W for WHITE CLIFFS, New South Wales

 White Cliffs is approximately 780 km from Adelaide.  It is about 10 years since we did this trip and spent a few days in White Cliffs.  It is fairly isolated and one of the nearest towns is Broken Hill, a 3 hour drive.  White Cliffs is an opal mining town and many of the houses are underground.  

Welcome to White Cliffs

Pineapple Opal from White Cliffs (photo from Internet)

Opal fields

Peery Lake is in the Paroo-Darling National Park about 50 km from White Cliffs on a fairly good gravel road and the scenery was spectacular.

Road to Peery Lake

Emu on roadside

Peery Lake

Peery Lake

Its always good to see  kangaroos

And some Emus

Some of the diggings

More opal diggings

There are always a few "characters" in these Outback towns and we came across Jock who  was definitely different, he lived in a  Dugout which was open to the public and it was filled with treasures of importance to him.  In fact I'm not sure he had much room left in his underground house as almost every room was filled with memorabilia.  He was full of knowledge of the "old" days and was very welcoming and entertaining.  Unfortunately he passed away about a year after we were there so I think we were fortunate to have met him and have great memories of this true outback character.

The entrance to Jock's place

Some of Jock's treasures

Although Jock's place was very interesting and certainly different, there are many underground homes in White Cliffs that are more above ground homes.  I didn't take any photos of  them but have found photos on the internet that show what some are like inside. There are some very luxurious underground homes too and are available for overnight or longer stays. We have also stayed in an underground Motel in Coober Pedy which was very comfortable and very similar to any above grond motel accommodation, but very cool and very quiet.

Inside an underground home (from Internet)

A street in White Cliffs