Crocodile Harry's Dugout

Crocodile Harry's underground nest, a few kilometres north of the town centre, is the strangest individual house in a town full of strange houses. It is a hand-dug warren of low tunnels and chambers, every surface plastered with sculpture, signs, photographs, and decades of graffiti from visitors. Harry himself was a fixture of the local mining scene from the 1970s until his death.

The dugout is open to the public for a small fee. Take a torch — the lighting is dim and deliberate — and expect the visit to take 30 to 45 minutes. It is not for everyone, but as a piece of folk art it is unmatched in the Outback.

things to do sight
A story
Arvid Blumenthal — universally known as Crocodile Harry — was a Latvian-born former crocodile hunter who arrived in Coober Pedy in the 1970s and spent decades carving his dugout into a sprawling cave-warren of homemade sculpture, bras left by women who visited him, and graffiti. He died in 2006; the dugout has been preserved as he left it. Scenes from *Mad Max Beyond Thunderdome* were filmed inside.