Australia. What do we know about the Green Continent? Cute koalas and kangaroos, aborigines, boomerangs, plastic banknotes ... But Australia is also a land of opals. And the small town of Coober Pedy in South Australia is its opal capital. It is believed that the opal stone soothes the nerves, heals the heart, warns the owner about the presence of poison in food, and even gives the gift of prophecy! ..
CUBER PEDY, AUSTRALIA: Unique boulder opal found by miners in Coober Pedy. Coober Pedy is the capital of the Australian Opal Fever. © Dmitry Chulov.The man who first called Australia the "Green Continent" was probably joking. It is green only along the coast, and in the center there is a barren desert, the bottom of a dried up ancient inland sea. Coober Pedy is in the middle of it.
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South Australia is one of the driest regions of the Fifth Continent. Most of its territory is covered with endless deserts, scrubs and salt marshes. But it is in its depths that the real underground storehouse of the country is located.
CUBER PEDI, AUSTRALIA: The picturesque hills of Brayways at sunset. The bowels of the earth beneath these hills hide enormous wealth. © Dmitry Chulov. The mining town is lost in the endless desert. Instead of trees, grasses and flowers - stones, sand and heat under plus 50. Here, more than once episodes of films about life after a global catastrophe were filmed. Even the inscriptions on the fences are appropriate here: “Welcome to Hell!”, Which means “ Welcome to Hell!»
It is 10 hours drive north of Adelaide. Seekers of happiness and adventurers from all over the world come here, in this dusty city scorched by the sun. After all, Coober Pedy is the capital of Australia's ongoing "opal fever".
CUBER PEDI, AUSTRALIA: A prospector car installed in the desert at the entrance to the capital of Australia's Opal Rush. © Dmitry Chulov. Around Coober Pedy, like in a minefield, there are signs. " Do not approach the mines!"- read the strict warnings. The opal mine area stretches for tens of kilometers around. During the years of fever, about one and a half million mines! The local people themselves call the local landscape “ lunar valley».
It was his childhood dream to come to Australia. Two years after arriving at " Green continent "Gennady Karpenko ended up in scorched desert... He is a carver: he searches for opals and processes them in his workshop.
95% of all opals in the world are mined in Australia. This stone has been familiar to locals since time immemorial. True, the Australian aborigines have always bypassed opals - they believe that a spirit with the head of a man and the body of a snake dwells under the ground, luring people with the magical brilliance of multi-colored stones.
Opals were found here by accident in 1915. Now Coober Pedy is the richest deposit in the country. Its name comes from the distorted "Kupa Piti", which in the language of the Australian aborigines means ... "white people in a hole."
CUBER PEDI, AUSTRALIA: Sign warning that the surrounding desert has been spontaneously dug by opal miners. © Dmitry Chulov. There is a battery on his belt, a flashlight on his forehead, and an ultraviolet lamp in his hands - the standard outfit of a local miner. Gennady agreed to show us the places where until recently he managed to find large opals. There are no security guarantees. Any mine here can collapse at any moment. The search for opals is a dangerous business in which everyone works at their own peril and risk!
Gennady, the opal cutter: “A crack on this side, see? Sometimes it is dangerous, everything can collapse here. "
Opals in Coober Pedy are looked for in mines at a depth of 25-30 meters. Someone rises to the surface for years with nothing, while someone in one day can turn into a millionaire ...
CUBER PEDI, AUSTRALIA: Gennady Karpenko looking for opals in a mine. © Dmitry Chulov. In the face, Gennady knows every turn of the adit - he spent more than one day here, underground, with a lantern and a pickaxe.
Gennady, the opal cutter: "I found a few opals in the rock up there, a little - here ..."
His favorite sound in the mine is the crunch of breaking glass. With such, opals are taken out of the breed. After all, opal, in fact, is glass sintered by nature, due to the presence of various elements and inclusions, playing with bright sparks in the light. This stone is better visible in ultraviolet light. Therefore, Gennady now and then turns on a blue lamp in the darkness of the mine.
