy came out saying “No food, Chef is on holidays… Go to Jim’s in the main street next to IGA… beautiful food”, so we all piled back into the car and headed to Jim’s.

Was a race to order, eat and be back on the road, but somehow we managed, rushing the kids out the door still chewing the last morsel of food. Raced back to the caravan park, dumped FIona and Kate with the Kids at reception as we raced the cars back to the caravan.

We had booked on the Stuart Range Caravan Park tour, a bus that travels around town in typical guided tour fashion with the driver talking on the microphone. Our hopes for an exciting tour were not high, but we were astounded a how much we all enjoyed it! If anyone of you get up this way, make sure you do this tour as it is the only one permitted to take you right out onto the opal fields.

So, the tour started with a drive around the town, including the oval (one of 3 patches of green grass in town), the million dollar playground which would have cost half that price back home but cost so much more due to the remoteness of the township, and the Coober Pedy Golf Course, the only golf course in the world that shares rights with St Andrews in Scotland. “Pay your fee and become member number 12” said Terry the guide, “and you can travel to Scotland and have rights to play at St Adrews… a lot cheaper to join here!”

The course was interesting, because of the lack of grass, you carry a synthetic piece of grass with you that you are allowed to place under your ball before each shot! This means you never land in the rough! With the heat in this place, most people elect to play at night, using an illuminated ball. Were a few dedicated golfers out there playing though… wouldn’t be doing that in summer when the mercury can top 50 degrees!!

Also, the course does not have “Greens”, they have blacks!

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Imaging playing a round of Golf out here!! After the golf course, we headed out to the Opal fields. Along the way, we also passed a number of the dwellings, the fronts just looked like short houses, except you had no idea how big they were as they are dugouts that go back into the caves hidden behind. Did you know the name Coober Pedy is the Aboriginal name for White man in Caves?

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The Opals fields were amazing, mullet mounds stretching far as the eye can see. These were what the Gopher mounds were that we saw when coming into Coober pedy. Next to each mound, you can guarantee to find a shaft, most of them about 30m deep!

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The miners are not allowed to refill the shafts after they sink them, as it can make the ground unsafe if someone attempts to mine on or near this plot in the future. The other thing I found interesting was that there are no mining companies in Coober Pedy, even though 90% of the worlds opals come from here! All of the mining is done by individuals who can hold no more than a single plot of 50m x100m at anyone time.

The driver stopped near one of the smaller shafts that were only explository, and dropped a rock… took a long time to thud into the bottom!

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Then it was a short bus ride out to the Brekaways. At one stage, these mounds were connected to the Stuart Ranges, but had been worn away by wind and rain overtime.

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Oh and here is the first shot of Jess in her new hat 🙂20131007-080453.jpg

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A huge number of movies have been made in and around Coober Pedy using the amazing landscapes including Pricilla Queen of the Dessert, Mad Max and Pitch Black to name a few.

We moved on winding our way down through the breakaways to the Dog Fence. The fence was built to separate the Dingos in the north from the cattle in the south. Stretching 5,600 Kms (used to be over 9000kms) long was quiet impressive when you think it was all built by hand and is 30cm underground as well to prevent the dingos digging under. Would have taken a while to build!

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Then we drove through the Moon planes. stretching as far as the eye can see in each direction, the ground here is so soft if you stepped on it you would leave a footprint just like on the moon. Did Neil Armstrong really visit the moon or come to Coober Pedy to make a documentary?? Personally I thought it looked like Mars with the red red dirt! Maybe this is where Rover really landed and Nasa just think it is on Mars?

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A bit further on, we passed within 10kms from where the town gets its water… we were still 15kms from town! The water travels 25kms to a desalination plant before being fed into the town. Water is a precious commodity in this dessert township.

We travelled back into town and finally got to go underground ourselves in the mining and opals museum. Watched a short documentary on the area and how opals are formed before heading further underground where they ave a mock dwelling to give an idea of what living underground would be like.

 

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Fiona loved the idea of living underground…she does have the height advantage here! Personally I just think she likes the idea of sleeping underground, cool, dark and no outside sounds!!

After seeing the living area, we continued further underground to see what mining would be like. This is an actual old mine before mining was banned in the township.

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When the owner bought this place to build the museum, he added a tunnel at the end to bring people back into the museum. Now about 3 feet from where the original owners stopped, the new owner found white opal… worthless, but the first hint a miner is looking for and they would have been sure to keep going.

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Sure enough, a few metres on he found the motherload! What you can see in the picture below is worth about $10,00020131007-091320.jpg

Opal mining is such a gamble given the amount of money you need to invest with no guarantee of success. For example each expository shaft sunk will cost between $300 and $600, and you may find nothing at all. Who knows if the original owners of the mine actually found anything… they certainly came close!

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Back in the museum, Tara and Jess got small Opal pendants that I think will have to be put away until they are old enough to appreciate and look after.20131007-091500.jpg

 

Isn’t it funny that Tara and Jess have opals, but Aunty Kate is still on the hunt for hers!!

Back on the bus we got to see a few of the movie props left around town before visiting an underground Serbian Church. This was magnificent given it was all built by hand.

 

 

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Here is the crashed space ship from Pitch Black!

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Then it was back to the caravan park for pizza in the restaurant… great pizzas too! It all ended though as the kids lost it and it was back to camp for showers and bed.

Saw the most amazing outback sunset last night, a fabulous way to end a spectacular day in Coober Pedy.

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As I write this, we are packed and just waiting for a call from Fiona and Kate who have returned to town to find Kate the biggest, most amazing Opal in town… lucky they sold their house before the trip to pay for it!!!

Will get a photo of it up here when they finally return 🙂

I wonder how far we will travel today?

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