Coober Pedy — The Underground City

Coober Pedy is the most surreal place in Australia — a town where most residents live underground. In the scorching desert of South Australia (summer temperatures up to 50 °C), the opal miners have dug their homes, hotels, churches, and even a bar into the soft sandstone. Underground, the temperature remains a constant, pleasant 22–24 °C.

Coober Pedy produces over 70% of the world's opals — the town area is riddled like Swiss cheese, with an estimated 250,000 abandoned shafts. "Coober Pedy" comes from the Aboriginal word "kupa piti" — "white man in a hole."

What to See

• Underground Homes: Visit a real underground home — Faye's Underground Home (15 AUD) is the most famous: bedroom, kitchen, and living room, completely carved into the rock, with a swimming pool and bar.
• Serbian Orthodox Church: An underground church, completely carved into the sandstone. Beautiful acoustics and cool silence. Free.
• Old Timers Mine: Historic opal mine with a museum. You can crawl through real shafts and experience the history of opal mining since 1916. Entry 15 AUD.
• Noodling: Search for forgotten opals in the abandoned spoil heaps — called "noodling." Occasionally, someone actually finds a valuable opal. The heaps around the town are freely accessible (caution: don't fall into shafts!).
• The Breakaways: 30 km north of Coober Pedy — a surreal moon and Mars landscape of colorful mesas. Scenes from "Mad Max" and "Priscilla — Queen of the Desert" were filmed here. Entry 4 AUD.

Accommodation: Sleep underground! The Desert Cave Hotel (from 180 AUD) or the Lookout Cave Underground Motel (from 140 AUD) offer unique underground rooms — cool, quiet, dark, and an experience you won't find anywhere else.