Gennady, the opal cutter: “Sometimes, when people blow up rock in a mine, then they can miss some of the opals. And you, following them, through their refuse, can find a vein that will bring 3, 5 10 thousand dollars ... "
CUBER PEDI, AUSTRALIA: Mining equipment in operation in one of the opal mines. © Dmitry Chulov. From this one of the niches, having laid explosives, his neighbors-miners recently took out opals for ... 380 thousand dollars!
Gennady, the opal cutter: “Nobody here asks anyone here how much you found, how you sold - this is not accepted at Coober Pedy. There is a lot of cash in this business! "
There are not so many places in the world where you can legally get rich in just one day! Some call it "opal fever", others - fortune, still others - a game of roulette. In the face, you can walk a few centimeters from the most valuable stone and not find it. Or you can accidentally stumble upon an opal vein!
Gennady, opal carver: “When from the wall, where there is nothing, from a small crack suddenly opens this, this is the thickness of the opal! When they are with color, you just stop breathing! You just forget how you breathe! "
CUBER PEDI, AUSTRALIA: Prospector Rade shows the opalized shells he found in the ground. © Dmitry Chulov. Dust, wind and an excavator devouring tens of liters of diesel fuel a day. Many opal seekers, having arrived for a little whileheld in Coober Pedy all life.You just need to stake out a plot - everyone can do it. Father and son Rade and Roger mine opals in an open pit. Since 12 years old (!) Son has been masterfully handling an excavator bucket. His father, who came here in search of happiness in the distant 1967, is now over 70. He carefully examines the stones below, so as not to miss the cobblestone, which may contain opal, relying on experience and intuition.
Rade, seeker of opals: “I found black, pink, green, crystalline - all kinds of opals. True, I was not as lucky as the other prospectors. It was enough for me to pay the bills for life. I am probably the biggest loser of all the old people who work at Coober Pedy! "
CUBER Pedy, AUSTRALIA: The famous opal boulder found in Coober Pedy. Bolder is a type of opal in the form of a layer in the rock. The world's largest boulders are found in Coober Pedy. © Dmitry Chulov. The pride of Rada and Roger is huge " boulder”- the opal that they keep at home. There is no second such thing in the world! They are in no hurry to sell it and show it only on special occasions.
There are several dozen shops selling opals in small Coober Pedy. The most valuable of them are considered pink and black. Depending on the size and quality, the price of processed opals can go up to several tens of thousands of dollars!
Djubitsa works in one of Coober Pedy's opal shops. Prices here are lower than in the big cities of Australia: stones are sold here by those who find and process them themselves.
CUBER PEDI, AUSTRALIA: Refined opal with multi-colored sparkles in light. © Dmitry Chulov. Djubitz, salesman: “This stone is crystalline opal, large in size, transparent and pure. Look, you can see all the colors of the rainbow in it, and the more red there is in the opal, the more valuable it is. "
This stone burns devilishly in the light, its shimmer enchants. But during processing, opal loses up to 2/3 of its volume, or it may crack completely, losing its value. Opal is as fragile as glass. It is enough to drop it and the holographic beauty can shatter into thousands of fragments. Therefore, only experienced craftsmen can work with opal.
CUBER PEDI, AUSTRALIA: Cut opal in the hands of a carver. © Dmitry Chulov. Gennady, the opal cutter: "If the stone is very expensive, sometimes it is up to $ 1,000 per carat, it is very difficult to cut it ..."
Cutting is the most critical stage in opal processing. Sometimes the master looks at the stone for hours, not knowing how to approach it.
Gennady, opal carver: “Opal processing is always a surprise, a lottery. You can just cut and get a colorless stone in two parts, and sometimes you see how the stone starts to play in your hands! "
Carvers say that opal must be felt with hands, only then the master will be lucky in his work. And luck is exactly what the Australian town of Coober Pedy, seized by the "opal fever" of our time, needs so much!
You can watch the video version of this article in the form of a reportage about Coober Pedy, shot by me for the program "Their Mores" (NTV), here:
Write in the comments, what would you like to learn more about Australia about?
