Australia is an underground city of Coober why. Australian Odyssey

In the central part of Australia, the small mining town of Coober Pedy is located, one of the main attractions of which are its underground houses. The city is known as the world capital of opals, because it is here that about 30% of the global reserves of these stones are concentrated, more than anywhere else on the planet. I suggest you take a small photo tour of the world capital of opals.

Most likely, the name of the city of Coober Pedy is associated with its unusual houses underground. In the aboriginal language of the kupa-piti, from which the name Coober Pedy came from, means "white man's hole." About 1700 people live in the city, mainly engaged in the extraction of opals, and their houses are nothing more than underground "holes" made in sandstone at a depth of 2.5 to 6 meters.

It is located in South Australia, on the edge of the Great Victoria Desert, in one of the most deserted and sparsely populated places on the continent. At the beginning of the 20th century, mining of noble opals began here, 30% of the global reserves of which are concentrated on the territory of Coober Pedy. Due to the constant heat, drought and frequent sandstorms, prospectors and their families initially began to settle in dwellings cut down on the side of the mountain - often it was possible to get into the mine directly from the house. The temperature in such an “apartment” did not exceed 22 ° C all year round, and the comfort level was not inferior to the traditional “ground” houses - there were bedrooms, living rooms, kitchens, and bathrooms. It’s just that they made no more than two windows - otherwise it would get too hot in the summer.

Due to the lack of underground sewage in Coober Pedy, the restroom and kitchen in the houses are located immediately at the entrance, i.e. at ground level. Bedrooms, other rooms and corridors dig, as a rule, deeper. The ceilings in large rooms support columns up to 1 meter in diameter.

Building a house in Coober Pedy can even make its owner wealthy, as it contains the largest deposit of precious opals. Mines in Australia, mainly in Coober Pedy, account for 97 percent of the global production of this mineral. A few years ago, while drilling an underground hotel, stones were found worth about 360 thousand dollars.

Roofs of Coober Pedy. A familiar sight and a distinctive feature of the underground city are the ventilation holes sticking out of the ground.

The Opal deposit at Coober Pedy was discovered in 1915. A year later, the first miners began to arrive there. It is estimated that about 60 percent of the residents of Coober Pedy came from southern and eastern Europe who came there after World War II to work in mines. For almost a hundred years, this city has been the world's largest producer of high quality opals.

Since the 80s, when an underground hotel was built in Coober Pedy, thousands of tourists visit it annually. One of the most visited places in the city of opals was the house of his recently deceased resident, nicknamed Crocodile Harry - an eccentric, alcohol lover and adventurer who became famous for his many love affairs.

In the photo: the underground church in Coober Pedy.

Both the city and its suburbs, for various reasons, are very photogenic, so they attract filmmakers there. Coober Pedy became the filming location for the 2006 Australian drama Opal Dream. Also, scenes for the film “Mad Max. Under the dome of thunder. ”

The average annual rainfall in Coober Pedy is only 175 mm (in the middle lane in Europe, for example, about 600 mm). This is one of Australia's driest regions. There is almost no rain here, and therefore the vegetation is very scarce. There are no tall trees in the city; only rare shrubs and cacti grow.

Residents, however, do not complain about the lack of outdoor entertainment. They spend their free time playing golf, though due to the heat they have to play at night.

Coober Pedy also has two underground churches, souvenir shops, a jewelry workshop, a museum and a bar.

Coober Pedy is located 846 kilometers north of Adelaide, the capital of the state of South Australia.

Coober Pedy has a desert climate. In summer, from December to February, the average temperature is 30 ° C, and sometimes reaches up to 40 ° C. At night, the temperature drops significantly, to about 20 ° C. Sandstorms are also possible here.

An underground gift shop in Coober Pedy.

The townspeople are saved from the heat by digging their homes underground.

Underground bar in Coober Pedy.

Such beautiful precious minerals are mined in Coober Pedy, a city called the “world capital of opals.”

