McCulloch Family Giant Leap: Opal Mining in Coober Pedy

We got away easily from Uluru but we weren’t overly enthusiastic as it was hard knowing that we had a 500km drive ahead of us. The first 200 odd kilometres was the exact same road we drove in on so it was a bit of been there, done that. We stopped for a coffee and stretch of the legs at Erldunda and saw them removing sandbags from the storm that hit the day before. Obviously it rained a lot the day before. Before long we were back in the car and on our way to Kulgera to stop at the last pub of the Northern Territory, or the first one depending on which direction you are travelling from.

Think this car has seen better days.

Erldunda Pub/roadhouse.

It was a nice, quirky place but we wanted to get further and their caravan park didn’t really have any shade which on a hot day is what you kind of want. So off we headed to Marla, which meant crossing over into South Australia. So we stopped quickly for a photo and were in luck as there was another car stopped having a break, so they took a photo for us. After what felt like a massive day of driving, we finally made it to Marla and even after being told not to stop there we deemed it felt safe and was nice so booked into the caravan park which is also the servo, supermarket, post office and pub! Nice, we don’t have far to go for anything! The only down side was that the pool was out of action.

Crossing another boarder.

Long stretches of road.

Early in the morning I was awake (daylight savings I hate you) and saw flashes of lightning. I didn’t think much of it until I went to go outside and was hit with a big gush of wind. You see we had picked this awesome shady spot to park the car and caravan under, the problem now being it was under a big gum tree. So being the good wife I am, I woke up Jason who took a while to understand what I was saying and then promptly hopped out of bed. I don’t think he fully believed me until he nearly got pulled out of the door when he opened it as the winds had really picked up. Decision made, we were moving to another part of the park.

Must keep up the 1st of December tradition.

It is a family task.

Nearly finished the tree - then we started on the tinsel.

Luckily as it was only an overnight spot for us we had everything all hitched on so we just unplugged the power and put up the jack up and we were off. I stayed in the caravan with the kids as we were only moving 200 metres just to get out of reach of the tree. It was odd sitting in the van as it moved and I was quite amazed at how smooth it was. Soon we were in another spot and the power plugged back in. The kids slept through everything and the storm never hit us. However we didn’t leave Marla until much later than we anticipated as the wind was really strong around 7am and didn’t die down until 8am. It was still quite windy so we decided to do some eKindy sessions and wait to see if it would settle down more.

By 10 am it hadn’t but Jason was confident that we would be fine and he would take it easy. I wasn’t so convinced but since he was driving I was happy to give it a go. I think my nerves were rattled as only the day before there were pictures of a caravan blown over on the Nullarbor. They had pulled over onto the side of the road because of a passing storm, so were stationary but still got blown over when a mini tornado hit! It really makes it hit home as to how much more open you are to the elements in a caravan, and how some things are just out of your hands.

This photo doesn't do justice of the dust blowing across the road of the service station.

Finally the wind dies down and we get some cloud cover.

Loosing our vegetation.

To cut a long story short, Jason was right and as the worst of the wind was actually behind us it made the fuel economy into Coober Pedy pretty awesome. We arrived just on lunch time and made our way to the Oasis Caravan Park. The name might paint a different picture for you. There are not a lot of trees and certainly no grass, but being the only caravan park with a working pool it was my idea of an Oasis. The gentleman on check in was very friendly as we only booked in for one night with the possibility of extending. Coober Pedy on first appearances is a different town all right, it is very dusty and there is just rubbish everywhere. Not your common every day rubbish but old broken down cars and scrap metal just lying around. We scored a site under some shade cloth which certainly made keeping the van cool a lot easier.

Water is also scarce here and most of the caravan parks don’t provide a tap to connect water to your caravan, however there is a water station as you drive into town and another right near our caravan park where you can buy 30L of water for 20c. So it would cost us a huge $1.20 to fill our water tanks. We didn’t bother filling our water tanks as they were nearly full and thought we could just use their amenity blocks for showers if we ran low or out of water. Mind you after inspecting their amenity blocks I decided it was way nicer to shower and use theirs. They must be brand new or very well maintained!

We found out the caravan park also ran tours of the town so we booked into one for the following morning and headed off to the information centre to see what else was around town. There they gave Jason all the information on the town whilst I tried to keep the kids quiet and not destroy the place. As the information centre informed us that our tour would not include the Greek Orthodox Church and as it was the best underground church in town we headed straight out to it. It is amazing how they build everything into the side of the hills. Yes they are underground but you don’t really feel claustrophobic as one side has windows where natural light comes in. The difference in temperature hits you straight away (dropping from 40 to 24 degrees) and you soon realise why most people choose to live underground.

