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AUSTRALIA
SYDNEY COOBER PEDY CLIMATE TRANSPORTATION
SYDNEY
Sunny Sydney, called the Gateway to Australia, is Australia's largest city and capital of New South Wales. Situated on Australia's southeastern coast, the city embraces the grand sweep of Port Jackson, among the most important ports in the South Pacific, and its many bays and inlets. At first glance, Sydney's most conspicuous features are the Sydney Harbour Bridge, one of the longest steel-arch bridges in the world, and the white, shell-like Opera House complex. Contrary to what those who have never been there might expect, Sydney is a vibrant, cosmopolitan city with a multicultural population comprising Asian, Turk, Anglo-Irish, Lebanese, Greek and Italian immigrants. The city is Australia's chief port and its center for public administration, finance and trade.
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COOBER PEDY
Coober Pedy is a town and opal mining field located at the edge of the Great Victoria Desert. in the central portion of South Australia. Because most of the world's total opal production comes from this area, Coober Pedy is known as the Opal Capital of the World. The first opals were discovered here in 1911 by miners searching for gold. As more miners moved into the area following World War I, they began building their dwellings below ground in "dugouts" to escape the intense heat. The town's name derives from an Aboriginal term meaning "white man in a hole." During the 1960s and 1970s the world opal market boomed, and Coober Pedy expanded into the modern mining town it remains today.
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CLIMATE
Sydney's climate is generally warm, sunny and pleasant. Summers, which last from December to February, tend to be humid, with January temperatures averaging 72° F. Winters, from June through August, are cooler and less humid, with temperatures averaging 55° F in July. Sydney gets an average annual rainfall of 47 inches, with brief tropical summer storms leading into a fairly rainy autumn. Coober Pedy's climate is much hotter and drier than in Sydney, with very low humidity and about five inches of rainfall occurring erratically. Temperatures around Coober Pedy reach above 86° F more than 110 days each year.
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TRANSPORTATION
About 8miles south of Sydney is Kingsford-Smith International airport, which is serviced by flights from most places in the world. Buses run to and from Sydney, and taxis and rental cars are also available. To get to Coober Pedy, most visitors fly or take a train to Adelaide, then drive the Stuart Highway south to the mining region.
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