TRAVEL TUESDAY 255 - COOBER PEDY, AUSTRALIA

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“To wake in that desert dawn was like waking in the heart of an opal. ... See the desert on a fine morning and die - if you can!” - Gertrude Bell

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Coober Pedy is a town in northern South Australia, 846 km north of Adelaide on the Stuart Highway. According to the 2011 census, its population was 1,695 (953 males, 742 females, including 275 indigenous Australians). The town is sometimes referred to as the “opal capital of the world” because of the quantity of precious opals that are mined there. 

Coober Pedy is renowned for its below-ground residences, called “dugouts”, which are built in this fashion due to the scorching daytime heat. The name “Coober Pedy" comes from the local Aboriginal term kupa-piti, which means “boys’ waterhole". Opal was found in Coober Pedy on 1 February 1915; since then the town has been supplying most of the world's gem-quality opal. 

Coober Pedy today relies as much on tourism as the opal mining industry to provide the community with employment and sustainability. Coober Pedy has over seventy opal fields and is the largest opal mining area in the world. 

 

This post is part of the Our World Tuesday meme,
and also part of the Ruby Tuesday meme,
and also part of the Wordless Wednesday meme.

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