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Coober Pedy Attractions
Description
Venue: Coober Pedy When: Daily
Coober Pedy, the "Opal Capital of the World", is a slightly surreal outback town halfway between Adelaide and Alice Springs. Despite its inhospitable location, the town has become popular with tourists, who can noodle for opal or observe how it is mined, cut and polished. The other attraction is the way the people of Coober Pedy have chosen to live - the intense heat here has literally driven the inhabitants of the town underground.
Nearly half the population live in underground homes known as "dugouts". These subterranean homes are quite elaborate with mod cons including the all-essential air-conditioning that helps to maintain a steady year-round temperature of 25 degrees, while outside the summer sun can push the thermometer well up into the 50s.
Above ground, the landscape around Coober Pedy is almost as strange as the town itself. The lunar landscape attracts film crews as well as tourists. Ten movies have been filmed nearby, including Mad Max Beyond the Thunderdome, Ground Zero, Pitch Black, and The Red Planet. As the local tourist office says - "there's nowhere else in the world like it".
Coober Pedy, the "Opal Capital of the World", is a slightly surreal outback town halfway between Adelaide and Alice Springs. Despite its inhospitable location, the town has become popular with tourists, who can noodle for opal or observe how it is mined, cut and polished. The other attraction is the way the people of Coober Pedy have chosen to live - the intense heat here has literally driven the inhabitants of the town underground.
Nearly half the population live in underground homes known as "dugouts". These subterranean homes are quite elaborate with mod cons including the all-essential air-conditioning that helps to maintain a steady year-round temperature of 25 degrees, while outside the summer sun can push the thermometer well up into the 50s.
Above ground, the landscape around Coober Pedy is almost as strange as the town itself. The lunar landscape attracts film crews as well as tourists. Ten movies have been filmed nearby, including Mad Max Beyond the Thunderdome, Ground Zero, Pitch Black, and The Red Planet. As the local tourist office says - "there's nowhere else in the world like it".
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