“White Rocks” is an opal mining town located in a desert area in the far north-west, New South Wales. Opals, first discovered in the area in 1884, and the city was founded around 1889. With the discovery of some precious stones, the city began to grow rapidly, and by about 1900 there were more than 1,000 miner inhabitants. The miners continued to flock to the area, increasing the population to about four thousand, until 1914, when World War I began, and Australian citizens were called up for military service.
Over the years, the population of white cliffs fluctuates between useful and a few hundred, and the pub and general store are kept in business by the patronage of local railway stations. Nowadays, the cost of opal production exceeds $ 1,000,000 per year, as miners use bulldozers and modern mining methods in search of precious gemstones.
White Cliffs is an unusual place that is difficult to see at a glance. More than 50,000 holes have been dug, and a view of the lunar landscape is given around the white rocks. The neighborhood is a barren plain, covered with boulders of spy grass, which includes a series of large parabolic dishes facing the skies, following the daily journey of the sun across the sky. It really could be a sci-fi movie.
Obviously, there was absolutely no planning for the city, as the city spreads aimlessly from the hotel and general store, heading in all directions along dusty, unsealed roads. Civic pride was apparently abandoned by the local population to concentrate fully on extracting precious stones from their underground refugee.
However, when a traveler comes to white cliffs, he is akin to reaching a desert oasis. The nearest city is about 90 km away, the nearest city is Broken Hill, located almost 300 km away, and about 900 km from Adelaide, the nearest capital. During the day, the tourist will find that the city is obviously abandoned, although it will be welcomed in the pub and servo. After a brief inspection of the city, the tourist will find only about 20 houses, most of which will be vacant.
Most citizens work in their opal mines and shelter underground
The daily temperature on the white rocks rises to fifty degrees Celsius during the summer, and in the evening the temperature can drop below zero degrees Celsius in the winter. The underground temperature is twenty-two degrees, so most tenants prefer to live underground in dugouts. These dwellings can be made quite luxurious with air duct systems with air duct, solar lighting and absolute privacy. The local motel, which boasts thirty rooms, a restaurant, a bistro and conference rooms, is completely underground except for the pool, which was built at ground level.
Electricity needs of the city are provided by the sun
White Cliffs is the first village in Australia that uses solar energy to meet the electricity needs of the community. Initially, a team from the Australian National University built a solar power plant in 1981 as an experiment. To collect the sun's rays, two rows of seven parabolic heliostatic dishes were identified and focused on the steam generating apparatus that drives the Stirling piston engine. This system generated 25 kW of electricity, which was stored in batteries and used to power a part of the city. A backup diesel generator was used to provide the rest of the city and cover any downtime the solar system could have.
The experiment was successful, and in 1996 the system was modernized and now has fourteen parabolic dishes containing components of photovoltaic cells that produce seventy kilowatts of electricity. The White Cliffs solar power plant now meets all the electricity needs of the city and enters the grid system, which has replaced the battery bank and diesel generator.
As renewable energy systems are used, there will be many more communities that will switch to solar energy in order to use a more sustainable source of energy and help protect the planet.
