Cooper Pedy

Glendambo Roadhouse.

North along the Stuart Hwy we go, headed for Cooper Pedy. Situated in between the larger centres are the Road Houses. These places are quite amazing, offering services such as meals, fuel, groceries, snacks, toilet (but only if you buy!), and often a small caravan park out the back, for an overnight stay. We stop at Glendambo Roadhouse, and as you can see from the sign, not much here except flies! The girls are ready for coffee and cake. The looks on the faces, when they get empty cups, and are pointed towards the end of the room where there are large jars full of Nescafe, sugar, tea bags and milo, are priceless! The water urn is bubbling away, and the milk is in the little fridge under the table. A tentative "do you have any cakes? and they are rewarded with a home made banana cake, where I am sure they get twelve cakes out of one banana! Over in the corner, a local cowboy is tucking into the truckies breakfast: steak, sausages, fried tomato & onion, bacon, hash brown, a huge plate of toast on the side, all smothered in tomato sauce. It has the daily calorie count of a bus load of tourists, and looks and smells delicious, as I run my eyes over my paltry slice of bananaless cake.

John & Carolyn at Cooper Pedy.

We arrive at Cooper Pedy, population around 3,500. From 50 kilometres out, you start to see the mounds of earth. Small, medium, large and humongous mounds, all evidence to the search for opal. We are all genuinely surprised at how much earth has been moved, and over how wide an area it stretches. Cooper Pedy is the first stop we've had where no running water is available in the caravan park, so we have to fill up our tanks at the kerbside, where $1.00 buys about 40 litres of good quality water. We find our spot at the Opal Inn Caravan Park, and then go in search of Robyn's Budget Room. It is small but clean, and the marine theme has definitely ended, though there is sufficient sand to make a red beach! Town is two supermarkets, one big the other small, a couple of cafes, the large Underground Hotel and Tourist Mine, a bank, a couple of shops, a bakery and countless opal shops and galleries. There is also a hospital, and other general services. There is a large aboriginal presence in town, though we are told that only about 350 live in town.

Centre of Town, Cooper Pedy.

We decide, that with limited time, we will book a half day tour for the next day, and use the rest of the time to self drive around. It proved to be a good plan, as the tour, run by Desert Cave Tours, was excellent. Our own travels were also very interesting. My first stop was to establish if there was a windscreen repair place in town. A road train had thrown a large rock up at us, and we had a large star fracture at the bottom of the windscreen. I was told we were in luck, and I was given directions, and soon found myself, full of expectation, parked outside of a yellow shed advertising Windscreens Replaced or Repaired. I walked inside to be met by a smiling face with a bushy beard, and a hearty "G'Day Mate, wadya want?" I'd like to get my windscreen repaired. "Why'd ya come here?"  Well, someone sent me here, and I saw your sign outside. "I ain't done no repairs for years. All I can do is give ya a new one." Do you have one in stock? "Nup." How long will it take to get one? "Dunno." Consequently, we still have the fracture, covered with sticky tape!

Machine called a Blower.

Driving around town, you start to figure out how the underground housing works. Every small hill has homes dug into the side of it. It is all about climate control, due to the extremely hot summers. It seems strange, with mountains of earth everywhere, dotted with rusted and disused machinery, and hardly a blade of grass or tree to be seen. There are many abandoned home and business sites. It is not attractive. Mining in town is now banned, though if you build an underground home, or remodel an existing home, you are allowed to process all the earth you move. There are some amazing stories of people who have made their fortune, building their home. One poor guy, who was vertically challenged, gave up after 20 years of fruitless searching. He sold his old underground home to a tall guy who decided to raise the roof. Boy did he raise the roof, to the tune of $3.5 million worth of opal!!

Carolyn with an Orphan Joey

Just 16 weeks old!

During our touring we had spied an Art Gallery and Kangaroo Orphanage. Feeding times are 12 noon and 5.00pm. We head in for the 12 noon feeding, and a wonderful experience. The two people who run the Gallery & Orphanage are volunteers, who rescue kangaroos that have been injured in any way. They release them back into the wild when they can. Many of the orphaned joeys are found in the pouch of a dead mum, who has been hit by a car or truck. When we visit, there are two little ones being cared for. They are still being bottle fed, and we get to participate and then get a cuddle and close up experience. The youngest one is still getting 3 hour feeds! So, not much sleep for the foster parents. What wonderful people they are. Not sure if they ever sell a painting, but their work with orphan animals is priceless.

