Welcome to Coober Pedy
by Linda Lees
Title
Welcome to Coober Pedy
Artist
Linda Lees
Medium
Photograph - Photography
Description
This truck, known as a blower, sits at the entrance to Coober Pedy. Blowers are a unique Coober Pedy invention, essentially a giant vacuum cleaner used to extract opal from the diggings.
Coober Pedy is sometimes referred to as the "opal capital of the world" because of the quantity of precious opals that are mined there. It is renowned for its below-ground residences, called "dugouts", which are built due to the scorching daytime heat. The name "Coober Pedy" comes from the local Aboriginal term kupa-piti, which means "white man's hole".
Opal was found in Coober Pedy on 1 February 1915; since then the town has been supplying most of the world's gem-quality opal. Coober Pedy relies as much on tourism as the opal mining industry to provide the community with employment and sustainability. There are over 70 opal fields making it the largest opal mining area in the world. ~Wikipedia
Coober Pedy SA Australia
Featured in Australia in Pictures 23 February 2024
Uploaded
May 30th, 2014
Statistics
Viewed 422 Times - Last Visitor from Cambridge, MA on 04/18/2024 at 2:47 AM
Embed
Share
Sales Sheet
Comments (8)
Michaela Perryman
Congratulations, featured in Australia in Pictures group 24th February 2024 You are invited to add this featured image to our Featured Images Discussion Page January - March 2024
Phil Perkins
Oh, my goodness! First, a wonderful capture of this unusual signage & truck, Linda. Secondly, my dad once had a wooden boat by that same name!! How about that...very nice! like/favorite
Linda Lees replied:
Wow! I wonder how your dad came to name his boat with the name of an Australian opal mining town. Coober Pedy is such a unique place, it's not as red as a lot of the Australian outback, and it's mostly flat with small heaps of soil due to mining. Thanks for you visit, comment, like and fav Phil ☺
Trish Mistric
What an unusual sign lol! I love these kind of shots..out in the nowhere.
Linda Lees replied:
Coober Pedy certainly is in the middle of nowhere. Glad you like this Trish, thank you
Ella Kaye
fantastic capture; terrific description about this location and finding opals....might need to visit this location