Inside the world of Australian opal miners who live underground

https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/in-sight/wp/2016/11/16/inside-the-world-of-australian-opal-miners-who-live-underground/

by endswapper • 10 years ago

127 30 10 years ago

washingtonpost.com

steveax2• 10 years ago

In 1990 a friend and I spent a few months driving across Australia and stopped in Coober Pedy on our way from Alice Springs to Adelaide. We had intended to just stop for the night but ended up staying a few days because it was such an unusual place. Highly recommend stopping if you're in the area. The opal fever is a real thing. Most of the residents that we talked to had made one big score and were hoping for that next one. My favorite anecdote from there: we went to the town's drive in theater one night and there was a sign at the entrance stating "no explosives allowed".

vr46• 10 years ago

Heh, I too spent some time there, and it's definitely a dangerous place to go walking around at night with all the uncovered disused mineshafts - there's signs which warn against walking backwards for this reason! The golf course there is also twinned with St Andrews! There's no grass but they are very dedicated. Linky: http://www.cooberpedygolfclub.com.au

arno_v• 10 years ago

"Keep off grass" :D

smegel• 10 years ago

You might want to check it out on Google maps before deciding to "be in the area".

wallace_f• 10 years ago

I went there, this year, in 2016! Same story, driving from Uluru to Adelaide we stopped here, but we found it to be much different than you.

We tried fossicking for opals, and had no luck, but to be fair we were just in a yard in the town, so I think it's been picked bone dry by now in 2016. We did go to a proper site once, but that was farther north in the outback and it was a fossilized sea bed. There we found shark teeth and a squid-like creature, as well as fish scales.

The town is a mix of tourists (mostly grey nomads and backpackers), opals, and crime. We met a lot of great people there from all over the world as well: France, Sweden, Ireland, Germany, if I remember correctly.

There's also a dark side to the town. Residents warn you of the danger and crime at night. At night the audible shouting from a distance of drunk Aboriginals, and a regular police presence of squad cars and sirens fills the atmosphere.

The town was certainly something to see: the underground architecture, including underground churches and hospital are inspiring. Outside, the sun burns hot and the flies stick to you like you're coated in shit and sugar. Seriously, the flies are horrendous in the Australian outback.

The man at the I-site was Aussie through and through. 6'5,'' arms as long as a fishing rod and shoulder's as broad and built as B52, he wrote us directions with a friendly demeanor. On them he spelled 'right' as 'rite.' No worries - in Australia no one has got a strict attitude to worry about things like that.

It was all good mate. We did get bothered by some gnarly Aboriginals. They approached us with no restraint, walking bag-of-good-in-hand, and grabbed at the food I had. I gladly gave it to them as an appeasement: a few ounces of beef jerky was a small price to pay to make the case that that was the last food I had and be on my way.

Roritharr• 10 years ago

Impressive images. For a minute i started googling the composition of opals, thinking there must be a smarter way to find them... until I stopped and realised what rabbithole I was beginning to climb down.

steveax2• 10 years ago

Finding opals is not the problem, they are everywhere there, finding opals with valuable color traits is the problem. It's highly random is my understanding.

phillc73• 10 years ago

I traded opals for a while, but my supply was boulder opals from around Quilpie in Queensland. Not underground like Coober Pedy and White Cliffs, but still not a whole lot there![1]

One of the best introductory books about opals is Opal Identification & Value by Paul B. Downing. It's a few years old now (latest version 2002, first published 1992), but really does cover all the basics of different types and their value very well.

[1] http://www.opalsdownunder.com.au/learn-about-opals/intermedi...

stupidcar• 10 years ago

The photos make it look rather bleak, but it's incredibly bright and sunny, and when we visited it seemed like a cheerful enough place.

Agustus• 10 years ago

Part of the situation where artists should leave in the meta data the filters, lenses, and other things they applied in an effort to get a photo ready for an article. These photos are gritty, amazingly normal for these type of articles.

Nursie• 10 years ago

I wish I'd known it was that interesting, I'd have dropped by on my grand tour a few years ago. Maybe one for the next time I visit.

kw71• 10 years ago

Some guys stopped here on a roadtrip and interviewed one of the residents and showed his underground home. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bfXGuH_I9do

treehau5• 10 years ago

Coober Pedy has one of the most beautiful underground churches I have ever seen https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-1sINQ77Q28

rukuu001• 10 years ago

I was literally the only guest in an underground hostel when I stayed there. A very odd feeling sleeping on your own in a rock cave.

