Coober Pedy

Coober Pedy – Opal Capital of the World

The town of Coober Pedy, like Setenil de las Bodegas tend to exist and is home to over 1,600 inhabitants. Coober Pedy is a town situated in northern South Australia, 846 km north of Adelaide on the Stuart Highway.As per the census of 2011, the population had been 1,695, comprising of 953 males, 742 females inclusive of 275 native Australians.

Coober Pedy around 150 million years back had been covered by ocean and when the water had receded, the sandy silica minerals from the seabed seemed to flow into the rocky cracks and the cavities and solidified over a period of time.

These changed into multi-coloured gem-stonesknown as opal. The town has been referred as opal capital of the world due to the quantity of precious opals which have been mined there and it creates more opal than any place on the earth. Coober Pedy is well-known for its below-ground residences known as `dugouts’ that had been built underground to fight the intolerable daytimeheat and to protect their babies from dingoes and Australians.The early Coober Pedy dugouts had been holes which had been dug in search of opal.

Initially Known – Stuart Range Opal Field

The opal mining back then had been strenuous manual labour and hence the earliest Coober Pedy homes were not bigger than what was really needed. Presently opal mining in the town area of Coober Pedy is not permitted any more.

 The sandstone in Coober Pedy was suitable for underground homes and was easy to dig through, just like all sandstone though it is also very strong and steady. Coober Pedy was initially known as the Stuart Range Opal Field and was named after John McDouall Stuart. In 1858, he had been the first European explorer in that area. Towards 1920, it had been re-named as Coober Pedy; an anglicised version of the local Aboriginal term kupa-piti commonly meant `white man in a hole’.

Opal was first discovered in Coober Pedy on February 1, 1915 and ever since its discovery; the area was constantly occupied and mined for gemstones. If anyone tends to own anything with opal in it, the same has come from the Coober Pedy mines and since then Coober Pedy has been contributing to the majority of gem quality opal to the world. Together with the dugout homes and mine shafts, the town claims of underground shops as well as pubs together with a church and also a graveyard.

Largest Opal Mining Area in the World

Presently, Coober Pedy depends much on tourism as the opal mining industry in providing the inhabitants with employment as well as sustainability. It has more than seventy opal fields and is said to be the largest opal mining area in the world. Coober Pedy has grown into one of the most exceptional location in Australia and probably also the world.

It is said to be a cosmopolitan town having a population of 3,500 and more than 45 various nationalities. Coober Pedy also tends to have various heritage-listed sites which comprise of 13 Hutchison Street – Three Roomed Dugout and 9 Hutchison Street – Coober Pedy Catholic Church as well as Presbytery.