Greek Orthodox Church from the outside.

Effective windows.

The main room.

Carvings in the wall.

Next we checked out the Big Winch and the lookout over town before making our way to the noodling area. The noodling area is where tourists can try their luck at finding opal without the worry of falling down a mine shaft. We found a few pieces but nothing that made us think it was anything of value. Unfortunately it doesn’t look like we will be able to fund a longer trip on opals.

The Big Winch.

Overlooking town one way.

Storm off in the distance.

Lots of parking available for our car!

The next day we were up and ready for the tour which left at 8:30. Before doing so I talked to the Manager regarding staying underground for a night. I wanted to know if we could leave our van in the park. He informed me that he has a house that he lets people stay in for the night. He doesn’t live there as he has to stay onsite at the caravan park. It was only a bit more expensive than a motel room, but to actually experience a four bedroom house we knew it was good value.

On the tour around town we got to see the underground Greek Orthodox Church (again), local golf course (let’s just say there was no green colour to it), the old catchment zone where a big water tank was built so that water would no longer be an issue, however now they have water from an underground stream (all the way from Queensland) it is no longer used. A lot of things on the tour we could have just driven and seen ourselves, however our tour guide Rudi taught us so much, knowledge you could only gain from a local.

All ready for our tour.

The golf course.

Around town are a few new homes that don’t look very big, but we learnt that they most likely have the equivalent size underground. Most (95%) of the towns power is generated from diesel generators with the final five percent coming from the one wind turbine. Most miners in the area are in partnerships and there are not any companies. There are thousands of mine shafts around so you can’t just walk around carefree as you could end up 30 metres underground. They are not fenced off as legally you don’t have to and they can’t be filled back in as the law states so! Apparently there might be someone in there and you don’t want to trap them! In the past miners have used hand, bulldozers and even explosives but the common way now is by a large vacuum cleaner and then by hand. It would have been a tough job, especially in the summer heat. We even learnt how the underground home sewage and power is designed and we walked through an old mine. Honestly, Rudi was a wonderful tour guide and at the ripe old age of 79, he certainly knew his history of the area and had the best stories as he was an ex opal miner himself.

Old underground mine.

It was a pretty impressive mine.

As close as I got to an opal ring - Jason wouldn't buy it for me!

At one stage we stopped and got to noodle (look) for opals. Unfortunately we didn’t strike it lucky and everything we had found the day before that we thought may be of value was rubbish and worthless. So I guess we will have to look for another way to fund this travelling lifestyle that we are becoming quite accustomed to. After the tour I took the kids for a swim in the caravan park pool. It is a quirky pool as it is inside a tank and even though it was a hot day, the water was very cold. Eventually I did get in and the kids really enjoyed it.

Eventually we made our way to the house that we were staying in for the night. As you walked through the front door it felt like a gush of air-conditioning hit you. It is obvious it isn’t, but that is just how cool underground living is. It was very homely and you could really see the difference between the hand dug out parts and the sections that were dug out by machine. Even though it was so dark inside, once you turned off lights it was a battle getting the kids (okay just Kayla) down to sleep. Although once we won the battle it was nice to have a big lounge to chill out in.

The lounge room.

One of the four bedrooms.

The staircase that joined the hand dug out part to the machine dug out part.

The kitchen.

Out the front of the house.

The next morning we were due to depart Coober Pedy but as we all slept in we decided to stay another night back in the caravan to sort out the furniture removal/storage and finish off Hamish’s last week of eKindy. First job was to fumigate the van as it seems that a lot of ants had moved in overnight. Normally we spray around the wheels and legs of the van to prevent them from getting in, but this time we had forgotten. I also managed to catch up on a few loads of washing that seemed to be backing up.

For a break we headed out to the Breakaways where they had shot many movies such as Mad Max and Muriel’s Wedding. It is only a short drive out of town and as you are just driving along the road, it suddenly drops away to reveal the beautiful hills with all different colours. Jason then took the kids for a swim whilst I did a bit of blog typing and put everything in the van away. It is amazing how just a few items left out can make it look untidy and cluttered.

The different colours in the Breakaways.

Car looks at home out here.

It would be spectacular at sunset.

We really enjoyed our stay in Coober Pedy, especially when we weren’t really sure what to expect. Now we just have one more big drive and then a relatively short one and we are getting back towards more built up areas where there just might be a bit more to look at on the drives.