Some descendants of prospectors prefer to decorate their underground houses "a la naturel" - they cover the walls and ceiling with a PVA solution to get rid of dust, while preserving the natural color and texture of natural stone. Proponents of modern solutions in the interior cover the walls and ceiling with stucco, after which the underground dwelling becomes almost indistinguishable from the usual. Both those and others do not give up such a pleasant trifle as an underground pool - in one of the hottest places on the planet this is especially a pleasant "luxury".

In addition to dwellings, Coober Pedy has underground shops and museums, galleries and workshops, restaurants and a hotel, a cemetery and churches (including the Orthodox one!). But there are few trees and flowers here - only cacti and other succulents can tolerate the hot arid climate of these places. Despite this. The city has golf courses with mobile grass.

Coober Pedy is an unchanging destination for many Australia tourist destinations. Interest in the underground city is fueled by the fact that such films as Crazy Max 3: Under the Dome of Thunder, Adventures of Priscilla, the Desert Queen and Black Hole were shot at Coober Pedy. And on the edge of the world capital of opals is the world's largest livestock farm and the well-known "Dingo Fence" with a length of 8500 kilometers.

The city is famous for its opals, it is the capital of opal stone, cast in all colors of the rainbow. The development of opals is slightly less than 100 years old, their deposits were accidentally discovered when searching for water in 1915. The noble opal is distinguished by a rainbow-like play of colors, the cause of which is the diffraction of light on a spatial lattice and its value is determined not by its size, but by a unique play of color. The more rays - the more expensive the opal. One of the Aboriginal legends says that "a long time ago spirits stole all the colors from the rainbow and put them in stone - opal", according to another - that the Creator came down from heaven to earth and where his foot stepped, stones appeared shimmering in all colors rainbows. Opal mining is done only by private entrepreneurs. However, this industry brings the Australian economy about $ 30 million annually.

The Coober Pedy area is one of Australia's most arid, desert and sparsely populated areas. On average, only about 150 mm falls in a year. precipitation, and very large differences in day and night temperatures.

If you happen to fly over Coober Pedy, then you will not see the buildings that are familiar to our eyes, but only rock dumps with a thousand pits and mounds on the background of a rocky red desert, which creates an unearthly landscape, stunning the imagination. Each mound-cone with a hole in the middle, visible on the surface, is connected by a mine to the underworld.

Even the first settlers understood that due to adverse weather conditions, when the earth heats in the sun during the day and reaches a temperature of 40 degrees Celsius on the surface, and at night the temperature drops sharply to 20 degrees (and sandstorms are possible) - you can live underground in the shafts of mines after mining opals. The constant temperature of underground houses is around + 22-24 degrees at any time of the year. Today, the city is home to more than 45 nationalities, but the majority are Greeks. The population of the city is 1,695 people.

Water comes from drilled 25 km. from the city artesian well and relatively expensive. There is no common power system in Coober Pedy. Electricity is produced by diesel generators, and heating is carried out by solar water heaters. At night, when the heat subsides, residents play golf with balls glowing in the dark.

Previously, the development of opals was carried out manually - with picks, shovels, and the breed was pulled out with buckets until they found an opal vein, along which they later crawled in a plastic manner. Almost all the mines are shallow and the main passages in them are laid by drilling machines, which break through horizontal tunnels as tall as human growth and from it branches in different directions. These are practically home-made devices - the engine and gearbox from a small truck. Then the so-called "bloomer" is used - a machine with a powerful compressor installed on it, which sucks the rock and boulders to the surface through a pipe lowered into the shaft, like a vacuum cleaner, and when the compressor is turned off, the barrel opens and a new mini-hill is created - the heap.

At the entrance to the city, a huge sign with a flower machine is placed.

Coober Pedy is a small town in the central Australian state of South Australia.

The population estimated for 2008 was approximately 2 thousand people.

uber Pedy is approximately 800 km away. from Adelaide, the railway from Adelaide to Alice Springs is not far away. The nearest major cities are Port Augusta (500 km to the south) and Alice Springs (600 km to the north).

