Spirit of Isolation - Adelaide to Coober Pedy

Here’s a little behind-the-scenes revelation for you – the South Australia episode of Out There wasn’t originally planned as a two-part production, but not long after arriving at our destination and the extraordinary town of Coober Pedy, it soon became clear there was way too much to fit into just one instalment.

The bizarre desert town has so many intriguing characters, stories, and both natural and human-made wonders that we made the decision to give it an episode almost all of its own.

But before we got there, there was just one more stop-in and a visit to the most literal definition of the term oasis – Coward Springs. In addition to a pristinely kept campsite and a surprising date plantation that’s more than 140 years old, Coward Springs gets its name from the 29-degree spring that emerges from the ground and forms an unexpected touch of spa luxury in the middle of a desert.

It would have been very easy to stay longer for the paradoxical pleasures of stillness and spa bathing in the arid isolation, the howls of dingoes early in the morning, and those delicious dates that the owners turn into a variety of treats, but our final destination beckoned.

Coober Pedy is a wonderfully weird place. What it lacks in conventional beauty, it more than makes up for in pure intrigue. Firstly, it’s a town that almost certainly shouldn’t exist if it wasn’t for the discovery of rich opal deposits. There’s no way anyone would have otherwise built a community that’s so far away from anything, hits 50 degrees in summer, and has little usable water.

Significant mining efforts started in 1916 when settlers first flocked to find a fortune. Of course, the existence of ‘nature’s glass’ was no secret to local Indigenous Western Desert people, who are thought to be responsible for the town’s modern name. In Kokatha language, kupa piti translates as ‘whitefella’ and guba bidi meaning ‘hole in the ground’.

More than 110 years later, that Indigenous rhyming portmanteau is still 110 per cent accurate, with as many as two million holes cut into the desert dirt in a gargantuan effort to find the precious Coober Pedy Grey opal.

There are a few mines that welcome visitors today, but Tom’s Opal Mine combines two unique features. It relatively recently ceased active mining, so it offers an authentic sense of what it’s like in a working opal venture, and owner Paul speaks about the industry with an insightful candidness. If you want to know the reality of making a living digging opal from the dirt without sugar-coating, he’s your man.

But once the precious commodity is out of the ground, it needs to be processed into the stunning gemstones that people flock from all over the world to buy. This is where Trevor – an opal cutter with a quarter of a century of experience – picks up the story.

If you want to hear how opal goes from glossy stone into breathtaking and valuable treasures, as well as an opportunity to buy one for yourself, the Opal Cave in the heart of town is the place to go. Oh, and it’s also an opportunity to experience another of Coober Pedy’s unique features.

With temperatures hitting 50 degrees in the summer, locals realised that using mining machinery to cut dwellings into the earth provided places that need no cooling in the summer nor heating in the winter. The Coober Pedy dugout was born.

Perhaps the most famous and one of the earliest was constructed by the extraordinary Faye Nayler. Not only did Faye dig her own two-bedroom underground house, complete with bar, wine cellar and fully fitted kitchen, she included an amenity you simply won’t believe.

Before constructing the house and adjoining mine, Faye’s first dugout was the Opal Cave and, in doing so, she effectively ignited the tourism industry in Coober Pedy.

But perhaps the most enduring legacy of Faye is that, unlike so many others, she came to Coober Pedy, discovered a fortune in opal, and then quit while she was ahead, returning to Queensland where she lived the rest of her life – very comfortably. I told you she was extraordinary.

There’s so much to experience in this strange and, at times, unsettling town, but with transport there are a number of locations not far out of town that are well worth a visit, including Kanku-Breakaways Reserve and nearby Moon Plain. If you feel like you recognise it, there’s a chance that’s true because it’s such a unique, otherworldly landscape, it’s become popular with filmmakers.

Red Planet, Ground Zero, Pitch Black, Priscilla Queen of the Desert, Mad Max 3 and Mortal Kombat all have scenes shot in the area, which should explain how visually impressive it is and make it easy to justify the 33km drive out.

If you’re the kind of person that likes impressive architecture and manicured gardens, Coober Pedy is not the place for you. But if you see the brutal beauty of the desert and appreciate a town that feels somehow unsettling, but also exciting and compelling all at once, you’ll love this eerie but friendly community.

And if you’re still after something unusual to do in town, pop in to Two Minute Noodlers. Under one roof you can get your hair cut and a bite to eat, wash the car and caravan, browse a truly bizarre and slightly macabre exhibition of artefacts and, if you’re lucky, meet owner Mick. If you do, be sure to ask him what he really wanted to name the business.

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