Coober Pedy

roof of dugout

There is a house under this hill - commonly called a dugout

View of houses

The big winch

They don't care where they leave their old cars

Col looks at home here - who needs a job?

Underground Church

Col was dying to play here until .............................

He realised there was no grass!!!!! Temperature was 40 degrees lets leave that one alone.

Machine digs these tunnels

Houses - dugouts are built in some disused mines, soil conditions need to be perfect though

Underground bedroom

Constant 24 degrees down here all year round

Opal - posh so not valuable no colour

Hi everyone, we reached Coober Pedy without any problems without the rest of
our family they are still in Renmark waiting on car parts.

Coober Pedy is a truly fascinating place, we both love it. Such a great
contrast again from the Sunshine Coast and in fact anywhere else in
Australia that we have seen.

The town is the Opal Capital of the world and has a population of around
3,500. There are 45 different nationalities represented here and about 60%
of people living here are European.

About half of the houses and businesses here are built above ground and the
other half underground or some have above ground and equally as much house
underground, they call these houses dugouts.  The reason for this is to keep
the houses cooler – Coober Pedy is very hot.  Houses underground maintain a
constant 24 degrees both winter and summer, the average cost for a home like
this is around $70,000, there are some much grander homes also which would
be worth a lot more than this.  The dugout houses are disused shafts and
mines that were once mined for opal. No more mining is allowed within the
town, even though it’s believed there is still opal here because it is now
too dangerous that there are people living in the town, the mining takes
place within a radius of 75km around town. Colin was interested to see a
golf course with not a blade of grass!  You will see photo’s the greens are
sand with oil mixed in, otherwise the sand would blow away.  It is not
unusual for Coober Pedy to suffer dust storms.

There are photo’s of a magnificent underground church, you will see the
walls and ceilings are natural just with a glaze over to protect them.  The
church has some beautiful hand carvings that were done by a visiting New
Zealander.

I have mixed feelings sending this blog; I am seeing so much devistation in
Qld it seems petty to spend time putting together our photo’s of our
wonderful trip.  So many of our friends and my customers will be effected by
this devastation either directly or indirectly.  Our thoughts go out to
them. I am sure all of you feel the same way and our thoughts and prayers
are with those effected.
Thankyou for viewing our blog I hope you enjoyed it.