In one of the driest corners of Australia, where sandstorms take place instead of rains, and there is no water even underground, the Australians have equipped an underground city with all the attributes of social life.
Coober Pedy is located in the state of South Australia on the eastern border of the Great Victoria Desert. It got its name from the Aborigines, who called the settlement of the new Australians in their ancestral lands "the white man's hole." And the city itself arose as a village of miners. In 1915, a noble opal was discovered in the Stewart Ridge, and later it turned out that layers of precious stone with a volume of 30% of the world's reserves lie here.
From the heat underground
The climatic conditions of Coober Pedy are very harsh. The sweltering heat during the day gives way to a sharp drop in temperature at night. The temperature drop reaches 20 degrees. On the surface of a person, clouds of flies stick around. In addition, sandstorms often occur. In order to hide from the heat and all-pervading sand, the first settlers of the mining village began to equip their homes in spent mines. The peculiarities of the development of the opal deposit required the construction of shallow horizontal shafts in the form of tunnels with branches. Miners with their families began to settle in such sleeves.
Real apartments of several rooms were equipped underground. To maintain coolness, one or two windows were usually cut through near the front door, so the air temperature was naturally maintained around 22-24 degrees.
Churches, shops, workshops, and a cemetery were built underground.
Nowadays, the few residents of the city live in both underground and above-ground dwellings, with air conditioning installed to create a comfortable atmosphere. The dug houses are fully equipped with modern comfort facilities - sewerage, electricity, running water. There is even a choice in the decoration of the premises - natural, when the walls of rooms cut in stone are simply covered with a special compound for cleanliness, and modern - stone walls are sheathed with plasterboard, and such a house is indistinguishable from other houses in Australia.
The main treasure
As already mentioned, the city originated from an opal deposit. There is a museum, shops, hotels, a small local airport. Feature films are often shot in the fantastic surrounding landscapes. In the city and its surroundings, the surviving remains of decorations, various mechanisms and aircraft remind of this.
But the main treasure in these desert lands is water. The nearest artesian well was dug 25 km from Coober Pedy. No matter how close they looked, there was no water. In former times, water was delivered here by pack caravans and it was valued at its weight in gold. Modern residents of the city receive water from a laid water supply system, but its price is much higher than in other regions of the country.
- Iron trees grow in the city - decoration in familiar forms
- The most common form of vegetation is cacti.
- Dug underground houses are called Dugout
- Churches are open to free visits, the main thing is, when leaving, do not forget to turn off the light, which is asked for by signs at the entrance
- The small population of the city consists of 45 nationalities
- Bloer - a machine-vacuum cleaner for sucking rock from a mine to the surface
How to get there
Coober Pedy is located off the Stewart Highway, between Adelaide and Alice Springs. The nearest town, Port Augusta, is 500 kilometers away.
Coober Pedy is a convenient excursion destination on the road to the Red Center from Adelaide. If desired, in the underground city, you can stay overnight at a local underground hotel. If you are traveling in Australia, then by all means take the Stewart Highway, which crosses the mainland from south to north, passing through the states of South Australia and the Northern Territories, it is simply impossible to drive past Coober Pedy.
In the central part of Australia there is a small mining town of Coober Pedy, one of the main attractions of which is its underground houses. The city is known as the world capital of opals, because it is here that about 30% of the world's total reserves of these stones are concentrated, more than anywhere else on the planet. I suggest you take a short photo walk around the world capital of opals.
Most likely, the name of the city of Coober Pedy is associated with its unusual houses under the ground. In the Aboriginal language, kupa-piti, from which the name Coober Pedy comes from, means "the hole of the white man." The city is home to about 1,700 people who are mainly engaged in opal mining, and their homes are nothing more than underground "holes" made in sandstone at a depth of 2.5 to 6 meters.
