White Cliffs

White Cliffs was the first commercial opal field in Australia, worked from the 1880s, and the ground around the town is pocked with tens of thousands of old shafts and mullock heaps that look from a distance like a moonscape. Summer heat here regularly passes forty-five degrees, and the response was to dig: most of the small permanent population lives in dugouts cut into the low hills, where the temperature stays around twenty-two degrees all year, and several are open to visitors, including an underground hotel. The field produced opalised fossils, including marine reptiles and shells. An experimental solar power station operated here from 1981, an early example of solar thermal generation in Australia.

What you actually see

• The dugout homes - underground houses and an underground hotel open to visitors.
• The mined landscape - tens of thousands of shafts and mullock heaps.
• The opal galleries - local sellers and displays including opalised fossils.
• The remoteness - a settlement of a few dozen people in bare country.

When to go

April to September; summer here is genuinely dangerous, with temperatures over forty-five degrees common. Winter days are warm and clear. Roads can close after rain, since the last stretches cross clay soils.

Honest expectations

Abandoned shafts surround the town and walking off marked areas risks falling into one. Services are minimal, with limited fuel, food and accommodation. Phone coverage is patchy, and the drive from Broken Hill takes around three hours.

Nearby

Wilcannia lies south on the Darling; Broken Hill is the nearest city.