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COOBER PEDY is the most enduring symbol of the harshness of Australia's Outback and the determination of those who live there. It's a place where the terrain and temperatures are so extreme that homes - and even churches - have been built underground, yet which has managed to attract thousands of opal prospectors. In a virtually waterless desert 380km from Woomera and considerably further from anywhere else, the most remarkable thing about the town - whose name stems from an Aboriginal phrase meaning "white man's burrow" - is that it exists at all. Opal was discovered by William Hutchison on a gold-prospecting expedition to the Stuart Range in February 1915, and the town itself dates from the end of World War I, when returning servicemen headed for the fields to try their luck and used their trench-digging skills to excavate dwellings. In summer Coober Pedy is seriously depopulated but, if you can handle the intense heat, it's a good time to look for bargain opal purchases - though not to scratch around for them yourself: gem-hunting is better reserved for the "cooler" winter months. At the start of the year, spectacular dust storms often enclose the town for hours in an abrasive orange twilight. The local scenery might be familiar to you if you're a film fan, as it was used to great effect in Mad Max III and Wim Wenders' epic Until The End Of The World . There's not much to it, just a plain disturbed by conical pink mullock (slag) heaps, with clusters of trucks and home-made contraptions off in the distance, and warning signs alerting you to treacherously invisible, unfenced thirty-metre shafts. Be very careful where you tread: even if you have transport, the safest way to explore is to take a tour, examine a map, then go back on your own. Past the diggings, the Breakaway Range is a brightly coloured plateau off the highway about 11km north of town, of interest for the views, close-ups of the hostile terrain, and bushwalking through two-hundred-year-old stands of mulga. Wandering around the dusty streets, it can be hard to tell whether some of the odd machinery lying about is bona fide mining equipment or left-over film props. The Big Winch Lookout in the centre gives a grandstand view of the mix of low houses and hills pocked with ventilation shafts. The welded metal "tree" up here was assembled before any real ones grew in the area, though in the last few years there have been some attempts to encourage greenery with recycled waste water. For more on mining , check out one of the several mine displays and museums: try Old Timers Mine , Crowders Gully Road (tel 08/8672 5555; $4), or Umoona on Hutchison Street (tel 08/8672 5288; $5). Numerous tours are on offer for around $28: they all feature a town drive, a spot of noodling and a visit to an underground home - which you might find embarrassingly like visiting a zoo. Book through your accommodation, or try Radeka's five-hour tour (tel 08/8672 5223) which includes a look at the Breakaway Range. Coober Pedy has lately achieved a bit of a reputation for violence , which is perhaps not surprising given its extreme climate and the fact that most people have access to explosives. However, signs warning "no parking unless your car is dynamite-proof" are really for amusement value only and visitors are unlikely to be the object of any discord.
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