Writer May-Ying Lam November 16
Piles of dirt made by drilling machines. There are more than 2 million shafts that have been excavated for prospecting and the extraction of opal. (Tamara Merino)
"Photographer Tamara Merino and her boyfriend were driving through the desert in Australia in November 2015 when they started to see a few odd signs: “Underground bar,” then “underground restaurant.” After they got a flat tire, they found an underground church — empty, but lit by a few flickering candles. They had stumbled into the city of Coober Pedy, a partly subterranean community and the opal capital of the world.
The town’s name comes from the Aboriginal phrase “kupa piti,” or, roughly, “white man’s hole.” After the first opal was found in the area just over 100 years ago, some of the earliest opal miners burrowed below the utterly post-apocalyptic, dust-storm-prone landscape to escape punishing temperatures.
The first person Merino met was Gabriele Gouellain, a miner from Germany who invited them into her dugout. As soon as Merino stepped inside, the scorching 117-degree heat wafted away and her eyes adjusted to the darkness. Gouellain, one of the few female miners, told them to stay as long as they wanted, so the pair bedded for the night. In the morning, they were covered in dust and dirt that had loosened from the ceiling. “I could feel the earth was alive and wanted to tell its story,” Merino said via email. Over two years, Merino spent a total of a month and a half documenting the town and its inhabitants.
Around Coober Pedy, the earth is pockmarked with evidence of drilling. Like giant anthills, piles of mullock — rock waste spit up by mining machinery — fill the horizon. Miners sift through them, and once they move on, scavengers (or tourists) can “noodle,” or search the abandoned piles hoping to come upon a gem that was missed.
Gabriele Gouellain, a German immigrant, waits in the kitchen for her husband to return from mining. Approximately 60 percent of the population of Coober Pedy lives in underground houses called “dugouts.” (Tamara Merino)
Lots more pics here:
https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/in- ... d=sm_fb_wd
