Hutchison Street
Bolshevic Gully Walk
CONTENTS
No. on
mapName
Page
no.
1.
Desert Cave
5
2.
T.A.F.E.
5
3.
Wear-house Arcade
6
4.
Empty Lot
6
5.
Opal Inn
7
6.
Empty Building
8
7.
The Miners Store
8
8.
Catholic Church
9
9.
Mobil
10
10. IGA
10
11.
11
Drug and alcohol Centre
12. Drive-In
12
13. Opal Cave
12
14. Umoona Opal Mine & Museum
13
Originally known
as Bolshevic
Gully, present day
Hutchison Street
has seen many
changes in 100
years. At each of the
numbered points,
you can read a
brief description
of the changes and
developments that
have taken place.
Starting where you
are now at Desert
Cave 1, walk south
taking in 2, 3, 4
and 5 then cross
the street to 6 and
continue through
the numbers walking
north to the DriveIn 12. Now cross
the street again and
walk south to read
about 13 and 14
which the returns
you to the starting
point.
Hutchison Street – Bolshevic Gully Walk /
3
1. Desert Cave
Jacob Santing was Coober Pedy’s link with
the outside world from the 1920’s for the
next 25 years. He brought mail, groceries
and passengers from Kingoonya every week
and had a store against the hill on this site,
staffed by others.
Bert and Ethel Wilson took over the
premises in the late 1940’s, building a new
house, store and post office. “Ma” Wilson
as she was affectionately referred to, is
another legend in Coober Pedy’s history, for
besides having 10 children, she ran the Store,
Post Office, maintained the Flying Doctor
radio and medicine chest, as well as buying
and cutting opal.
Store and later some motel accommodation,
which John Andrea purchased and further
developed in the late 1960’s as the Minos
Restaurant. With other partners, Andrea
built the first Desert Cave Motel, which
was sold to the Coro Family enterprise in
1976. The underground complex that we see
today was the dream of Umberto (Bob) Coro
but it was fulfilled by his son Robert who
designed, helped build and now manages
the luxury underground hotel. Sadly Umberto
was killed in a car accident in 1986, before
the opening of the Desert Cave in 1988.
In the early 1960’s Pastor Fred Traeger
owned the property and built the Mission
BOLSHEVIC GULLY WALK
Bolshevic Gully
Coober Pedy’s CBD, where the Desert Cave
now stands, was known for much of the
town’s history as Bolshevik Gully. Vin Wake
told this story of the origin of the name in
his book Opal Men:
“During the great 1919-20 strike of miners at
Broken Hill, some of the unemployed went
to Coober Pedy to fill in time. During this
period many staunch Labour men regarded
Russia as their spiritual home (The workers’
only Fatherland) and were of the opinion
that the real cure for industrial troubles was
to ‘take over the mines and factories, like
the Bolsheviks did in Russia.’ This led to the
men from Broken Hill being known as ‘the
Bolsheviks.’
4
/ Hutchison Street – Bolshevic Gully Walk
2. T.A.F.E.
One day Tom Brady, a man from Broken Hill,
bought a parcel of opal from Carl Wendt,
who then had a few drinks. The whiskey
went to his head and he became convinced
that Tom had defrauded him. He picked
up his rifle and headed for Tom’s dugout,
announcing that he intended to shoot him.
Fortunately, a man whom he met on the way
managed to calm him and led him home.
As they walked away, Tom Brady informed
everyone within hearing that there were
‘too many of these bloody Bolsheviks around
here.’
Ever since that day the shallow valley at
Coober Pedy has been known as Bolshevik
Gully.”
Jacob Santing was Coober Pedy’s link with
the outside world from the 1920’s for the
next 25 years. He brought mail, groceries
and passengers from Kingoonya every week
and had a store against the hill on this site,
staffed by others.