The city is famous for its opals, it is the capital of opal stone, cast in all colors of the rainbow.

The development of opals is slightly less than 100 years old, their deposits were accidentally discovered when searching for water in 1915.

The noble opal is distinguished by a rainbow-like play of colors, the cause of which is the diffraction of light on a spatial lattice and its value is determined not by its size, but by a unique play of color.

The more rays - the more expensive the opal. One of the legends of the natives says that "a long time ago, spirits stole all the colors from the rainbow and put them in stone - opal", according to another - that

The Creator descended from heaven to earth, and where his foot stepped, stones appeared, shimmering with all the colors of the rainbow.

Opal mining is done only by private entrepreneurs. However, this industry brings the Australian economy about $ 30 million annually.

The city is known as the World Capital of Opals, because here it is one of the richest deposits of opals, about 30% of the world's reserves are concentrated here.

The name Coober Pedy is translated from the language of the Australian aborigines as "white man’s hole" or "white man underground."

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Due to the harsh temperature conditions and the prevailing mining industry, people constantly live in underground caves, in the shafts of the mines left after mining.

The constant temperature of underground houses is around + 22-24 degrees at any time of the year. Today, the city is home to more than 45 nationalities, but the majority are Greeks. The population of the city is 1,695 people.

Water comes from drilled 25 km. from the city artesian well and relatively expensive. There is no common power system in Coober Pedy.

Electricity is produced by diesel generators, and heating is carried out by solar water heaters.

At night, when the heat subsides, residents play golf with balls glowing in the dark.

Almost all the mines are shallow and the main passages in them are laid by drilling machines, which break through horizontal tunnels as tall as human growth and from it branches in different directions. These are practically home-made devices - the engine and gearbox from a small truck.

Then, the so-called "bloomer" is used - a machine with a powerful compressor installed on it, which, through a pipe lowered into the mine,

like a vacuum cleaner, it sucks up the rock and boulders to the surface, and when the compressor is turned off, the barrel opens and a new mini-mound is created - the heap.

At the entrance to the city, a huge sign with a flower machine is placed.

One of the attractions of the city is an iron tree - the children of the first settlers asked the pope for a tree, so he made a tree of iron.

Even the first prospectors realized that it was possible to settle comfortably underground, in dwellings that cost almost nothing.

As for their successors, they and their families live in modern underground comfort.

Many of their houses are very large and simply luxurious ...

Some even have underground pools, while quite close to the surface, the sun mercilessly burns the ground.

However, life at opal mines is still difficult, and many prospectors return with time with their families to an easier life elsewhere.

By the way, an article about the underground city and the people living in it, which appeared in Great Britain in 1927, prompted J.R. R. Tolkien to create in 1937, the second most popular literary work after the Bible, The Hobbit, and then, and The Lord of the Rings "...

Coober Pedy is part of Australia's many hiking trails. People come here to see the underground churches and the cemetery.

The first trees that could be seen in the city were welded from pieces of iron. The city has local golf courses with moving grass and golfers line small pieces of “turf” around the hole for the first strike.

The landscape of Coober Pedy is very conducive to full-scale shooting of extraterrestrial civilizations ... Films such as Mad Max 3: Under the Dome of Thunder, Adventures of Priscilla, the Desert Queen and Pitch Black were shot here.

Coober Pedy has hosted The Amazing Race for the second season.

In the area of \u200b\u200bCoober Pedy, approximately in 2012, they plan to conduct an experimental exercise of the expedition to Mars ...

Of local attractions, local historians distinguish the world's largest livestock farm and the world's longest "Australian" fence.

The standard bedrooms in the home cave with a lounge, kitchen and bathroom are located in caves drilled inside the mountains, similar to houses on the surface.
This maintains a constant optimum temperature, while on the surface it reaches 40 ° C (maximum 55 ° C), at this temperature many household appliances become unusable. But relative humidity rarely reaches 20% on hot days.

