Gallery: Visit an Underground Mining Town in the Australian Outback
Tamara Merino01Merino-011.jpg
Goran, a miner from Yugoslavia, searches for a trace of opal in the walls of a mine.
Tamara Merino02Merino-003.jpg
Two opal miners using a jackhammer and a tunneling machine.
Tamara Merino03Merino-015.jpg
The opal fields in Coober Pedy.
Tamara Merino04Merino-014.jpg
Gabriele, a German immigrant, sits in her underground kitchen.
Tamara Merino05Merino-010.jpg
Jürgen, a German miner, gets ready to descend into a 60-foot-deep opal mine.
Tamara Merino06Merino-004.jpg
Dirt mounds made by a drilling machine in the opal fields.
Tamara Merino07Merino-005.jpg
A miner uses a circular tunneling machine to expand an opal mine.
Tamara Merino08Merino-009.jpg
Joe has an underground museum including fossils and pieces of opal found in the desert around Coober Pedy.
Tamara Merino09Merino-008.jpg
A glittering piece of opal.
Tamara Merino10Merino-002.jpg
Kids search for pieces of opal on the ground in Coober Pedy.
Tamara Merino11Merino-007.jpg
Jürgen, a German miner searching for traces of opal in the wall of a mine.
Tamara Merino12Merino-012.jpg
Every Sunday, a monk offers service in the underground Orthodox church.
Tamara Merino13Merino-013.jpg
A view of old trucks from inside a Coober Pedy bedroom, with a ceiling made of sandstone.
Tamara Merino14Merino-001.jpg
Each underground house has a ventilation shaft, to recycle the air.
