Umoona Opal Mine & Museum, South Australia, Australia

4Apolonia70 5:00 PM Mar 10, 2020

The Ghan Explorer tour option - Opals and mining
After a Greek style lunch at an underground venue and armed with our gifted hard hats, we visited the Umoona opal mine and museum. I was amazed to learn that only 44 opal miners still operated at Cobber Pedy. We were taken through the openning and access was via a relatively steep boardwalk. The soft chalky walls bely the hard work needed to shift dirt. We were shown implements used including small picks and the old fashioned dynamite - a lot of hard wrok for sometimes little gains. Nevertheless our driver Terry told a story of finding a stone in his car tyre and going to a polisher to get it set for his wife. That easy find was worth $2,800 so lucky finds still happen. We were shown how the mine shafts were created, the machinery used and also shown that opals glow under a light source. The tour included facts about the 8 different types of opals and history of mining in Coober Pedy. The museum has a small cafe for tea, coffee drinks and snacks too. Not cold underground or musty smelling. There was an example of a bedroom and it looked quite cosy. The opal jewellery displays included boulder opals and some very expensive stones. A lot to choose from if you want a small and less expensive memento. No idea how long mining will continue. The visit was very educational as well as colourful. Everyone was gifted a small bag of opal rock - potch. Only suggestion to help those of us with mobility issues is to have more chairs throughout the area. Enjoy.

4apim 5:00 PM Aug 23, 2021

Best museum in town
The museum in the town with highest footfall, The Ghan has affiliation here and they bring their passengers first here. Also, this place probably boasts biggest collection of opal in display for sale. Finally, the lookout point above the area is great to catch a long way view of the Coober Pedy sign (the hollywood style)