Coober Pedy: Ali Carle visits this icon of the Outback region of South Australia

The country around Coober Pedy is an epic landscape, which has captured the eye of filmmakers the world over. But if you make the effort to visit this outback town you need to take time out to examine it for what it is really is - a town of some two and a half thousand souls - most of whom have fallen under the spell of what the great South Australian writer Colin Thiele described as "the fire in the stone" - the opal.

To truly appreciate the place you need to head underground like the army of 300 opal miners who try their luck in the pockmarked opal fields.

And while many worship the gemstone that harks back to Roman times, for others even the regular Sunday service is a subterranean affair. At the Serbian Orthodox Church on the outskirts of town the devotion of one miner is on show for all to see.

At the Church of Saint Elijah, Norm Aston has created works of art which his fellow opal miners can only marvel at. They know how difficult it is to craft pieces in the often soft and crumbling sandstone. While digging here the local Serbian community also hit pay dirt.

"In the process of digging this church out they found about $8,000 worth of opal," said our guide, Paul Athanasiadis.

Paul has lived in Coober Pedy most of his life. The son of an opal miner, he's now the owner/manager the Stuart Range Caravan Park and he conducts regular tours of the town.

To the untrained eye, Coober Pedy is a sprawling chaotic mess of old opal mines and underground dugouts. But to Paul, it's downtown Coober Pedy - inner suburbia - where his neighbours live and where the tunnelling of a new bedroom for the family home can be a lucrative business.

"I know a bloke who planned a three bedroom dugout but he struck a little bit of on the third bedroom," said Paul. "It became a thirteen bedroom dugout!"

Many dugouts are exceptionally comfortable and once you've been inside one you can't help but wonder what lies beneath this outback town with a history of opal mining stretching back to World War One. Next week we'll take you down to meet the miners and explore the natural beauty of a region, which really is one of the gems of outback South, Australia.

REX has regular flights to Coober Pedy.

Coober Pedy
850 north of Adelaide
Regional Express
Bookings: 13 17 13

Published 9th September 2007