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Much of the interest in Coober Pedy is inside the mines, this is the cemetery and underground churches. The first trees that could be seen in the city were welded from pieces of iron.

The city has local golf courses with moving grass and golfers line small pieces of turf around for a first hit.

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Coober Pedy is part of Australia's many hiking trails. Against the background of Coober Pedy, films such as “Mad Max 3: Under the Dome of Thunder”, “The Adventures of Priscilla, the Desert Queen” and “The Black Hole” were shot. Around 2012, they plan to conduct an experiment-training exercise on an expedition to Mars.

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What do these celebrities have in common?

— Rolling stones (Rolling stones)

— Ricky Martin (Ricky Martin)

— Alanis Morissette (Alanis Morissette)

— Janet Jackson (Janet Jackson)

— Billy Joel (Billy Joel)

— Neil Diamond (Neil Diamond)

— Fleetwood Mack (Fleetwood Mac)

— Matchbox Twenty (Matchbox Twenty)

— Acie disy (AC / DC)

Well, it’s clear that they are all world-class musicians, fame, recognition, money, fans ... but we are not interested in this right now.

They all visited Melbourne. It's already warmer ..

What we really need to know is that all these stars (and many others), during their tour in Australia, chose and bought the famous Australian precious opals from the same absolutely fantastic person and my good friend (which I'm immensely proud of) - Nicholas Le Suef.

Nick Le Suef against the background of himself at the age of 25. Photo taken at Coober Pedy, the underground city of prospectors and the capital of Australian opals

Believe me, these THESE people could afford to buy opals in ANY other store in Melbourne or Sydney, but they all chose Nick.

Autographs and dedicatory inscriptions of the Rolling Stones - Ricky Martin - Alanis Morissette - Janet Jackson - Billy Joel - Neil Diamond - Fleetwood Mac) - Matchbox Twenty - ACE DC and other famous Nick buyers.

At 25, Nick already knew how to look for precious opals.

But the years are taking their toll, and when it was already physically difficult for Nick to extract opals, he opened a store and began selling them.

This is another 20 years :))

At 70, Nick knows how to take care of his customers. target \u003d "_blank"\u003e https://www.factroom.ru/facts/wp-content/uploads/2011/06/10-300x225.jpg 300w "style \u003d" border: 0px; width: 730px; height: auto; "width \u003d" 550 "/\u003e

The Underground Art Gallery is dedicated to Aboriginal art. It hosts exhibitions telling about the process of mining opal. Visitors are given the opportunity to dig their own gem.

Finally I got to the photos of the city of Coober Pedy (Coober Pedy). We drove it earlier when we were still traveling around the state of South Australia.

To virtually walk around the city, click on the green inscription “View Larger Map” in the lower left corner. When the map opens, drag the little yellow man onto the streets of the city.

It is an amazing city. We have very pleasant memories of him.

Coober Pedy is called the "opal capital of the world," and in the language of the Aboriginal people it means "a white man in a pit."

Up to 90% of the world's noble opal mining comes from Australia, and about three-quarters of this comes from South Australia.

At first glance, Coober Pedy is not much different from other mining towns. Dirt roads cross the entire territory and waste dumps are visible. But there are no towers or elevators over the mines and there are no buildings.

Strange round mounds with a hole in the middle give the impression of a volcanic area dotted with small ash cones.

Each of these small mounds is connected by a mine with a whole underground world.

Soft, sandstone rocks of the desert, it is not difficult to dig with a pick and shovel, although they also use explosives here. Most opals are found at a depth of 24 m, but many workings are much smaller. Each prospector is allocated a small area on which he works. The technique, for the most part, is traditional. The miner digs up his plot of land, hoping to find a large vein that will bring him a fortune.

In addition to this, the most beautiful mineral, the houses of local residents are very popular, dugouts are underground dwellings in which temperature is controlled by nature.

