UP THE TRACK

ROAD TRIPS DON'T GET MUCH BETTER THAN TAKING THE ROUTE NORTHWARDS FROM COOBER PEDY VIA OODNADATTA TO APATULA, TRACING THE ROUTE OF THE OLD GHAN RAILWAY ALONG THE WAY

IT’S funny how the weather can affect things while travelling, either the best-laid plans get thrown out the window and you’ll head home, or you simply just change plans like in our case. Our base to explore was the unique outback town of Coober Pedy in South Australia. Known as Australia’s opal mining capital with underground buildings, a landscape full of molehills and mines, it needs to be visited at least once on anyone’s travel itinerary.

History states that about 150 million years ago, inland Australia was covered by a vast ocean and when it started to dry up, the water and silica seeped in to the earth’s cracks and fault lines. Over time, chemical reactions happened, opals were formed, and in 1915 the first opals were found by Willie Hutchinson. Today, Coober Pedy’s many mines produce 85 per cent of the world’s most stunning opals … and they say, if you can’t find colour here, you’re not looking.

The word got out and a year later, miners rushed the area and established a town. Today, it’s a busy place offering plenty of opportunities to explore the dugouts and mines. In fact, records show there are about 260,000 shafts across the local landscape. Around 50 per cent of the townsfolk live underground due to the extreme temperatures in summer, and interestingly there are more than 40 different nationalities making up the population.