Coober Pedy Opal Fields

 

The township of Coober Pedy is situated on the edge of the Stuart Range in South Australia, 838 kilometres by road north of Adelaide. The historical literature records that Jim Hutchinson was leading a prospecting party looking for gold on behalf of the New Colorado Prospecting syndicate and investigating quartz reefs near Lake Phillipson. On their return journey, camping at the foot of the Stuart Range at Carrygallama Creek, the men were out searching for water. Young Willie Hutchinson, at the age of fifteen years was reported to have found opal on the 1st February 1915. The syndicate pegged the first claim on the 9th February. It has been suggested that the name “Coober Pedy” was derived from the Aboriginal “Kupa” (or Goober) meaning “uninitiated person or white man” and “piti” meaning waterhole or hole. Hence “kupa piti” a “white man’s hole” or “burrow” which could have referred to miners living underground in dugouts.

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