Even the first prospectors realized that it was possible to settle comfortably underground, in dwellings that cost almost nothing. As for their successors, they are families living in modern underground comfort. Many of their homes are very large and simply luxurious, and some even have underground pools.

These sites are for underground dwellings. Such sites are located on the outskirts of the city. You can buy and dig your house or motel. In season, all motels and hotels are busy here. As elsewhere, you need to book a room in advance.

It should be noted that there is absolutely no water in Coober Pedy - no matter how much we have drilled, we have not reached the water yet. If we take into account that this is one of the most rainy regions of Australia, it becomes clear that initially the water was very expensive, because it was delivered for many kilometers by pack animals, mainly camels. Currently, water has been installed, but water is still relatively expensive ($ 5 per 1,000 liters).

Coober Pedy is one of the hottest places on the planet. And in the underground house the temperature is kept at 22-26 degrees year-round. We were invited to one of these houses for a visit. 60% of the city’s population live underground.

The owner of the house is George Russell. He is the owner of the Oasis Tourist Park

Good person, very sociable. He made a decent discount when we stayed at his motel on the first night.

The next morning, George showed his house.

This is a living room.

Indeed, a very pleasant cool after the burning sun.

This is a guest house. To the right of the stairs, there is a kitchen and 2 rooms of the owner of the house.

To the left of the stairs are 3 guest bedrooms, a toilet and a bathroom.

All underground rooms are spacious with high ceilings and are well ventilated.

Very cozy and comfortable.

I wanted to have a similar house here. Sometimes you come to live in absolute silence, without the radio and electromagnetic waves that surround us everywhere.

The town has not only underground houses, but also numerous underground hotels, restaurants, shops and even churches.

In 1988, the world's first underground hotel was inaugurated. This hotel became so popular that many locals began to open large and small motels, as well as guest houses with 3 and 4 bedrooms throughout the city.

One of the first underground motels that we saw “Radeka down under motel”, it is located on the main street of the city.

This is a middle class motel.

At 11 o’clock in the morning, and already +36.

We were met by the owner of the Martin motel (Martin).

Very colorful uncle.

There are rooms that are in the rock, and rooms that are underground at 6.5 meters.

We chose the number, of course, underground. Sleeping there is much more interesting.

It was an operational opal mine until the 1960s.

And in the mid-80s, the mine was transformed into an underground complex - a motel.

The cost of living in a motel from 32 $.

This is our number. They took it off for $ 70 (for $ 10 we got a discount).

Everything is very simple. It has everything you need. The fact that you are sleeping underground already sounds unusual. And most importantly, it's cooler here than upstairs. And that was one of the reasons we went down underground.

In general, this room slept well. The only inconvenience is the strong audibility. Hear all the neighbors. Therefore, here you need to settle for those who have iron nerves and a good dream. Gabriel, for example, slept well. And I, at midnight, listened to the snoring of a neighbor and the crying of a small child. So if anyone needs to get enough sleep, settle upstairs in the rock.

In these rooms, mainly students who have no money for a room, or lonely tired travelers who quickly fall asleep and hear nothing, stop.

And in this room, you can populate a large company, and remember the pioneer camp. It would be fun.

To be continued…

To view photos in large size, click on them 1-2 times.

People of the older generation will probably remember the Soviet film “Kin-Dza-Dza”. There was an episode where the main characters are brought to the city. But there is no city as such. There are only small pipes sticking out in the middle of a desert landscape. The people in this film (at least some of them) lived underground, and the pipes served for ventilation. Entire settlements literally lived in the ground, only occasionally getting to the surface.

So the movie city has a very real prototype. This is the mining town of Coober Pedy, located approximately in the center of South Australia. It lies on the Stuart ridge, 300 kilometers from Lake Air National Park. The surrounding area is a deserted and deserted landscape. For hundreds of kilometers around sparsely populated terrain. Adelaide (the largest city in the state and the fifth largest in Australia) needs to be reached 850 kilometers south along the Stuart highway.

