- Bethany spent her childhood in the scorching heat of Cooper Pedy, rummaging barefoot through the dirt looking for treasure with her siblings
- In the dusty earth, they’d find remnants of prehistoric shells and fossils and opals
- When dust storms came, the family sought refuge underground and later, they bought a property and tennelled a three-bedroom home into the hllside
- Occasionally, Bethany’s dad would take her on trips to other towns and she’d spot houses with pools, surrounded by grass. That’s when she realised her life underground was different to most
- She decided she’d leave her life living in an underground cave one day and instead become a business woman in the colourful world outside
- Bethany Mantle, from Tweed Heads, NSW, shares her story…
Hopping up onto the rock platform, I ordered my siblings to gather on the stone floor in front of me.
“Let’s play church,” I said.
At four years old, I loved bossing my older siblings around. As the fourth of eight kids, I lived with my parents, Tim and Robyn, at a church in Coober Pedy, SA.
In 1994, my dad had felt the call of God to pastor a church there. Known as the opal capital of the world, the remote outback town had thousands of mines and little vegetation.
Our church, like most dwellings in Coober Pedy, was a dugout built underground as a refuge from the scorching heat.
The town had a population of less than 3000 consisting mostly of opal miners.
Often we would visit nearby Indigenous communities with our dad and we loved playing with the local children.
Some of my older siblings had been shown by locals how to noodle, the technique for finding opal. Often, we would all rummage barefoot through the dirt looking for treasure.
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We found many shells and fossils, remnants of the prehistoric ocean that once covered the landscape.
We’d ride our bikes around the dusty hills or squeeze onto Dad’s motorised scooter and race it through the dirt tracks.
The church property had two peppercorn trees out front, and we spent ages climbing them and picking their pink berries.
Beyond this was dusty earth as far as the eye could see.
One day, while playing in the yard, I noticed a monstrous formation gathering on the horizon.
I stared in confusion as the ominous shape crept closer.
Suddenly, all went dark, and I screamed in terror, my eyes stinging with pain.
“Get inside!” my older brother, Sam, called out to me. “It’s a dust storm!”
Taking refuge underground as a storm passed became a regular occurrence.
In 1998, my parents bought the property next door to the church. Using a tunnelling machine, they dug a three-bedroom home.
It had vents to allow air in and some light. My room had two sets of bunk beds, and I loved sharing it with three of my siblings.
Once we moved in, Mum put us to work using concrete and local stone to tile the floors and create mosaics on the walls.
Dad would take us with him when he went to preach in other towns. That’s when I began to realise my life was different from most.
“That’s so cool,” I’d say as we passed conventional houses. I drew pictures of my dream house – above ground, surrounded by grass with a pool out back.
“I’m going to live there one day,” I told my family.
I was homeschooled like my older siblings but wasn’t sure where I wanted my studies to lead me, until I was seven, and Sam showed me how to look for opals.
In front of the house was a mound of earth created when our place was dug out.
“Hold the rocks up to the sun and see if they glimmer,” Sam instructed.
I found two rocks with tiny glints of colour.
“I’m going to sell them,” I announced.
Coober Pedy had many opal shops and I was inspired to start my own.
I tied string around the two pieces of common opal and displayed them in our garage alongside other stones and fossils.
Next, I positioned Dad’s work lights over the top and put a sign out saying, Opals for sale.
Standing in the garage all day, I only had one visitor – a tourist who bought a necklace for 50 cents.
I was disappointed but, an interest in business had been sparked in me.
I went on to study business at Southern Cross University, and after graduating, I began a brow and lash styling business called Woods and White.
In 2024, I bought my dream overground home, a unit with a swimming pool out the back and a grassy park across the road, only three minutes from the beach. I live there with my husband, Joel, 26, and daughter, Billie, six months.
It’s hard to believe how far I’ve come from my childhood underground.
When Billie’s old enough, I can’t wait to visit Coober Pedy to show her the cave her mum called home.
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