Month: July 2023

Its boastful sign notwithstanding, Coober Pedy is definitely not a city.

846 ks north of Adelaide, Coober Pedy has fewer than 2,000 “permanent” residents, and the local housing market is decidedly “depressed”.

The town’s self-declared status as “opal capital of the world” is, however, defensible.

Reportedly, its name derives from kupa piti – a phrase coined by the local Aboriginal people whose ancestors arrived in South Australia’s outback more than a few thousand years before kupa piti described any of it.

Kupa piti translates as “whitefellas’ hole”.

The Arckaringa Hills – widely known as “the painted desert” – are conveniently near to the roadhouse in this series’ previous episode….and likewise far distant from any city.

They are very good badlands.

The Cadney Homestead Roadhouse is a bona fide “remote” location.

It sits on the Stuart Highway in South Australia’s far north, nearly 1,000 kilometres north of Adelaide, a little more than 150 ks north of Coober Pedy, and 534 ks south of Alice Springs.

The Painted Desert is conveniently nearby.