Coober Pedy

Coober Pedy sits 846 km north of Adelaide, produces a large share of the world's opal, and more than half the town lives underground. This is the pocket guide to it — from Umoona Opal Mine & Museum, family-owned and hand-worked since the 1920s. THE TOWN, TOLD PROPERLY Read the story from an inland sea to a 14-year-old's 1915 find, why returned WWI diggers started digging homes instead of trenches, and how a desert town gets its water. Plus the characters, the films shot out here, and what to know before you arrive. ALL ABOUT OPAL A plain-English encyclopedia of the gemstone: white, crystal, black and boulder opal side by side, with the types found near Coober Pedy marked. Noodling, opalised fossils, famous stones, caring for opal, and a four-step checklist for buying with confidence. THE SCIENCE, MADE VISIBLE Opal's colour isn't pigment — it's light bending around microscopic silica spheres. Drag the sphere size and watch the flash shift from blue to red, and see why red is the rarest of all. HOW OPAL IS MINED Follow the dirt from surface to gemstone — prospect, shaft, drive, blower, noodle — with real numbers: ~30 m shafts, 50×50 m claims. WHEN TO VISIT Month-by-month averages, annual rainfall, and honest advice: April to October is the comfortable window, and in summer you go underground at midday. TEST YOURSELF Eight questions a round, drawn from a bank of 500 — on the town, the outback and the stone itself. VIRTUAL TOUR Look around Coober Pedy and the Umoona workings in 360°, from wherever you are. VISIT UMOONA The largest single underground tourist attraction in Coober Pedy: guided mine tour, museum, cinema, dugout home and opal showroom. Open daily. Free. No account needed. Works offline once loaded. App by Turbo 360