AUSTRALIAN OPALS

Evening Post, Volume CXXIX, Issue 65, 16 March 1940, Page 15

AUSTRALIAN OPALS

A collection of opal from, Australia's two richest fields at White Cliffs, New South Wales, and Cpberpedy, South Australia, is now on display at the Australian Pavilion at the Exhibition from 10 a.ntu to 6, p.m.

■ The exhibit, which is. worth about £200, has been sent specially from Australia and shows the precious stone in various forms, from rough stone in the seam as it is gouged from the ground to the polished, flashing gem. Some particularly fine black opal is included in the collection. An interesting fact is associated with the winning of opal from the South Australian field. Coberpedy is a complete township but it is built entirely underground. From half a mile away across the fiat , sandy northern section of the Nullabor Plain a traveller would not know that he was near a town. A Post Office, Commonwealth savings bank, stores, and homes ' are all' cut out of soft limestone "formation. This unusual procedure has been adopted, as beneath the soft stone is the only cool retreat from the hot sand-laden winds which penetrate the arid interior.