Day 16

Saturday, 29th September
Coober Pedy - Breakaways + return

Coober Pedy
Breakaways
Coober Pedy

Distance Traveled

Today - 50 km

Total - 5815 km

Blog

At Coober Pedy we firstly visited the "old timers museum". That had some great exhibits on how they dug and worked back in the 20s to 90s.

Coober Pedy is the local aboriginal words for "Whitefella burrower". A very apt name.

Another name that was up for a vote at the time was opal city. I noticed this name a few times on buildings and utes.

The entire town is a huge mess. There is junk everywhere and many people use the junk for sculpture or work tools. Fascinating.

We did the museum and then the kIds played in the sand pit where they could keep anything the found. It is called noodling, shifting through the broken rock loking for specks of opal.

The museum has heaps of opal still in the mine. There is a long vertical seam that is worth around $40,000. I asked why they didn't dig it out. They said that it could only ever be dug out once and that would be the end of it. They would prefer it to remain in the ground for everyone to see.

We went down the street and looked through many of the opal shops and then had lunch.

We then dropped the trailer off at the underground camp site.

We checked out the Serbian and Catholic underground churches. Very interesting.

Everywhere were buildings built underground.

The underground pottery was closed.

We went and saw the legacy home of Crocodile Harry. He died last year and his house is now a museum.

Croc Harry's is a dugout with lots of underwear hung around and pictures all over the walls. It started when he got Tina Turners bra when she was filming the movie "Mad Max 3: Beyond Thunderdome".

The whole place including the outside is an art piece.

We then went back for unsuccessful opal shopping.

Next we travelled out on the Oonadatta road and looked at the dog fence and breakaways.

The dog fence is the worlds longest manmade structure, at 5600 km, protecting the south sheep grazing areas from the dingos.

The breakaways are a set of hills out in the desert. Rich ochre, red and white colours.

This area was used this area to film "Mad Max 3: Beyond Thunderdome".

We then went back for more opal shopping and finally found the right ones. The right ones are the ones that you prefer.

After dinner we had a tour of the mine at our camp with an education on opals, mining and also devinig. He taught us a lot about opals, what ones are worth more and rarer.

We were also taught how to use devining rods to discover faults within the ground and find opal veins

We are now set up camp underground. This is the only place in the world with an underground camp site.

Its funny that only after a day you get used to the dry dirt and start to see the town with its trees.

Looking out over Coober Pedy from motel room. I see a couple of trees out there.

The motel reception area. All built into the hillside

Looking towards our motel room

The reception area of the motel

More holes in the hill next to the reception area. Possibly they are going to build more rooms or just storage areas.

The Old Timers Mine is one from the 1920s that has now been restored to show us tourists what it was like mining back then

Old Timers Mine, Coober Pedy. Imagine pushing this thing around all day.

A collection of miners starting to work

An opal vein in the Old Timers Mine, Coober Pedy. This vein is work over $40,000. They aren't interested in digging it out as they would prefer to see it the natural way, in the ground.

Entering the mine. The miners would scale down the sides with small footholes on the walls.

Another mine enterence. Each miner had their own style of sinking mines

More opal in the wall. Its just everywhere.

An old restored underground house. There is a hideaway under the bed for storing the precious opals.

A restored underground house in the Old Timers Mine

Keeping the opals safe. This safe could store hundreds of thousands of dollars of opals.

Underground bathroom, Coober Pedy

Potch. This is worthless opal If you don't get consistant pressure from above for 1000s of years, you get worthless potch. I still like it.

This is the original post office of Coober Pedy. Just a hole in the side of the mine.

Watching a miner climbing into his mine.

Tools of the trade. Not sure how to use the one at the bottom.

Old Machinery

A prospector looking for a place to claim his stake. Overlooking the main street of Coober Pedy

The main street of Coober Pedy. Not everything is underground.

Some locals hanging out. They will stay there until the afternoon and then cross to the other side of the street to follow the shade.

Many opal shops protecting their wares.

Lots of weird stuff laying around Coober Pedy. This one would be a prop from a movie.

Walking up onto the top of a Motel. The orange tin can things are light and air holes.

Lots of chimneys. This is a whole street, down under us.

Looking down from on top of a Motel.

Digging machinery

More weird stuff at Coober Pedy

Coober Pedy. The blowers (which suck the dirt up) would fill up these buckets that get tossed when full.

Here is one that is still in use.

Just a normal standard mining area with normal standard character (for around here).

The drive out to our caravan park. I hope we get a nice grassy area to pitch out tent.

The reception area of the van park

Reception area of Coober Pedy van park

The van park toilet block with the Thunder Dunny (that tank in its side with the camel on it).

Its underground camping (the only place of its kind in the world). More photos on that later.

The underground Serbian church. Coober Pedy

The underground Serbian church. Coober Pedy.

Inside the Serbian underground church at Coober Pedy.

The statues are carved into the walls.

I lit a candle for dad.

Inside the Catholic underground church at Coober Pedy

Crocodile Harry's Hideout a few kms outside of Coober Pedy dug into a hill.

Inside Croc Harry's house. Lots of art and signatures all around the walls.

Croc Harry's house. He collected underwear which you can see some hanging in the background.

Croc Harry's bedroom. Every spot of his whole house is covered in writing and pictures.

Croc Harry's garden. Lots of metal and some plants.

Part of Croc Harry's garden. Everything is made into art.

The Coober Pedy golf course. They have a sense of humour.

One of the signs that you see once you leave town. The kids were not comfortable with this. "Go back", "We can't go this way"

The road to Oonadatta. A nice country drive.

The dog fence. 5600km of fence. We just saw a bit of it.

More of the dog fence. I wasn't allowed to go and see where it ended.

The Breakaways. This is the area where they filmed "Mad Max 3: Beyond Thunderdome".

The "Two Dogs" at the Breakaways outside Coober Pedy

The Breakaways, Coober Pedy

The Breakaways, Coober Pedy. Wonderful landscape. We went on a couple of hill tops. Most are not allowed as they are very fragile.

The top crust of one of these Breakaway mountains.

Huge vast plains with not much at all on them within the Breakaways.

The Breakaways, Coober Pedy

Wow, there is life out here.

The "Two Dogs" at the Breakaway Mountains, Coober Pedy

Back at our underground camping area.