Coober Pedy: An Underground Town
The town was founded in 1915, and by 1999 there were 250,000 mine shaft entrances dotted across the land. Large scale mining projects are discouraged and prospectors just have a small plot of land each to dig around in.
The town’s Orthodox Serbian church…
Nowadays tourism is as important an income as the opals with travelers popping by on their way to other places to have a nose about. One attraction is the golf course, people mostly play at night so that they don’t melt, so they have to use glowing balls. There’s no turf so each player carries a small divot around with them for the purpose of teeing off. In fact, the area has virtually no plant life at all thanks to the hot days, cold nights, dry weather and low quality top soil.
As for getting there and away, Manguri Siding (40 odd kilometres from Coober Pedy) has a couple of trains that arrive per week going north or south and daily coaches to Adelaide. The post gets delivered twice a week.
So if you’re looking for the type of holiday where there’s very little to do, no one can contact you and it’s hot all of the time, Coober might be the ideal location.
MORE WEIRD PLACES TO VISIT:
HERSTMONCEUX MEDIEVAL FESTIVAL
