Gallery: Visit an Underground Mining Town in the Australian Outback
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Goran, a miner from Yugoslavia, searches for a trace of opal in the walls of a mine.
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Two opal miners using a jackhammer and a tunneling machine.
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The opal fields in Coober Pedy.
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Gabriele, a German immigrant, sits in her underground kitchen.
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Jürgen, a German miner, gets ready to descend into a 60-foot-deep opal mine.
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Dirt mounds made by a drilling machine in the opal fields.
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A miner uses a circular tunneling machine to expand an opal mine.
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Joe has an underground museum including fossils and pieces of opal found in the desert around Coober Pedy.
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A glittering piece of opal.
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Kids search for pieces of opal on the ground in Coober Pedy.
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Jürgen, a German miner searching for traces of opal in the wall of a mine.
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Every Sunday, a monk offers service in the underground Orthodox church.
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A view of old trucks from inside a Coober Pedy bedroom, with a ceiling made of sandstone.
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Each underground house has a ventilation shaft, to recycle the air.
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At night, opal shines under UV light; a man searches the opal fields for pieces left behind.
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