Coober Pedy Hotels

Coober Pedy, (pronounced Coober Peedy) population 3,500, is a small town in South Australia, 846 kilometers north of Adelaide on the Stuart Highway. It is self-described as the "opal capital of the world" and the opals are the only reason why there is a town. Located in the Outback, it is hundreds of kilometers from the nearest settlement. The harsh summer temperatures and the dominant industry mean that most residents live underground, ie in caves bored into the rock of the hills around the town. There are houses and other buildings on the surface but the advantage of being in a cave is that the temperature remains fairly constant. Surface living requires air conditioning. Coober Pedy bills itself as the opal capital of Australia, if not the world. Opal was discovered here by a teenage boy in 1915, and the chance of a strike has since enticed people from all over the world. Coober Pedy is 535km north of Port Augusta, along the Stuart Hwy, and if you stay for any length of time you'll hear outrageous stories of fortunes made and lost, intrigues, vendettas and crazy old-timers. Every few years someone makes a million-dollar find, but some miners spend decades hard at work and make very little for their efforts. The name Coober Pedy is from a local Aboriginal dialect and is said to mean ‘white man's hole in the ground'. About half the population, comprising more than 40 nationalities, lives in dugouts (underground rooms) to shelter from the extreme climate: daytime summer temperatures can soar to over 50°C and the winter nights are freezing. Apart from the dugouts, there are more than 250, 000 mine shafts in the area.