Minnie Berrington was among the first. In 1926, a typist from London made the long journey to Coober Pedy, a remote, South Australian opal mining town halfway between Adelaide and Alice Springs. "I wish I were a man," she wrote in her memoir Stones of Fire. "I'd love to dig for opals." Coober Pedy comes from the Aboriginal term kupa piti, meaning "white man in a hole". Within a few weeks, however, Minnie Berrington was digging alongside the men, pick and shovel in hand, proving that women could go down holes too. This biography details her life, joys and struggles being a single woman in a small, remote Outback town during the 1920s and 30s. Opals -- Australia. | Opal mines and mining -- South Australia -- Coober Pedy. | Opal mines and mining -- South Australia -- Andamooka.