It could have been a Saturday night in any Australian town. A line of vehicles snaked their way into the drive-in as the sun set.
In place of advertisements for local businesses or a refreshment stand, something else was projected onto the giant screen: a reminder for patrons not to bring explosives into the complex.
In days gone by, Saturday night at the drive-in would often end with a bang in the South Australian town of Coober Pedy.
Stephen Staines, who works on the town's district council, said thatober Pedy has attracted a lot of characters over the years.
He said that it wasn't unusual for them to throw sticks of gelignite at the screen if they didn't like the movie.
The locals are still defiant despite the fact that nights at the drive-in are not as volatile. You need to be in order to survive in one of Australia's most isolated environments.
The summer temperatures here average around 100 degrees. There is a lack of top soil. It is an everyday reality.
What attracts people to a place like this? The word is opal.
Most of the world's commercial opal supply comes from the area around Coober Pedy. A century of mining has left hundreds of thousand of mine shafts scattered around the region.
The miners begin by drilling deep vertical shafts. The mounds that dot the landscape are created by blowers that suck the excavated rubble to the surface.
Kenneth Helfand, a prospector, said it was the possibilities offered by striking it big that kept him mining.
When it is cut and polished, it will fetch 10 times as much as the field worth 10 or 20 thousand dollars an ounce.
He said that what buys you freedom is what keeps you digging.
Coober Pedy is not on a lot of people's radar. The town is so isolated that the local football team's away games are more than 500 miles away.
The British nuclear testing program of the 1950s and 1960s took place 200 miles away at Maralinga. The town of Coober Pedy was worried about the possibility of contaminated equipment being brought to the town from the testing sites. The community hall in the town was feared to be radioactive because of the nuclear fallout. It is an odd relic from a time in Australian history.
The hall and its nuclear legacy were not the only things that Coober Pedy had to offer. My visit became a weeklong stay.
Coober Pedy was established around 1920 after the discovery of opal. There are do-it-yourself mining operations, a cafe that serves homemade waffles and pancakes, film locations, abandoned props and societal debris scattered around town.
The town of Coober Pedy has a unique solution to surviving the summer heat.
Half of the residents of Coober Pedy live underground. The town has underground stores, bars, restaurants, hotels and even churches.
Many structures have been carved into the hills using old mine diggings. The dugouts offer a great escape from the heat of summer and the chill of winter when they are kept at a year-round temperature of 75 degrees. It is one small constant in a town that is tied to the fortunes of the opal mining industry.
Mr. Staines said it was as simple as that.
At the drive-in halfway through the Saturday-night feature, Coober Pedy served up another surprise: a dust storm. Cars were hit by the gale and blanketed in red dust as the screening was stopped.
It was a reminder that even if you are above ground or below it, you never know what you will find in Coober Pedy.
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