It is located in South Australia, at the edge of the Great Victoria Desert, in one of the continent's most desolate and sparsely populated areas. At the beginning of the 20th century, the mining of precious opals began here, 30% of the world's reserves are concentrated in the Coober Pedy territory. Due to the constant heat, drought and frequent sandstorms, prospectors and their families initially began to settle in dwellings carved into the mountainside - often it was possible to get into the mine right from home. The temperature in such an “apartment” did not exceed 22 ° C all year round, and the level of comfort was not much inferior to traditional “ground” houses - there were bedrooms, living rooms, kitchens, and bathrooms. But no more than two windows were made - otherwise it would get too hot in summer.
Due to the lack of underground sewerage in Coober Pedy, the toilet and kitchen in the houses are located immediately at the entrance, i.e. at ground level. Bedrooms, other rooms and corridors are usually dug deeper. The ceilings in the large rooms are supported by columns up to 1 meter in diameter.
Building a home in Coober Pedy may even make its owner wealthy, as it is home to the largest deposit of precious opals. Deposits in Australia, mainly in Coober Pedy, account for 97 percent of the world's production of this mineral. Several years ago, while drilling an underground hotel, stones worth about $ 360,000 were found.
Roofs of Coober Pedy. A familiar sight and distinctive feature of the underground city is the ventilation holes sticking out of the ground.
The opal deposit at Coober Pedy was discovered in 1915. A year later, the first miners began to arrive there. It is believed that about 60 percent of Coober Pedy's inhabitants were from southern and eastern Europe, who came there after World War II to work in the mines. For almost a century, this city has been the world's largest producer of high quality opals.
Since the 80s, when the underground hotel was built in Coober Pedy, thousands of tourists visit it every year. One of the most visited places in the city of opals was the house of its recently deceased resident, nicknamed Crocodile Harry, an eccentric, alcohol lover and adventurer who became famous for his numerous love affairs.
Photo: underground church at Coober Pedy.
Both the city and its suburbs, for various reasons, are very photogenic, which is why they attract filmmakers there. Coober Pedy became the filming location for the 2006 Australian drama Opal Dream. Also in the underground houses of the city were filmed scenes for the film "Mad Max. Under the dome of thunder. "
The annual rainfall in Coober Pedy is only 175 mm (in the middle lane in Europe, for example, about 600 mm). This is one of the driest areas in Australia. There is almost no rain here, so the vegetation is very scarce. There are no tall trees in the city, only rare shrubs and cacti grow.
Residents, however, don't complain about the lack of outdoor activities. They spend their free time playing golf, although because of the heat they have to play at night.
Coober Pedy also has two churches underground, souvenir shops, a jewelry workshop, a museum and a bar.
Coober Pedy is located 846 kilometers north of Adelaide, the capital of South Australia.
Coober Pedy has a desert climate. In summer, from December to February, the average temperature is 30 ° C, and sometimes it reaches 40 ° C. At night, the temperature drops dramatically, to about 20 ° C. Sandstorms are also possible here.
Underground gift shop in Coober Pedy.
The townspeople escape from the heat by digging their homes underground.
Underground bar at Coober Pedy.
Such beautiful precious minerals are mined in Coober Pedy - a city that is called the "world capital of opals".
Some descendants of prospectors prefer to decorate their underground houses "a la natural" - they cover the walls and ceiling with PVA solution to get rid of dust, while retaining the natural color and texture of natural stone. Supporters of modern solutions in the interior cover the walls and ceiling with plaster, after which the underground dwelling becomes almost indistinguishable from the usual. Both of them do not refuse such a pleasant little thing as an underground pool - in one of the hottest places on the planet it is a particularly pleasant "luxury".
In addition to dwellings in Coober Pedy, there are underground shops and museums, galleries and workshops, restaurants and a hotel, a cemetery and churches (including the Orthodox one!). But there are few trees and flowers here - only cacti and other succulents can tolerate the hot, dry climate of these places. Despite this. there are golf courses with rolling grass in the city.
Coober Pedy is a staple of many tourist routes in Australia. Interest in the underground city is fueled by the fact that films such as Mad Max 3: Under the Dome of Thunder, The Adventures of Priscilla, Queen of the Desert, and Black Hole were filmed in Coober Pedy. And on the edge of the Opal Capital of the World is the world's largest livestock farm and the well-known Dingo Fence, which is 8,500 kilometers long.