Bert and Ethel Wilson took over the
premises in the late 1940’s, building a new
house, store and post office. “Ma” Wilson
as she was affectionately referred to, is
another legend in Coober Pedy’s history, for
besides having 10 children, she ran the Store,
Post Office, maintained the Flying Doctor
radio and medicine chest, as well as buying
and cutting opal.
Store and later some motel accommodation,
which John Andrea purchased and further
developed in the late 1960’s as the Minos
Restaurant. With other partners, Andrea
built the first Desert Cave Motel, which
was sold to the Coro Family enterprise in
1976. The underground complex that we see
today was the dream of Umberto (Bob) Coro
but it was fulfilled by his son Robert who
designed, helped build and now manages
the luxury underground hotel. Sadly Umberto
was killed in a car accident in 1986, before
the opening of the Desert Cave in 1988.
In the early 1960’s Pastor Fred Traeger
owned the property and built the Mission
Hutchison Street – Bolshevic Gully Walk /
5
3. Wear-house Arcade
The original building which included an oil
fired brick bakers oven was constructed in
1963 by Italian builders who later wanted to
go mining, selling out to Gordon and Rhonda
Traeger in 1965. The business then became
the Coober Pedy Store selling meat, fruit
and vegetables, groceries, clothes, some
hardware and fuel.
Traegers employed a baker, truck driver to
transport the weekly supplies and other
workers in the store. At the time, some
miners only came in on Saturdays (mail
day) and would fill a wooden tea chest with
continental loaves of bread which was
known far and wide for its excellence.
By 1969, the store had changed hands and
in 1971, then belonging to the Moustrides
family, suffered a disastrous fuel fire at the
rear of the property.
At one time named “The Continental Store”,
the site is now occupied by an opal shop
“Opalios”, a clothing store “The Wearhouse
Arcade”, the opal shop “Seven Stones” and
the Greek restaurant “Tom and Mary’s”.
5. Opal Inn
4. Empty Lot
On July 23rd, 2013, a fire broke out in the
2nd storey of the Multicultural Forum which
resulted in the demolition of the restaurant,
opal shops, hairdresser’s salon, a Greek
coffee shop and private residences as well
as the old bank building where the fire
started. Hence the empty lot in the middle
of town.
In 1959 the Progress Association raffled
a motor car to raise money to build the
Community Hall. The 60’ x 20’ unlined and
partially concreted corrugated iron shed
was built with volunteer labour. In 1960,
Coober Pedy’s first teachers Geoff Byrnes
and Anatoli Waniarcha, used it as their
classroom. School started with 21 Aboriginal
students aged 5 to 15, all classified as grade
1. No furniture had arrived so they used
packing cases for the first week. Their main
teaching aid was a battery-powered record
6
/ Hutchison Street – Bolshevic Gully Walk
player.There were no boundary fences, so
apart from two long-drop toilets, Brewster’s
shop and the Miners Store, the school yard
went on forever.
Across the empty lot, is the old volunteer
fire building. Incredibly, given Coober Pedy’s
history of major fires, Albert McCormack and
Bob Amorosi had to fight to overcome state
government opposition to the formation of a
fire service. They acquired a Bedford truck.
Bob put a tank on the back, painted it red
and converted it to the town’s first purposefitted fire appliance with emergency lights,
a pump, running boards, a water cannon,
a spot light and roll-out hoses. More often,
however, earthmoving equipment was used
to fight fires as water was always in short
supply until 1987 when the reverse osmosis
desalination plant was built.
Following the establishment of The Opal
Store in the early 1950’s by Bert Wilson and
Ron Gough at this location, a short time later
it was taken over by George Marks and Nan
Field. As well as being a combined general
store, petrol station and post office, the
Bush Church Aid Flying Doctor consulted
in the rooms at the back of the store, a
monthly service that began in Coober Pedy
in 1946.
In April 1960, Beppi Coro came to Coober
Pedy followed in July by his brother Attilio,
to go mining at the 8 Mile. Within 3 weeks
they found opal worth £3,000.
