Coober Pedy is an invisible small town in the desert area near Adelaide, South Australia. This small town is located underground but you do not have to worry when visiting there because the infrastructure provided inside is quite complete.
The name Coober Pedy is taken from the Aboriginal Tribe “Kupa Piti”, “Kupa” means white people and “Piti” means hole. So when assembled into one sentence “Kupa Piti” has the meaning of the white (foreign) in the hole.
The city was built in 1915, at the beginning there was a father and son looking for gold in this location, but they can not find a gold but opal stones instead of their beautiful color.
The heat in Coober Pedy was stinging at the moment, which gave Willie Hutchison a tired exhaustion. Seeing his son exhausted his father made an inertial resting place underground and kept digging the ground.
Coober Pedy is a desert area that has extreme temperatures if the summer has a temperature of 40-50 degrees Celsius and underground has a temperature of 24 degrees Celsius so that the humidity below ground can reach 20 percent.
In 1916, residents from outside the city began to come to this city. Very hot temperatures make the residents have to live in the aisles of mine excavations. As time goes by they still choose to stay underground rather than above the ground, the reason is to find a comfortable place underground and feel the temperature is very friendly.
On the surface, there are small humps and beside the mound are always visible hole-like chimney, this functioned as the entrance as well as for air circulation to stay awake. The cost of making a house on the ground is also quite cheap, not as much as the cost of building a house with conventional methods.
All parts of the house building already available from nature can be seen from the roof and walls and footing made of soil. In 1981, this small town was newly known to the citizens of the world after someone named Umberto Coro built the Desert Cave Hotel. This hotel is the first hotel and also eco-friendly hotel as well which is located in this city.
All buildings made from soil and hotel furniture are made from recycled materials. This is the cheapest hotel found in Australia because at a price of us$10 / per night you will get complete facilities.
Though in the basement, all the rooms within the Desert Cave Hotel have ample spaces, such as rooms, kitchens, and warehouses. In addition to residential homes and hotels, this small town within the land has hundreds of other buildings, such as churches, schools, police stations, hospitals, swimming pools, bars, restaurants, and shopping centers.
The uniqueness of this small town makes Coober Pedy get various tourism and cultural awards. It also intrigued everyone on the various news stories about this underground city. Many also refer to this city as “Opal City” because 70 percent of the world’s opal stones are supplied from this city.
In addition to having its own uniqueness, this underground city has a population that always keep the environmental cleanliness in it. This indicates that citizens are concerned about the environment even though the buildings inside it slightly damage the contours of the soil surface. Now this beautiful city is inhabited by 3500 residents who come from 45 countries and become the destination of foreign tourists.
From a quick review of a small underground town, are you interested in going there? If you are interested, Coober Pedy is the perfect choice to fill your holiday.
