Visit an Underground Mining Town in the Australian Outback - WIRED

The town of Coober Pedy doesn’t look like much—a smattering of buildings and mounds of dust surrounded by a scorched desert divided by the Stuart Highway. The name comes from the indigenous phrase for “white man in hole,” which is apt, because more than half of the 3,5000 residents live underground. Homes, restaurants, even the church lie beneath the surface. “At first glance, this is nothing but a ghost won, says photographer Tamara Merino. “In reality, it’s a subterranean culture.”

Coober Pedy bills itself as the opal capital of the world and by its own estimate produces 70 percent of the world’s stones. It’s been that way since the teen-aged son of a gold prospector discovered opal there in 1915. Two years later, the Trans-Continental Railway brought waves of people seeking riches. The desolation and scorching temperatures, which can top 117 degrees Fahrenheit during the summer, prompted people to dig out subterranean homes to escape the heat. In time, most people moved on, but a hardy few still pull Australia’s official gemstone from the ground and sell them to brokers and jewelers the world over.

It takes some effort to reach Coober Pedy, which is 525 miles north of Adelaide in South Australia. Merino discovered it her van got a flat tire in November of 2015. She and her boyfriend decided to stick around, and after five days a family invited them to stay in their home 50 feet below the surface. Merino found descending into the tunnels otherworldly, and so fascinating that she spent more than two weeks there. She returned for another month in March.

Generators and solar panels provide power, ventilation shafts provide air, and an underground spring 15 miles to the north provides drinking water. Most folks earn their living through mining or tourism—Mad Max Beyond Thunderdome was filmed there, as was an episode of Top Gear Australia. Although Coober Pedy is a tight-knit community, there are those who embrace solitude and isolation. Merino heard stories of people who sleep in the mines to protect their bounty, and she met one fellow who has spent years living alone in his dug-out home. “He will never hear any other sound other than his own echo on the walls,” says Merino. “For him this kind of lifestyle is freedom.”

Her dark, moody photos often feel claustrophobic, and provide a captivating glimpse of what lies just below the surface of the opal capital of the world.

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