A town like Coober Pedy, Part 2

What a great place! What surprised me the most was the expat community here. The town was made by Croatians, Italians, Greeks and 45ish other nationalities. Which brings me to my next point. Australian governments giving back land to the indigenous people. I get that. But... when you find out that before the white men came to Coober Pedy (note, Coober (or Kupa), is aboriginal for uninitiated, or white person, and Pedy (or Piti) is aboriginal for pit, or under ground), there were very few aboriginal people in the area. Which is fine, except... there are three underground dugouts worth 500k each – abandoned. Why? Because the aboriginal people claimed back the land... but, they don't live underground so the places are empty, the families there had to move out. The practical side of me is saying that is just a huge waste. And I know the aboriginal people have a right to ask to get the land back. But let's balance it here – ok, they get the land back, but they also get the Centre link rights. Surely one counters out the other – if they have the land they should be able to live on it without a hand out from the government. My rant for the day over...