In 1960, with a population of about 180
people, Coober Pedy was on the brink
of change. The Coros bought the Opal
store which at the time specialised in
indestructible groceries- tinned milk,
tinned fruit and veg, tinned fish and meat,
potatoes, onions, tea, sugar etc. The Coros
extended the store, rebuilt the rickety
veranda, installed refrigeration and, in 1961,
bought a truck. The Miners Store and Miners
Transport were up and running with Beppi
running the store and Attilio managing the
transport.
In 1962, at 11.30 on a Friday night, the store
burned to the ground. By Sunday afternoon,
the Coros were back in business with a shed
built of old galvanised iron and a truckload of goods from Port Augusta. Attilio
was a concreter and bricklayer by trade
and Umberto (Bob), another brother, was a
builder. They designed and built a new store,
double the size of the old one and with
better refrigeration so they could now offer
luxuries like ice cream and fresh milk. A new
refrigerated semi-trailer was bought and a
weekly trip replaced the old Kingoonya run.
The present Miners Store was built at site 7
in 1973.
Hutchison Street – Bolshevic Gully Walk /
7
6. Empty Building
The Coober Pedy Supplies (CPS) supermarket
owned by Greek partners Jack, Kon and
Dimo operated from this building until the
early 1990’s. Before that, it was Roufos
supermarket and before that, from 1950, it
was Jack and Edna Brewster’s store. This
store “stood out like Bleak House on the
very top of the plateau.” At night, when the
sound of an approaching car could be heard
for miles, Mrs Brewster would go out with
a lantern to flag them down. As Edna was a
very short woman, the only thing the driver
would see after the lantern was the top of
her head and a pair of eyes peering in the
window.
In 1988 Tom and Mary Kiossis opened their
Tom & Marys Greek Taverna next to the
CPS. For 22 years their restaurant was an
outback legend, featured in Food Lovers
Guide to Australia and praised by visiting
celebrities who delighted in discovering
Mediterranean cuisine in the desert. In 2004
Tom & Mary’s moved across the road to its
present location where the current owners
maintain the traditional menu.
Behind the white corrugated fence lies
the empty ground left after the Acropolis
Restaurant, “one of South Australia’s most
convivial venues,” was destroyed by four
sticks of explosive and four 50-litre cans
of fuel at 5am on June 11th 1990. For 25
years the Acropolis was the place to meet.
The high number of teachers and nurses
who became station manager’s wives was
attributed to the Acropolis where station
men came to check out the new women in
town.
7. The Miners Store
The Miners Store opened at this location
following its construction in 1973, its prior
history recorded at site 5.
Over the years there have been many
alterations and renovations to the store
but it has remained a Coro family enterprise
with Linda and Michael jointly managing the
business following their Father’s death in
1998.
It continues to be the hub around which the
town revolves.
8. Church of Saints Peter and Paul
In 1964, the Catholic Church hierarchy
recognised the need for a dugout church,
resulting in the purchase of this block for
£300. Fr Frank Cresp took up residence in
late 1965 and slowly, with voluntary labour,
the hand dug church took shape in what
was literally, “One tree hill”. So instead of a
spire, the church only had a tree sprouting
from its roof.
Bishop Gallagher oficially opened the church
in June 1967 and it was said 200 people
crammed inside on that day. For 10 years, it
was a House of Worship for other religions,
until the opening of the Catacomb Church.
constructed and the stained glass window
added. After a church bell was obtained,
the Opal Inn donated the bell tower. Also at
this time, the dugout Presbytery adjoining
the church was upgraded by the addition
of an above ground kitchen, shower, toilet,
laundry, carport and guests room, all
completed and opened in 1984 by Bishop
Peter de Campo. Take the time to see inside
and appreciate this much loved House of
God.