Coober Pedy on the map

Geographic coordinates -29.010474, 134.757343
The distance from the capital of Australia Canberra is about 1550 km
The distance to the nearest airport is Ceduna about 360 km

All distances are indicated “in a straight line”

And people there really live underground, in specially dug apartments. The decision to live under a layer of land is dictated by local environmental conditions. During the day, the air warms up to 40 ° C, and by night the temperature can drop to 7 ° C. Sudden changes in temperature make life on the surface not quite comfortable. And periodic sandstorms exacerbate the situation.

Here we could not help but deviate from the topic. It seemed to us that these "terribly harsh", just the same unbearable conditions are not so terrible. Read about the Pole of Cold in Russian Oymyakon. Here the conditions are really unrealistically difficult. There, even tires on cars can crumble like chocolate, and the temperature at minus 40-50 is quite familiar.

What, in principle, forced people to go underground in Coober Pedy? After all, Australia is a wonderful continent, there are a lot of places much more suitable for living. Take at least Hyams Beach - a beach with perfectly white sand. Pile in the sand and look at the ocean. Or Fraser Island, where for hundreds of years sand has been fighting a rainforest. But no, people are drawn into the desert, and even underground. The answer is really simple. There are huge reserves of precious mineral. Opal is why people still live here. It has been mined here since 1915.

That's what opal looks like

In general, the first simple opal was found in these places as early as 1849 at the height of the gold rush. And full-scale field development began in 1915, when noble opal was already found here. According to scientists, there are approximately 30% of all world reserves of this valuable mineral. Therefore, Coober Pedy is also called the World Capital of Opal. Opal is widely used in jewelry.

Miners adapted to live in dugouts. It turned out that the temperature was almost always about 22 ° C. Often the miners went to work directly from the house, for which tunnels were dug directly into the mine. Workers dug whole houses underground, and lived beautifully in them. In addition to dwellings, there is a bar, a museum, churches, an art gallery and even a hotel for tourists who want to feel what it is like to live underground.

The development of engineering and technology has allowed more than half of the inhabitants to move to the surface, but there are citizens who still live underground. And they live very well. They have everything in their house for a comfortable stay - a kitchen, a living room, bedrooms and even bathrooms. Naturally there is electricity, running water and sewage. They have such apartments called “Dugout” and are available in two versions. Natural and modern. In the first version, the walls of the housing are only reinforced with special impregnations or an emulsion of ordinary PVA glue. This prevents them from shedding and eliminates dust. In addition, this design creates the illusion of primitiveness. You can take pigments and spread them on the walls of mammoths, or in our case a kunguru. Modern design involves the creation of familiar rooms, but only underground. In this case, the floor, walls and ceiling are leveled, plastered and poured. The result is a completely modern home. Its subterraneanness gives out only the absence of windows. In the beginning, according to tradition, two windows were made near the front door, but then the temperature balance in the room was disturbed. The truth is now this problem is solved by installing an air conditioner. Everything else, as in any modern home. Sometimes both styles are combined and you can get from a trendy and modern living room to a primitive bedroom.

translated from the language of the local tribe of Coober Pedy, it means “white man’s hole” or “underground white man”
extraterrestrial desert landscapes have become the natural scenery for some famous films. In particular, scenes from the blockbusters “Mad Max. Under the dome of thunder ”and“ Black Hole ”were filmed here. Not even a whole starship from the Black Hole movie was preserved nearby.

the city hosts a number of festivals: Racing at Coober Pedy, Queen of the Desert and Opal Festival. And yet, all residents gather annually to celebrate the end of summer with noisy celebrations.
according to 2011, a little less than 1700 people lived in the town
in 1956, the largest opal was found in the Coober Pedy area. Its dimensions are 28 x 12 x 11.5 cm. Weight is 17,000 carats or 3.45 kilograms we are used to. Estimated the find of 2.5 million Australian dollars. This nugget was named Olympic Australian Opal (original The Olympic Australis Opal) in honor of the then Olympic Games in Melbourne
the city has an underground cemetery
coober Pedy has absolutely no water. Many times, people tried to drill wells, but they did not succeed in getting to the water. The region cannot boast of heavy rainfall - they usually fall no more than 150 mm per year. Water flows through a 24 km long water supply system from a small settlement nearby (on the map this settlement could not be found, if you have data on this, please let us know)

