Day 36
Coober Pedy
09.07.2011 18 °C
Today we went to check out Coober Pedy. It’s quiet an amazing place. There are lots of underground houses where people have dug out the limestone and gypsum to create rooms. We went to ‘Fay’s Historical Underground House’ which was built initially by a lady named Fay in the 1960’s. She dug the first 2 rooms by herself and then completed the rest of the home with 2 other ladies. It took 10 years to complete. She now lives in Queensland and is around 78 years of age and the property is now owned by a couple who retired here from Adelaide. They open the home to the public - I suspect it’s to supplement their pension! They only intended to come here for 1 year, but have now been here 8 years. They love it.
We also took in 2 the sights of the town, going to a few underground churches – firstly an Anglican church and then a Christian Fellowship that also have a Comfort Inn motel next door. They were quiet small churches, seating only around 40/50 people but very interesting.
In the afternoon we took a mine tour at ‘Tom’s Working Mine’, which is on the Sturt Hwy on the edge of town. They have 4 x 200 metre square mining leases. They gave us a working demo of ‘picking’ which is basically using a small jackhammer to leaver out the rock/limestone. It looks like very tedious work and at times fruitless.
We had a BBQ tea with Wayne and Venetia Hobbs and also Damien and Prudy (who the Hobb’s have come to visit). (D and P used to live in Horsham, but have been here now for 8 years). Damien has a Finance job at the Coober Pedy council.
Posted by bubblelipsmith 09.07.2011 03:26 Archived in Australia