Originally holding 50 people, extensions
were made with a tunnelling machine,
making the church in the shape of a
cross, and doubling its size. Porches were
8
/ Hutchison Street – Bolshevic Gully Walk
Hutchison Street – Bolshevic Gully Walk /
9
9. Mobil
Coober Pedy’s reputation as a “wild west”
town was established in the 1980’s. The
opal market was expanding. Buyers were
taking everything the miners could dig
up. Locally developed mining machines
meant continuous mining with little down
time. Explosives and diesel were relatively
cheap. Money flowed. In the morning the
cleaners in the bars would find ripped up
money all over the floor. Drinkers used to
have competitions to see who could rip up
the most money. They used to light their
cigarettes with $50 notes.
emergency workers tell the liveliest stories.
They were sober and they were the ones
who had to bandage, calm, stabilise and
shift wounded patrons on stretchers down
the narrow stairs to the ambulance and
hospital. One time someone went through
the plate glass window and got badly cut
up. He was a big man and out of his mind
with anger and drink. Even 6 police couldn’t
hold him still. They had to wait until he bled
out enough to weaken before the ambulance
officer could bandage him and strap him to
a stretcher.
The restaurant above the Mobil (Maria’s /
Porky’s / Red Sands) was the scene of the
wildest exploits, partly because the stairs
and balcony inspired feats of derring-do.
Guns, knives, explosives were all part of the
social scene in those days. Alcohol, women
and ethnic feuds added to the mix. Volunteer
During the filming of Mad Max, each evening
at dusk, a caravan of Thunderdome workers
rattled back into Coober Pedy where the
company bunked overnight. A sign on the
wall at Porky`s set the tone for the town:
“Patrons, check guns and explosives at the
bar.”
10. IGA Supermarket
This site was bought as an undeveloped
property by Mick Lucas in 1973 where he
built a bigger shop than where he was
trading from before which was opposite the
Opal Inn.
The new supermarket “Discount House”,
was totally destroyed by fire on the Race
weekend in October 1981. Lucas’ dilemma
was that their truck was already loaded
with the next week’s supplies so the
decision was made to keep on trading
and leave all orders as they stood. A dairy
company loaded up fridges which were
taken to Coober Pedy for perishables and the
10
/ Hutchison Street – Bolshevic Gully Walk
store operated out of the Lutheran Hall, on
the present site of T.A.F.E., and from the back
of trucks for the next 5 months until the
shop was rebuilt.
Lucas’ finally traded under the name of
Lucas’ 7 Day Supermarket until they sold
out to Tim Carter and his family in 2011, the
business then becoming Carter’s IGA.
11. Drug & Alcohol Centre
The Tractor Shed
The Tractor Shed was named for Bob
Amorosi’s Komatsu D355A, the biggest
bulldozer in the world in 1972. They needed
a special trailer to load the 50-ton machine
at the docks in Adelaide and transport it
over the unsealed road to Coober Pedy.
The trip took 4 days. On their arrival, the
main street was lined with cars and people
who escorted them to the Italian Club
where a huge party was on to celebrate its
arrival and to bless it. Rev. Father Hackett
christened the bulldozer ‘Lucy’ after Bob’s
youngest child. Her name was later welded
on to the hungry plate at the top of the
blade. A bottle of champagne was cracked
on the dozer and Father Hackett prayed,
“Lord, send a mighty blessing on this mighty
machine. Protect it and all those who work
on it from all harm.”
place through the 1970’s. For three years
the Miss Australia quests were held there.
Most events were fund raisers of one kind
or another. Auctions always made money.
People didn’t care about the value of what
they were bidding on. They were in it just
to outbid the other guy, knowing the money
was going to a good cause.
A popular fundraiser was the cream pie
throw. Dozens of small sponge cakes topped
with mock cream were sold for a dollar.
People threw them at the civic leaders
of their choice. As the evening wore on
the targets started throwing pies back; it
became a free-for-all with cream pies flying
everywhere. The walls of the shed were
covered in mock cream. It was a mess. Bob
Amorosi used the new fire truck to hose it
all down the following day.
