Coober Pedy and the breakaways

Today we explored Coober Pedy and it’s immediate surrounds.

In the morning after a bit of shopping and opal browsing we headed up to Faye’s house.

This home was commenced in the 1960’s initially by Faye and later she was joined by two female friends. Together the three of them used picks and hand excavated their home.

The home consists of three bedrooms a kitchen , lounge and dining room and of course a bathroom. 

It was an amazing achievement.

Above is an image of a new home in progress, fortunately these days machines are used and the above home which was HUGE will be featured on Grand designs Australia.

We did a trip to the opal fields, these mounds are a constant feature of Coober Pedy and look like a million ants nests. 

I was lucky enough in the above photo to capture a magnificent wedgetail eagles inflight.

The breakaways are located kms from central Coober Pedy, the colours in these rocky outcrops change constantly and in the short period of time I was there provided me with a diverse collection of photos. All stunning.

The above rocky outcrops are called ”papa” in  the aboriginal culture meaning two dogs , a whiteand brown one.  The two different colours are attributed to different weathering of the same rocks.

The dog fence was commenced in 1880 and was completed in 1885. The fence stretches from 5614kms from Jimbour on the darling downs and ends at Nundroo. 

Above is the underground Serbian Orthodox Church. Into the rock the miners have carved stunning images of religious icons (Unfortunately the size of the photo files have to shrunk to be included in the blog making them not show such fine details very well )

We finished our last day in Coober Pedy watching the sun go down over the town.

We have enjoyed our time here and it’s definitelya place where you need a few days to really see the townwith all it’s underground homes, bars, museums and even a hotel .

À bientôt 

Googygirl