Coober Pedy
Coober Pedy
Umoona | |||||||||||||
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Town centre | |||||||||||||
Coober Pedy Location in South Australia | |||||||||||||
| Coordinates: 29°0′40″S 134°45′20″E / 29.01111°S 134.75556°E | |||||||||||||
| Country | Australia | ||||||||||||
| State | South Australia | ||||||||||||
| Region | Far North | ||||||||||||
| LGA | |||||||||||||
| Location |
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| Established | 1915 | ||||||||||||
| Government | |||||||||||||
| • State electorate | |||||||||||||
| • Federal division | |||||||||||||
| Population | |||||||||||||
| • Total | 1,437 (UCL 2021) | ||||||||||||
| Postcode | 5723 | ||||||||||||
| Mean max temp | 27.8 °C (82.0 °F) | ||||||||||||
| Mean min temp | 14.2 °C (57.6 °F) | ||||||||||||
| Annual rainfall | 144.2 mm (5.68 in) | ||||||||||||
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| Adjoining localities | |||||||||||||
Coober Pedy (/ˈkuːbər ˈpiːdi/) is a town in northern South Australia, 846 km (526 mi) north of Adelaide on the Stuart Highway. The town is sometimes referred to as the "opal capital of the world" because of the quantity of precious opals mined there. A blower truck is raised above the town sign, representing the importance of opal mining to the town's history. Coober Pedy is also renowned for its below-ground dwellings, called "dugouts", which are built in this fashion due to the scorching daytime heat.
The name "Coober Pedy" is thought to derive from the Kokatha-Barngarla term kupa-piti, which translates to "whitefellas' hole", but in 1975 the local Aboriginal people of the town adopted the name Umoona, which means "long life" and is also their name for the mulga tree.