As the biggest building in town, Tractor
Shed was used as a community gathering
Hutchison Street – Bolshevic Gully Walk /
11
12. Drive-In
Coober Pedy’s Drive-in is one of only seven
drive-in theatres still operating in Australia.
In 2013, production of movies on 35mm
film ceased and the reel to reel projectors
became obsolete. The volunteer Drive-in
Committee and the District Council raised
the money to buy the best digital projector
available, a Barco Alchemy DP2K-32B and
a secure, climate-controlled shipping
container to house it.
In 1959, the Coober Pedy community built a
town hall on the now-vacant lot at stop 5. A
15mm projector showed slides using power
loaned by George Marks by way of a lead
from his store generator. Soon a second
projector was purchased by the Progress
Association and a 240 volt generator. Two
films a week were shown.
Then, in 1964 a group of volunteers decided
to build a drive-in theatre. They looked at the
drive-in at Andamooka and then travelled to
Adelaide to buy tow 35mm projectors. The
screen was built with all volunteer labour
and a utility was raffled to raise money
for materials. The first drive-in opened in
1965 with cone speakers mounted on the
projector room.
In the 1970’s Coober Pedy had the highest
film turn-over in Australia showing 2
different movies a night on the biggest
screen in the country.
14. Umoona Museum & Mine
13. Opal Cave
The mention of the Opal Cave immediately
brings to mind Faye Nayler who arrived in
Coober Pedy as a tourist in 1961 and found
work as a cook at Brewsters. Wanting
more independence, she then opened the
Windlass Café with Sue Bernard but it was
severely damaged by a tornado like storm
within the year.
After trying opal mining, Faye saw that there
could be a better future for her in the tourist
industry as 7 coaches a month came through
Coober Pedy at that time.
She secured the property lease and with
some help from friends began the hard
work of excavating the showroom so the
Opal Cave was born. With her new partner,
Ettie Hall, the business boomed and over
the years, the Opal Cave grounds catered
12
/ Hutchison Street – Bolshevic Gully Walk
for a growing number of buses, particularly
during school holidays.
After 17 years in the business and a few
years of semi-retirement, Faye sold the
Opal Cave in 1982 to Lorraine and Dieter
Sternberg, Lorraine having been the
manageress since 1978. Having seen the
growing numbers of buses that were
coming through Coober Pedy after the
Stuart Highway was sealed, and having 16
buses booked in at one time, the Sternbergs
excavated new backpacker accommodation
and a new showroom in 1986 which they
have developed into an award winning
complex.
George Burford, Coober Pedy’s unofficial
mayor for 20 years, lived and worked in the
dugout marked with the Historical Society
sign. When 23-year old Burford came to the
Stuart Range Opal Fields in 1919, he quickly
became a figure of authority in the small
community of about 70 residents. He was
Justice of the Peace, the Secretary of the
Progress Committee the resident magistrate,
coroner, field opal buyer, administrator
of the Wild Dog Act in Dingo District #7
and the person in charge of distributing
relief rations in the Depression Years. The
Commonwealth Bank agency and the Shell
fuel depot were located at his dugout and
the pedal transceiver was the settlement’s
link with the Australian Aerial Medical
Service at Broken Hill.
George Moroussen was an ‘Afghan’ cameleer.
In the 1950’s, he used to deliver water and
wood with his horse-drawn cart. When the
government tank was low he would cart
water from Matheson’s bore 80 miles away.
In 1958 Don Field, an opal buyer and cutter,
opened an underground opal shop on the
Umoona site, called the “Cave of Gems” as
well as housing a bank agency, clothing
store, and book exchange.
This was followed by Aladdin’s Cave Opal
Shop, “The Largest Underground Showplace
of any Opal Field in Australia’, opened in
June, 1969 by Eric and Mary Smith.
In 1976, the site was purchased for Umoona
Council, the current property owners. In
1984 the business was leased to Yanni
Athanasiadis who continues to operate
Umoona Opal Mine and Museum.
Hutchison Street – Bolshevic Gully Walk /
13