Coober Pedy Opal Noodling

On the edge of the opal capital, an old hand-worked field along Jewellers Shop Road has been set aside on council land as a public noodling area. Visitors sift by hand through the mullock heaps for slivers of opal missed by the miners; no permit is needed so long as you use only your hands and keep off any pegged claims. It was one of Coober Pedy's earliest and richest fields, first dug with pick and shovel in the 1920s.