In 1915, a teenage boy was searching for gold with his father in the Australian outback. Scouting the moonscape that sits halfway between Alice Springs and Adelaide, neither could know that an inland sea once drained water and minerals through this vast expanse of silica, creating ideal conditions to produce a precious gemstone. Rainbow-coloured opal has been prized for millennia as an alluring gem renowned for its beauty and rarity. Gold might have been the goal, but the teenage boy unearthed a rich prize of opal instead.

Within months of his discovery, hundreds of prospectors arrived to stake their claim around a new settlement. Aboriginal Australians called it “kupa peti”, a phrase meaning ‘white man in a hole.’ More than a century later, the dusty town of Coober Pedy produces about 70 per cent of the world’s opal. Mining Australia’s national gemstone generates tens of millions of dollars annually.

These days, Coober Pedy also attracts curious outback road-trippers with its miner-owned opal shops, mine tours, an opal museum, and the opportunity to sleep in an underground hotel. Fifty per cent of the local population live underground in roomy ‘dugouts’, which provide shelter from the searing heat, strong desert wind, and evening cold. These constant and comfortable interior temperatures also mean low energy bills, with an added opportunity to strike it rich during household renovations. The town of Coober Pedy prohibits mining within its borders, but if you’re expanding your dugout, blast out a wall and happen to hit a vein of opal, well, it’s yours to keep.

After a fabulous lunch of grilled lamb in one of the underground restaurants, I climb a nearby hill to get a better view of the dugouts. Immediately, I spot a spaceship in need of repair. It turns out to be a prop from the 2000 Vin Diesel sci-fi movie Pitch Black. 1985’s Mad Max Beyond Thunderdome, 2000’s Red Planet and 2021’s Mortal Kombat were also filmed here since landscape artists don’t have to work hard to create the perfect alien planet. Being in a sprawling, remote and hostile desert also means expensive props and equipment can simply be discarded, along with the tools, equipment and junk of opal miners. Film buffs might want to check into the White Cliffs Underground Motel, which features in the classic film Priscilla, Queen of the Desert.

There’s rusted gear everywhere you look, the legacy of miners who busted out, along with the roughly 10 per cent who actually hit it big. Coober Pedy has no shortage of oversized personalities that testify to both groups. Opposite the museum, I’m drawn to a shop with a big sign out front promising Waffles & Gems, appealing to those with a sweet, expensive tooth. Here, I meet a large man in a kilt named Jimmy, who arrived from Edinburgh to find his fortune four decades ago. Still an active miner, Jimmy proudly points out that his opal jewellery is priced better than anything we’ll find across the street.