Even though I found it a bit bleak, everybody in Australia should see this place - it's like visiting another country.

hfsktr3• 10 years ago

I didn't see it mentioned but how do they survive? I am assuming that the mining is like freelance work and they sell whatever they find...but to who? The way it read this is a remote place, where do they get food (I assume not much grows in that terrain)[0]?

Even if people worked with other residents for favors/barters instead of money the food thing much be ridiculously expensive to import all of it.

I can imagine hitting that one jackpot find but at the same time not getting one seems like it would be impossible to survive for long.

[0]This kind of applies to most of Australia I imagine though.

I wish they hadn't filtered all the photos but that's nothing to do with the place.

Retric• 10 years ago

Same as most other places. A single 18 wheeler can transport 60,000+ lb of stuff. Which is more than most small town grocery store. As to buying and selling these are cheap to ship and there are probably several wholesaler's in town.

Don't forget they can still order stuff from Amazon it's not in Antarctica or something.

PA: Australia is somewhat famious for using road trains due to the how much stuff they ship to remote areas. https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Road_train

hfsktr3• 10 years ago

Didn't really think about Amazon. I had never heard of a road train either. Didn't even know that one truck would carry that much. Learning a lot already :)

TheSpiceIsLife2• 10 years ago

(I assume not much grows in that terrain)[0]

Not quite.

Australian farmers and graziers own 135,997 farms, covering 61% of Australia's landmass.[1]

We are able to export more than half of our agricultural produce, while more than 90 per cent of fresh fruit and vegetables, meat, milk and eggs sold in supermarkets are domestically produced.[2]

1. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Agriculture_in_Australia

2. http://www.agriculture.gov.au/ag-farm-food/food

TheSpiceIsLife2• 10 years ago

Fun fact: *opium poppy industry in Tasmania – which produces about 40% of the world’s legal

https://www.newscientist.com/article/dn6667-morphine-free-po...

hfsktr3• 10 years ago

I had never seen an image of Australia with grass. I've always seen desert or city (like Sydney). It just never entered my mind that green stuff grew there. My geography knowledge is horrid so I just figured whatever I saw on tv/images was what it was like all over. Really cool that it's not actually the case.

AceJohnny22• 10 years ago

Where is there what looks like a spaceship straight out of Star Wars in this GMaps photo of Coober Pedy?

https://www.google.com/maps/place/Coober+Pedy+SA+5723,+Austr...

Edit: I thought it may be photoshopped, but it's in the satellite view:

https://www.google.com/maps/place/111+Hutchison+St,+Coober+P...

stijnstijn• 10 years ago

It's a prop from Pitch Black, the Vin Diesel movie. This YouTube clip shows it: https://youtu.be/11uE0vKMPKQ?t=7m20s

AceJohnny22• 10 years ago

Wow, I remember now :D

yoran• 10 years ago

I stayed in Coober Pedy when I drove from Darwin to Melbourne. I remember it very well for two reasons. One, I thought to myself that it was the most depressing town I'd ever been. It was hot, dry, dusty and there's literally nothing around. Also, the vegetation never grows higher than 30 centimeters or so; you'll notice on the pictures in the article that the only tree you see is on the painting. Secondly, it's been the only time in my life that I pitched my tent in an underground camping. The biggest advantage was that I didn't need to put in the pegs as there was no wind.

On a side note, our neighbor in the camping was a cyclist who cycled from London to Singapore, took a boat to Perth, and was now cycling through Australia. I couldn't imagine crossing the desert on a bike, yet he was doing it. I just checked his Facebook and it turns out that 4 years later he's still touring the world on his bike!

dghughes2• 10 years ago

Ancient plant and animals fossilized in opal look amazing.

Opal is made of tiny spheres of silicon I have no idea why I didn't know that all these years I guess to me opal never looked like dull grey silicon.

andrewflnr2• 10 years ago

Opal is made of small spheres of silica, SiO2, the same material as quartz.

dghughes2• 10 years ago

Aww :(

Well I was 33% right.

Inside the world of Australian opal miners who live underground

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