WorldWide Drilling Resource

Australia’s Hidden City of Opals Compiled by Amy White, Associate Editor , WorldWide Drilling Resource ® It has been sa d a person cou d stand ook ng out over the town of Coober Pedy and st not see most of t. “What started as a c ever way to keep opa m ners coo and comfortab e at n ght has turned nto a pretty b zarre and un que festy e,” sa d Robert Coro, cha r of the Coober Pedy Reta Bus ness and Tour smAssoc at on, as we as owner of the Desert Cave Hote ; one of the towns many bus nesses ocated underground. Coober Pedy s a desert town n the South Austra an Outback. On the surface, thousands of wh te sandstone mounds speck e the orange sand, punctuated by deep ho es tunne ng nto h dden p aces far be ow. Th s pecu ar andscape was cre- ated over the course of a century by men, women, and fam es from 45 d fferent nat on- a t es, a dr ng n hopes of f nd ng prec ous opa s and qu ck fortunes. S nce t was estab shed more than 100 years ago, the town has been the wor d s number one hot spot for opa m n ng. Approx mate y 70% of the earth s opa product on can be traced back to Coober Pedy, earn ng t the n ckname, “Opa Cap ta of the Wor d”. Surv v ng n Coober Pedy s harsh c mate s a cha enge g ad y accepted by a oca popu at on of about 4000 peop e, most of whom work n the opa ndustry. It gets ncred b y hot, w th summer temperatures c mb ng to 113ºF (45ºC) n the shade, f you re ucky enough to f nd a shady spot. Instead of mov ng to a coo er ocat on to r de out b ster ng summers, the ear est oca s earned to adapt n th s sett ng w th nsp rat on from the r fe s work - m n ng. Us ng m n ng too s, res ent prospectors d d what they knew best and dug nto h s des to form underground dwe ngs or “dugouts,” where the temperature s a constant, comfortab e 75ºF (23ºC) year-round. The resu t s a thr v ng underground commun ty wh ch has grown to nc ude a m n ng museum, churches, hote s, restaurants, bars, and even a jewe ry store. It s not just Coober Pedy s underground v age that makes t so spec a . Traces of the c ty s eccentr c m n ng roots can be seen around every corner. For examp e, the Coober Pedy Dr ve-In Theater bears a s gn request ng patrons to eave the r exp os ves at home. Other s gns posted throughout town warn peop e to watch out for unmarked ho es eft beh nd from decades of opa d gs. In ear er t mes, opa m n ng was performed by s nk ng a shaft w th a p ck and shove , then work ng w th a screw- dr ver or handp ck once traces of opa s were found. S nce the 1970s, these opa f e ds have seen a sharp ncrease n the use of heavy m n ng equ pment. Tunne ng mach nes w th revo v ng cutt ng heads and sma er front-end oaders have been ntroduced; and today, most f not a prospect ng shafts are made us ng a Ca we d-type dr to create ho es rough y 3 feet n d ameter, and about 98 feet deep. Many oca s make the r v ng by “nood ng”, or search ng through heaps of d scarded mu ock for p eces of opa m ssed by mners. The method s a so popu ar among tour sts; but perm ss on must be obta ned from c am owners before prospect ng n th s way. Accord ng to Yann Athanas ad s, the owner of Coober Pedy s Umoona Opa Mne and Museum, “Nobody can say that the b ggest [opa ] f nd sn t st out there.” But f you dec de to v s t th s other- wor d y p ace and try your uck as an Opa mner, be warned there s a strong poss b ty you won t return. One v s tor descr bed Coober Pedy as “a dreamer s p ace n the mdd e of nowhere...[where] every res dent s a v s tor who never went home.” Editor’s Note: In between our print issues, the WWDR Team prepares an electronic newsletter called E Fl s -News a h . Based on readership, this was the most popular E e Fla -N ws sh article of the month. Get in on the action and subscribe today at: www.worldwidedrillingresource.com Hallway inside a “dugout” constructed by a tunneling machine. Image courtesy of cooberpedy.sa.gov.au Coober Pedy’s (literally) underground Catholic Church, courtesy of cooberpedy.sa.gov.au Opal is so prevalent in Coober Pedy, fossilized remains, l ike the clam pictured above, sometimes become opalized. Photo courtesy of James St. John. 31 WorldWide Drilling Resource ® JULY 2016