MINTABIE

Mintabie is an opal mining community in the Anangu Pitjantjatjara Yankunytjatjara (APY lands) in South Australia. It was unique in comparison to other communities situated in the APY Lands, in that its residents were largely not of Aboriginal Australian origin, and the land had been leased to the Government of South Australia for opal mining purposes since the 1980s.

Aboriginal people were the first people to find opals in the area; during the First World War, they traded in black opals at Coober Pedy. Conditions were harsh, and it was only in 1976, with the help of new large machinery, that non-Indigenous people came to the area to mine, and a small township was established.

Native animal species commonly found in and about Mintabie include the galah, thorny devil and netted dragon lizard and the larger lizard variety known as goanna.

In October 2017, the Government of South Australia estimated that Mintabie’s population was about 30 people, although it was acknowledged this increased to about 60 people at different times of the year. During the 1970s and 1980s, it had a population of over 500 people.