A modern, sizeable uranium, gold and silver mining town established to accommodate the employees of the Olympic Dam Mining Project. Olympic Dam mine is the world's largest copper-uranium mine.

Where is it?: Outback South Australia. 92 km from the Stuart Highway; 265 km north of Port Augusta; 571 km north west of Adelaide.




Built features: Olympic Dam (15 km north, a waterhole on the Roxby Downs station, that is now one of the biggest mining operations in Australia).

Lake Torrens

Lake Torrens: a 13km drive to the east of Andamooka will bring you to this enormous, normally dry, shimmering salt lake, which stretches from just north of Port Augusta in the south to just beyond Andamooka in the north. The road to the lake is suitable for 4WD's only with no Caravans.

Lake Eyre

Lake Eyre: famous for being the saltiest lake in Australia, Lake Eyre only fills up once or twice every century. The lake itself, at 15 metres below sea level, is Australia's lowest point. It is also the fifth largest (9,690 square kilometres) terminal lake in the world although it usually contains little or no water.

Brief history: The town came to life with the decision to mine vast mineral deposits in the area that were discovered as late as 1975. The vast ore lode covers an area of 7 km by 4 km to a depth of 1 km. The Olympic Dam operations were opened in November 1988. The town became the target of the anti-nuclear lobby in 1983-84 who were opposed to uranium mining and the nuclear power industry.