Cooper Pedy Golf Club

Carolyn & Robyn at The Breakaways.

Off on our tour, we first learn about the 45 different nationalities, that make up Cooper Pedy's population. Our guide is a Bosnian Serb, who has lived here for 17 years. Our first stop is the Golf Course, where we are surprised to learn that the club has reciprocal rights with St.Andrews! Apparently it is one of the world's most unique golf clubs. There is not a blade of grass to be seen! All sand, with oiled greens, it just doesn't seem right! Out into the Opal mining area, we soon find out how difficult mining opal is. You buy a lease, Small (50 metres x 50 metres), or Large (50 metres x 100 metres).You can butt right up to an existing claim, or start in the middle of nowhere. You start by drilling a small circular well. You check the contents and if promising, widen the well and start tunneling. When you get enough space you bring in the Blower, which is like a huge vacuum cleaner mounted on a truck, that sucks up all the dirt to the surface to be checked. Nobody knows why a machine that sucks is called a blower!! There has to be an easier way to make a living! 

The Breakaways

The Dog Fence

From the mines we head out to a mountain range called the Breakaways, so named, because the geological composition is the same as that in the Flinder's Ranges, further south. The area is breathtakingly beautiful with so many colours, and shapes. Wherever you look it is just one wow after another. We head further down the road, where we take a stop alongside the Dog Fence. I never knew about this. Sure we heard about the Rabbit Proof Fence, made famous in a movie and books, but this is actually the longest man made structure on earth, and it is still fully maintained today. Farmers from South Australia, NSW and Queensland, had all experienced significant lamb stock losses from Dingo attack. A plan was hatched to join all the fences so as to keep the dingos to the west and the sheep to the east. Today, the fence stretches from the Great Australian Bight in South Australia, along the SA/NSW border north of Broken Hill and up into Central Queensland, a distance of 2400 kilometres. Absolutely amazing! There is so much to learn about this country. Back on the bus and heading for town, we run across another tour that has broken down. One young fellow with 5 young backpackers were rescued by us. Poor guy sobbed all the way back to town. Why didn't we just leave him out there with all those young girls!

The chapel at the Serbian Orthodox
Underground Church.

Carving in the rock above the Alter.

Back in town we visited the underground Serbian Orthodox Church. More wows! You walk down into the rooms that are the church. The walls and ceiling have been sealed with clear sealer to show off the beautiful soft colours of the sandstone. From the vestibule, you can look down into the chapel, and marvel at the carvings and the beautiful etched glass. Though we didn't go inside, there is a meeting room next door that can seat up to 400 people! Sadly the Serbian priest has returned to Bosnia due to lack of parishioners. It seems all the Bosnian Serbs in town are a mix of Orthodox, Catholic and Muslim religions. They have intermarried, and chosen no religion, as many of them fled the religion driven war of the 1990's in their homeland.

Underground mining at Umoona.

Our final stop was the Umoona Opal Mine and Museum, a must for anyone visiting Cooper Pedy. You get wonderful insight into living underground, doing a tour of a now unused home. You learn about the construction techniques, and get to see first hand how dark it is when the lights go out! Somehow, living without windows isn't our scene. We also went into some tunnels to see opal mining first hand, and as we stumbled up the tunnel, we found ourselves delivered safely into the Gift Shop!


The final treasure we found in town, was the vanilla slice from the new bakery in town! Those that had discovered it, were reluctant to share the address. Seems they only bake a limited supply each day, and once you are hooked, it is addictive, and people go to any length to protect their supplier. But Robyn and I tricked them, and rose early in the morning, to clandestinely follow known vanilla slice eaters, to the secret location, where we procured sufficient supplies to sustain us for the days journey north. God they were good, and no we aren't telling where it is!


We sure had managed a lot in a short time at Cooper Pedy, all of it a fantastic experience.