UNDERGROUND VILLAGE.

Taranaki Daily News, 31 December 1921, Page 10

UNDERGROUND VILLAGE.

UNIQUE AUSTRALIAN SETTLEMENT ■Sydney, Dee. 6. One of the most extraordinary villages in the Commonwealth is that named Coober Pedy. on the Stuart s Range opal fields, i~O miles north from Kingoonya, on the East-West transcontinental line. The population is between 70 and 80, and, with the exception of the galvanised iron lock-up, there are no public buildirffs in the ordinary sense of the term, and no licensee! premises, -yet two policemen are stationed there. The inhabitants reside underground in dug-outs, consisting in some cases of two or more rooms. The name of Coober Pedy was given to the place because in aboriginal lingo it means “white man going in hole.” It was here that opal was first discovered in South Australia, and it is still the only held in that State in normal times. ’ This opal is valued up to £3O an ounce . As much as £3 has been paid, for 100 o-allons of water. Boring has proved abortive, and the Government has decided to spend many thousands of pounds to construct ‘ an underground concrete tank. The Commonwealth Post Office is unique in Australia. It is located in one of the dug-outs, in which a general store is conducted. Tins is the only post office of its kind in the Commonwealth service, and is visited by an inspector. To supplement the scanty and costly meat supply rabbits are . kept in conduit on by potato peeling, and other scraps from the table, and killed when required. One digger* is maintaining a family of ten in this manner.