To discover where 80% of people live underground we have to fly to Southern Australia, precisely to the town of Coober Pedy.
For thousands of years Aboriginal people walked across this area. Because of the desert environment, these people were nomadic hunters and gatherers who travelled constantly in search of food and water supplies as well as to attend traditional ceremonies.
In January 1915, the New Colorado Prospecting Syndicate, consisting of Jim Hutchison and his 14 year old son William, PJ Winch and M McKenzie had unsuccessfully been searching for gold south of Coober Pedy. The men had set up camp and were searching for water when young Willie found pieces of opal on the surface of the ground. This was on the 1st February 1915 and 8 days later the first opal claim was pegged.
Coober Pedy was originally known as the Stuart Range Opal Field, named after John McDouall Stuart, who in 1858 was the first European explorer in the area. In 1920 it was re-named Coober Pedy, an anglicised version of Aboriginal words “kupa piti”, commonly assumed to mean “white man in a hole”.
During the Great Depression of the late 1930’s and 1940’s, opal prices plummeted and production almost came to a standstill.
Typical of Coober Pedy’s history of boom and bust, an Aboriginal woman named Tottie Bryant made a sensational opal find at the Eight Mile field in 1946, starting a new rush to the fields.
During the 1960’s, the mining industry expanded rapidly due to the many European migrants who came to seek their fortunes. The 60’s and 70’s saw opal mining develop into a multi million dollar industry with Coober Pedy developing into a modern mining town.
For ones who don’t know Opal is a form of silica, chemically similar to quartz, but containing water within the mineral structure. Precious opal generally contains 6-10% water and consists of small silica spheres arranged in a regular pattern.
To survive in the desert climate (temperatures can range from 35° C to the 45° C in the shade) people started to live in the underground where the temperature is constant during all the year.
Look at these beautiful underground houses!
For further information please visit https://www.cooberpedy.sa.gov.au/tourism#.Vp4HNjbruCQ
ReaDyscovery 