Coober Pedy photo

They live underground, grow cacti in their gardens, and play golf at night - this is the life of the inhabitants of a small town in the Australian desert. We are talking about the world capital of opals - the mining town of Coober Pedy. Residents of a town located in the southern part of the Australian desert, in which temperatures in the summer sometimes exceed 40 ° C in the shade, have found an easy way to cope with the heat. In their homes, even in the worst heat, it is always cool, but not because they use air conditioners, moreover, they do not need to wash windows or hang blinds on them to avoid the curious looks of their neighbors, but all because the residents of Coober The pedies are building their homes ... underground.

Let's take a look at the opal underground city of Coober Pedy.

Most likely, the name of the city is associated with its unusual houses underground. In the aboriginal language of the kupa-piti, from which the name Coober Pedy came from, means "white man's hole." About 1700 people live in the city, mainly engaged in the extraction of opals, and their houses are nothing more than underground "holes" made in sandstone at a depth of 2.5 to 6 meters. (Photo: Les Pullen / South Cape Photography).

Due to the lack of underground sewage, the restroom and kitchen in the houses are located immediately at the entrance, i.e. at ground level. Bedrooms, other rooms and corridors dig, as a rule, deeper. The ceilings in large rooms support columns up to 1 meter in diameter. (Photo: Les Pullen / South Cape Photography).

Building a house in Coober Pedy can even make its owner wealthy, as it contains the largest deposit of precious opals. Deposits in Australia, mainly in Coober Pedy, account for 97 percent of the global production of this mineral. A few years ago, while drilling an underground hotel, stones were found worth about 360 thousand dollars. (Photo: Les Pullen / South Cape Photography).

Roofs of Coober Pedy. A familiar sight and a distinctive feature of the underground city are the ventilation holes sticking out of the ground. (Photo: Robyn Brody / flickr.com).

Residents, however, do not complain about the lack of outdoor entertainment. They spend their free time playing golf, though due to the heat they have to play at night. (Photo: Les Pullen / South Cape Photography).

Coober Pedy also has two underground churches, souvenir shops, a jewelry workshop, a museum and a bar. (Photo: Nicholas Jones / Flickr.com).

Coober Pedy is located 846 kilometers north of Adelaide, the capital of the state of South Australia. (Photo: Georgie Sharp / Flickr.com).

An underground gift shop in Coober Pedy. (Photo: Lodo27 / wikimedia).

The townspeople are saved from the heat by digging their homes underground. (Photo: Lodo27 / wikimedia).

Underground bar in Coober Pedy. (Photo: Les Pullen / South Cape Photography).

Such beautiful precious minerals are mined in Coober Pedy, a city called the “world capital of opals.” (Photo: James St. John / Flickr.com).

Coober Pedy is one of Australia's most arid, desert, and sparsely populated areas. On average, only about 150 mm falls in a year. precipitation, and very large differences in day and night temperatures.

Previously, the development of opals was carried out manually - with picks, shovels, and the breed was pulled out with buckets until they found an opal vein, along which they later crawled in a plastusky way. Almost all the mines are shallow and the main aisles in them are laid by drilling machines that break through horizontal tunnels as tall as human growth and from it branches in different directions. These are practically home-made devices - the engine and gearbox from a small truck. Then, the so-called “bloomer” is used - a machine with a powerful compressor installed on it, which sucks the rock and boulders to the surface through a pipe lowered into the shaft, like a vacuum cleaner, and when the compressor is turned off, the barrel opens: it turns out a new mini-hill - a terricone.

At the entrance to the city, a huge sign with a flower machine is placed.