Coober Pedy is a small town in South Australia, 850 km from Adelaide, which has a harsh desert climate. A barren plain, a few sparse houses spaced a few dozen meters apart, the dry yellow sun scorching people... Looking at these desolate photos, everyone will surely see the landscape on the surface is bare and desolate, no different from photos taken on the moon.
And if you have the opportunity to go to Coober Pedy, you will see the giant, deep and dark "death pits" that no one dares to enter. However, those are the gateways to a world created by humans, a completely different underground world. Because under that dry surface, there is a bustling and bustling town with nearly 3,500 people living.
Opal Capital
This underground town is known as the opal capital of the world because 90% of the world's opal is mined here. Opal is a type of quartz, commonly known as "cat's eye" because of its transparent, sparkling effect.
The town was originally named after the first explorer to set foot in the area in 1858 - John McDouall Stuart. It was not until 1920 that it was renamed Coober Pedy, which means “white man’s cave underground” in the local Aboriginal language.
The origins of this town began in 1915, when a 14-year-old boy found a gemstone with a transparent shine that resembled a cat's eye in the South Australian outback. Later, gold prospectors discovered large deposits of cat's eye, which made the area famous and thus the town of Coober Pedy was born. Residents from many places flocked here to mine with the hope of finding cat's eye to change their lives.
Scientists later discovered that about 150 million years ago, Coober Pedy was under the ocean, when the land was gradually pushed up, the sea water receded, causing silica minerals to flow into the cracks of the rock. Over tens of millions of years, they transformed into colorful gemstones.
A legacy of opal mining, Coober Pedy is like an oasis in the Australian desert. To serve the demand for opal mining, miners were forced to dig large and small caves to rest while digging underground. This created countless hollow holes in the ground.
The gemstone industry continued to develop, during its heyday in the 70s and 80s, the town had more than 1,000 miners. However, this was a desert area with extremely harsh weather conditions, summer temperatures were often above 50 degrees Celsius, but at night they could drop below 0 degrees Celsius. To cope with the scorching heat above, the people who came to mine cat's eye came up with the idea of building houses right in the mines from empty pits.
As time went on, the search became more extensive. They continued to expand the area they searched and larger underground houses were built. Over time, they settled down, had children and created a bustling underground community of thousands of people.
Optimal design and constant innovation
Currently, Coober Pedy has more than 1,500 underground houses, making it the largest underground town in the world. With more than 3,500 residents, Coober Pedy residents are a "gathering" of 50 different ethnicities from all over the world such as: Sri Lanka, Philippines, Greece, Argentina, UK...
Living underground has helped the temperature in the houses always maintain a perfect stability of around 24oC with 20% humidity. If viewed from the outside, these cave-like houses have mysterious entrances, no sunlight, but inside are fully equipped with electric lights and modern appliances, no different from a normal house on the ground.
Not only comfortable houses, Coober Pedy today also develops an ecosystem serving the lives of the people here with social works right underground such as: churches, restaurants, hotels, bars, entertainment areas... In particular, there is also an underground art museum called Old Time Mine in what used to be an ancient cave. This museum has many layers of opal preserved, reflecting the very special historical periods of Coober Pedy.
The main material used to build these houses is sandstone because it is easy to quarry, has stability and gives the house a solidity. Not only that, the beautiful color of sandstone not only brings luxury but also adds warmth and friendliness, contrasting with the harsh heat of the desert weather outside. Although located 10 meters underground, that is not the reason to limit the magical imagination of the people of Coober Pedy. They carved countless beautiful, strange but extremely delicate images everywhere inside their cave houses.
Moreover, although it is located deep underground, it is not stuffy here because this town is surrounded by a system of hundreds of cylinders with the function of ventilation for underground houses - called "dugouts". Now, above ground, you can only see the system of dugouts, fuel stations or a few public stores - the structures that are still above ground to serve passersby.
Unique and special tourism advantages
In 1981, a resident named Umberto Coro discovered the potential of underground housing, so he set about building the first hotel. Since then, the town's reputation has spread rapidly and people from all over Australia have come to visit.
A luxury hotel in the town of Coober Pedy
Many people rent out their houses for tourism purposes.
Realizing their advantage, the local people have joined together and started to develop tourism by renting out hotel rooms from small to large scale to serve tourists who want to experience life underground. The rooms are very comfortable, no different from above ground with clean beds, wardrobes, televisions and kitchen systems so that tourists can cook for themselves.
Some of the larger houses here even have underground swimming pools - a unique experience that any visitor would want to try at least once in their life. If you don't like sleeping in the spacious houses and want to explore, you can even camp in an old mine that has stopped operating and enjoy the feeling of being truly "wild".
Swimming underground...
...or camping in old mines
Coming to Coober Pedy, after experiencing life in the underground system, visitors can also hunt for photos of the harshness of nature when wandering to the surrounding areas around the town such as the Painted Desert or the opal mine...
In addition, if you want entertainment, visitors can go to underground bars or restaurants with shimmering candlelight and romantic atmosphere.
It is also because of the arid, bleak landscape of the surrounding land that Coober Pedy has attracted Hollywood filmmakers. Many apocalyptic science fiction films have been filmed here, contributing to Coober Pedy’s popularity and tourism has become a source of income on par with opal mining.
A model of a spaceship left behind after a Hollywood movie
From the hot desert climate that seemed to be a disadvantage, but it made people create great ideas to live and now also attract explorers to come. Today, Coober Pedy has become one of the most unique tourist destinations in Australia.
