The story of the Great Australian Opal begins millions of years ago, when the Eromanga sea dominated most what is now NT, QLD, SA and NSW. Spreading from the Gulf of Carpenteria down far beneath Lake Eyre and up through the Channel Country. This barren land we now refer to as the Outback was once a large inland ocean, and ironically also represents the area of the current great artesin basin!
As the inland sea receded over a long period of climate change, water made its way through the ground and mixed into silica rich soil. This silica rich water hardened in faults in the earth and the remaining shells of decomposed sea life to produced Opal material in the ground.
In 1915 a group of explorers led a expedition for gold into central Australia from the South. Coming to camp in for the night just south of the current Coober Pedy township, the men went to search for water. In doing so they left fifteen year old Willie Hutchinson alone to his devices. As any young, bored boy does, he went for a little kickabout. Little did he know the Opal floaters he would find that day would set off a century of high quantity opal mining.
Coober Pedy was renowned for its Opals before world war two in spite of technical limitations, but after the discovery of the eight mile field by Tottie Bryant in 1945 and the subsequent mechanical advances alongside significant influxes of migrant population fields boomed significantly, especially in the 1970's. Many famous fields came to be and since then Coober Pedy is known as the "Opal Capital of the World" for it's significant contribution to Australia Opal supply both in quality and quantity.