Situated on the sealed Stuart Highway (Explorer’s Way) 689km south of Alice Springs and 846km north of Adelaide, Coober Pedy is a multi-cultural mining community where people live, work and enjoy life underground. In the heart of the South Australian outback.
Coober Pedy Get Outback ....Get Underground
Filled with life & colour, the hope of discovery, the chance of riches – not to mention the dust, heat and flies.
Founded on the strength of human perseverance and indomitable personalities, Coober Pedy has grown from it’s wild west culture into a multicultural harmonious community.
It currently has over 20 Opal Stores with opal displays rivalling any Opal town in the World! Opal museums & tours throughout the area show the varied colours and types of opal, the mining history & modern mining machinery.See Underground Churches, sculptured from the beautiful sandstone, picturesque landscapes, arid scenery and horizons as far as the eye can see.
Where better to escape the heat & bustle than staying in underground accommodation, where the temperature is naturally cool and the peaceful ambience leads to one of your best nights sleep ever.
All this comes together to create a tourism experience that is not replicated elsewhere in the world.
Much of the town’s treasures – like its opal – can be found underground. Local organised tours or your own walking tour can be organised through the Visitor Centre.
Here is just a taste of what’s on offer…Take a true DownUnder trip into a “dugout” home – made by mining families – with some more like mansions, covering 450 square metres. More than half of the town’s families live underground, where temperatures are maintained at a pleasant 23-25 degrees C throughout the year.
There are underground art galleries too – plus the award-winning Desert Cave Hotel, the world’s first 4-star luxury property of its type, complete with mining display and opal gallery.
The historic Old Timers Mine – hand-dug in 1916, features a self-guided walk through tour of display galleries, two underground homes and precious seams of opal, while the Umoona Mine & Museum contains an underground house, Aboriginal interpretive centre, panoramic theatre, historic displays, opal retailing shop and showroom plus Aboriginal arts and crafts.
And if you like to buy opals, you’ll find the world’s largest displays in Coober Pedy. You can also enquire at the Visitor Centre how to ”noodle” through permitted mine areas to seek your own gemstones.
Coober Pedy is the ideal base to explore the surrounding areas like the spectacular Painted Desert, Oodnadatta, William Creek and Lake Eyre North. Visit the Breakaway country and the Moon Plains where many feature movies have been made. The nearby Dog Fence is the longest continual construction in the world.
Stretching some 5,300km, it begins east of Surfer’s Paradise in Queensland and ends up north of Ceduna in the Great Australian Bite. Originally built to protect the sheep country in the south from the Dingo (native Australian dog) in the north.
Tours and self-guided tours of the town and the opal fields are available daily, also 4WD day tours into the surrounding areas. Restaurants in Coober Pedy offers cuisine from different cultural backgrounds, with quality well-priced food from fine dining to fast food.
“Millions of years in the making, this abundance of rainbow gems have put Coober Pedy on the map as the opal capital of the world”