History

The Opal Rush: How Coober Pedy Began

A boy's 1915 find did not create one rush but three. Follow Coober Pedy from camel-carted water and Tottie Bryant to migrant miners and the blower.

A Town of Many Nations

How a tiny, brutally hot speck of desert came to be one of the most multicultural towns in Australia - drawn together, and divided, by opal.

Andamooka

Coober Pedy's smaller sister opal town - a ramshackle, characterful field about 5½ hours away by road, famous for matrix opal and pioneer dugouts.

Boot Hill Cemetery

Coober Pedy's main cemetery - a moving, very Coober Pedy place where miners of dozens of nationalities lie, including the famous beer-can headstone.

Coober Pedy Croatian Club

The social heart of Coober Pedy's large Croatian mining community - the Croatian Welfare & Sports Club, part of what makes this such a multicultural town.

Coober Pedy First Cemetery

The town's original burial ground, used from the early 1920s - the resting place of some of the very first people to live and die on the opal fields.

Coober Pedy Italian Club

A warm, volunteer-run miners' club since 1964 - hearty Italian meals, a beer garden with sunset views and walls full of opal-field history. Visitors welcome.

Coober Pedy On Screen: Movies, TV & Media

The lunar landscape that doubled as another planet - the films, TV shows and documentaries that came to Coober Pedy.

Mintabie: The Opal Town That Closed

Once a rough, rich opal field north of Coober Pedy, Mintabie was wound up and handed back to the APY Lands in 2019 - and is now closed to the public.

The Eight Mile Opal Field

The rich historic opal field north of town where the world's most valuable opal was found - quirky sculptures, old diggings and a scattering of people still living out there.

The Water Story: Surviving in a Town With No Rain

In one of the driest places in Australia, every drop is hard-won - from carted water and bores to a desalination plant, and now a 2026 handover to SA Water.

What Does 'Coober Pedy' Mean? The Contested Name

The name is usually traced to the Aboriginal 'kupa piti' - but what it actually means, and even which language it's from, is far from settled.

St Peter & Paul's Catholic Church

An underground Catholic church carved into the rock - completing Coober Pedy's trio of dugout churches.

• Free
• Underground

Catacomb Church (Anglican)

A cross-shaped underground church cut from sandstone in 1977, with fittings made from mulga wood and an old miner's winch.

• Free
• Underground

Crocodile Harry's Dugout

The wonderfully eccentric underground home of a former croc hunter - a Mad Max filming location.

• Underground

Faye's Underground Home

A hand-dug underground home famous for being excavated by three women - with an underground pool.

• Underground

Old Timers Mine

Hand-dug 1916 opal mine turned museum, with an original underground home and self-guided tours.

• Good with kids
• Underground

The Dog Fence (Dingo Fence)

See a stretch of the world's longest fence - 5,600km built to keep dingoes from the south-east.

• Free

Faith Below the Surface: Coober Pedy's Underground Churches

How a multicultural mining town built some of the world's most extraordinary churches underground.

The Cave Homes (Dugouts) of Coober Pedy

Why more than half of Coober Pedy lives underground - the story of the dugout.