Cooper Pedy

Town in central South Australia, 846 km/526 mi northwest of Adelaide; population (1996) 2,800. The town is best known for the underground accommodation favoured by many of the local residents. The ‘dugouts’, as they are known, enable miners and their families to escape from the searing summer heat above ground. Most are as large as conventional houses and furnished in the same manner. Opals were discovered in the district in 1911 and a boom town quickly grew up. In 1956 the largest opal in the world, ‘Olympic Australia’, was found here.