Most of the time, when people refer to a place as "being underground", they're speaking figuratively. That isn't the case in Coober Pedy. For residents of this outback town, the only way to escape the scorching heat is by heading underground.
Located halfway between Adelaide and Alice Springs in South Australia, Coober Pedy has an otherworldly, almost Martian landscape. Grass is scarce to be found and pink sandstone pyramids rise from the outback. You'd be forgiven for thinking that Coober Pedy was abandoned
However, Coober Pedy is a hard-working mining town with a population of just under 2000. It's also a hotspot for tourists traversing the Outback. After all, where else will you get the opportunity to stay in a four-star hotel six feet under?
Coober Pedy's unusual name derives from the Kokatha-Barngarla word kupa-piti, which means "white man's holes" in reference to the town's mining activities. Since 1975, the town's Aboriginal inhabitants have adopted the name Umoona, meaning "long life". You'll see both names used throughout the town.
Opals In The Outback
As we said, Coober Pedy is a mining town. Specifically, it produces 70% of the world's opals! Opals were first discovered in 1915 by a teenage boy; he'd been a member of an unsuccessful gold prospecting group, and unexpectedly struck it rich.
Soon after the first opals were mined, miners began flocking to the area. Before long, a settlement had sprung up in the middle of the desert. There was only one problem: the heat.
While Australian temperatures are notoriously brutal—especially in the outback—the heat in Coober Pedy is punishing. Summer temperatures regularly hit up to 125 °F, so hot that birds will fall from the sky from heat exhaustion and trees will sag under their own weight. At those temperatures, staying outside in the daytime, even for a few minutes, can be lethal.
Additionally, Coober Pedy has next to no shade and very little rainfall. Water is precious, with the nearest source 15 miles away from town. Don't think you'll get respite when it's overcast; Coober Pedy is one of the sunniest places on earth!
While the outback wasn't exactly hospitable, miners weren't going to leave their potential fortunes laying around. The solution was simple, if a little unorthodox. The miners practically lived underground anyway, why not make it full time?
Almost three-quarters of Coober Pedy's population lives in hillside cave known as dugouts. Many of these dugouts look like ordinary buildings on the surface. Only when you enter do you descent 13 feet beneath the earth.
Life Underground
Phil Whitehouse from London, United Kingdom on Wikimedia
Underground, the temperature holds steady at a lovely 73°. Besides the stable temperature, underground inhabitants have one major advantage over surface dwellers: they save a lot of money. Coober Pedy is largely powered by solar and wind energy, but air conditioning to keep above-ground houses at a livable temperature is worth its weight in opals.
Rather than being creepy, Coober Pedy's dugouts are cozy. Ample lighting and high ceilings keep these caves from feeling claustrophobic, and many residents truly make their dugouts their own. From built-in sandstone bookshelves to in-ground pools, Coober Pedy's population has made the most out of their unique living situation.
It isn't just homes that are underground either. You'll also find jewelry stores, a movie theater warning people not to bring explosives inside, and even a jaw-dropping Serbian Orthodox church. However, you'll have to pop above ground for groceries.
Coober Pedy's eerie landscape and unique architecture has made it popular with filmmakers. Most notably, Coober Pedy stood in for an apocalyptic wasteland in Mad Max Beyond Thunderdome. A notable segment of The Adventures of Priscilla, Queen of the Desert was also shot in Coober Pedy's dugouts.
If you want to visit Coober Pedy—and, why wouldn't you?—you can visit by plane, bus, or car. Or, you can travel in style aboard The Ghan, Australia's luxury train. Make sure to pick up some opals for your friends back home!
