 Underground home of opal miner Crocodile Harry / The Breakaways |
 On the edge of Sturt's Stony Desert in northern South Australia, the rough-and-ready town of Coober Pedy produces more precious opal than anywhere on earth.
What fantasies lure fortune-seekers, dreamers and drifters to this pockmarked lunar landscape where men and women retreat und erground from the searing heat and dust storms of the desert summer?
Perhaps half the dwellings are excavated into the stony hillsides, as is the smartest hotel in town, the Desert Cave. Man-made caverns offer an enticing retreat when a searing dust storm is raising hell outdoors. Ironically, the ban on mining within town limits inspires home extensions that go on forever... and ever...
A black-robed Orthodox priest, a trio of white-shirted Chinese, a solidly-built Aborigine and two American tourists joined me on the flight up from Adelaide. That assortment just about encapsulates Coober Pedy, whose 3,500 people are an unholy mix of forty nationalities; the opal buyers from Hong Kong; the Umoona community, descendents of the desert nomads; and tourism, which offers the brightest hope for the future.
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