370 km north of Woomera on the Stuart Highway. Welcome to the moon. Or so it appears. This is the famous opal-mining centre, and the entire surroundings have been reduced to a lunar landscape by decades of burrowing miners.

But the burrowing isn’t all in search of opals. The temperature here often rises above 40°C, the dust is appalling, and the flies are worse. To escape these, the miners burrow entire homes underground. The name Coober Pedy derives from the Aborigine kupa piti, which is the equivalent of ‘white fellow’s burrow’. Some of these underground dwellings are extremely elaborate. There are a couple of underground churches, shops, restaurants, and even some underground motels.

Opals were first found here in 1915, by William Hutchison, who was in fact looking for gold. Servicemen returning from the First World War headed here in droves, and quite a few made it rich.

This region produces most of the world’s opals, and still attracts a wide variety of fortune hunters. Coober Pedy’s 3,500-strong population is said to include over 45 different nationalities. The individual miners tend to be very individual indeed, and all work their own claim. There’s a limit of one person per dig, which has kept out big companies.

Try ‘noodling’ in some of the mounds and you may even strike it lucky with a low-grade opal which has been overlooked. Opals are pretty stones with characteristic opalescent colouring. The superstitious say they’re unlucky. Alternatively, you can always buy one.

If you want to learn what it’s really like mining here visit the Old Timers Mine in Crowders Gully (open 9 am to 5 pm daily; entry fee; www.oldtimersmine.com).