The city is famous for its opals, it is the capital of the opal-stone, shining with all the colors of the rainbow. The development of opals is a little less than 100 years old; their deposits were accidentally discovered while searching for water in 1915. Noble opal is distinguished by an iridescent play of colors, the reason for which is the diffraction of light on a spatial grating and its value is determined not by its size, but by a unique play of color. The more rays, the more expensive the opal. One of the aboriginal legends says that “a long time ago, the spirits stole all the colors from the rainbow and put them in a stone - opal,” according to the other - that the Creator descended from heaven to earth and where his foot stepped, stones appeared, shimmering with all colors rainbows. Opals are mined only by private entrepreneurs. However, this industry brings the Australian economy about $ 30 million annually.
The Coober Pedy area is one of the driest, deserted and sparsely populated areas in Australia. On average, only about 150 mm falls per year. precipitation, and very large differences in day and night temperatures.
If you happen to fly over Coober Pedy, then you will not see the buildings we are accustomed to, but only heaps of rock with a thousand pits and mounds against the backdrop of a rocky red desert, which creates an unearthly landscape that stunning imagination. Each mound-cone with a hole in the middle, visible on the surface, is connected by a shaft to the underworld.
Even the first settlers realized that due to unfavorable weather conditions, when the earth heats up in the sun during the day and on the surface the heat reaches 40 degrees Celsius, and at night the temperature drops sharply to 20 degrees (and sandstorms are also possible) - you can live underground in the shafts of mines after extraction of opals. The constant temperature of underground houses is kept at + 22-24 degrees at any time of the year. Today, more than 45 nationalities live in the city, but the majority are Greeks. The population of the city is 1,695 people.
Water comes from drilled 25 km. from the city of an artesian well and relatively expensive. There is no common power system in Coober Pedy. Electricity is produced by diesel generators and heating is provided by solar water heaters. At night, when the heat subsides, residents play golf with balls glowing in the dark.
Previously, the development of opals was carried out manually - with picks, shovels, and the rock was pulled out in buckets until they found an opal vein, along which they then crawled like bellies. Almost all mines are shallow and the main passages in them are laid by boring machines that break through horizontal tunnels the height of a man's height and from him - branches in different directions. These are practically homemade devices - the engine and gearbox from a small truck. Then the so-called "blower" is used - a machine with a powerful compressor installed on it, which, like a vacuum cleaner, sucks the rock and boulders to the surface through a pipe lowered into the mine, and when the compressor is turned off, the barrel opens and a new mini-mound is obtained - a waste heap.
At the entrance to the city, there is a huge sign with a blower machine.
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Coober Pedy is a small town in the central part of the Australian state of South Australia. The population for 2008 was estimated at about 2 thousand people.
The city is known as the World Opal Capital, because it has one of the richest opal deposits, about 30% of the world's reserves are concentrated here. The name Coober Pedy is translated from the language of the Australian aborigines as "white man's hole" or "white man under the ground."
Due to the harsh temperature regime and the prevailing mining industry, people constantly live in underground caves, in the shafts of mines left after mining. Standard home cave bedrooms with hall, kitchen and bathroom are located in caves drilled inside the mountain, similar to houses on the surface. This maintains a constant optimal temperature, while on the surface it reaches 40 ° C (maximum 55 ° C), at this temperature many household appliances become unusable. But the relative humidity rarely reaches 20% on hot days.
Much of the interest in Coober Pedy is located inside the mines, cemeteries and underground churches. The first trees that could be seen in the city were welded from pieces of iron. The town has local golf courses with movable grass and golfers line small pieces of turf around for a first shot.
Coober Pedy is included in many hiking trails in Australia. Against the background of Coober Pedy, films such as Mad Max 3: Under the Dome of Thunder, The Adventures of Priscilla, Queen of the Desert, and Black Hole were filmed. Around 2012, they are going to conduct an experiment-exercise expedition to Mars.
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