The Underground City in Australia, Where Residents Live to Escape the Heat
Some towns deal with extreme heat by relying on bigger air conditioners and higher utility bills. A small community in the South Australian outback took a unique approach and built much of its daily life within the surrounding rock formations. Summer temperatures can reach 120 degrees Fahrenheit, and winter nights drop low enough to feel cold, so residents have found that the ground provides reliable insulation. All you see above the surface is dust, old mine shafts, and white ventilation pipes.
How A Mining Town Went Under The Rock
Image via Getty Images/magann
Coober Pedy sits in remote desert country, about 525 miles north of Adelaide, and built its reputation on opals. Returned soldiers in the early 1900s began digging for the stones, then discovered that sleeping inside the shafts was far better than sweating in canvas tents. Those rough shelters slowly turned into real rooms as miners widened tunnels into bedrooms and kitchens and linked them with hallways.
Soft sandstone made the work easier, since residents could extend a corridor or add a spare room with basic tools or small tunneling machines. Over time, a large share of the town’s roughly 60 to 80 percent of its people ended up in dugouts that sit at a comfortable low seventies without constant air conditioning.
Life Below Street Level
Image via Wikimedia Commons/Kerry Raymond
The dugouts resemble typical houses more than caves. Long hallways lead to bedrooms, living areas, and bathrooms, all of which are located without windows or street noise. Some homes feature bars, game rooms, or indoor pools, and many have solid internet, electricity, and running water. Visitors get a taste of that setup in underground hotels, showpiece homes, and even a small bookshop and church that sit many feet below desert dust.
Comfort in Coober Pedy is closely tied to cost. The town relies heavily on solar and wind power, so running strong air conditioners around the clock would strain both household budgets and the grid. A dugout sits at roughly 73 degrees Fahrenheit day and night, thanks to the insulating rock, so families skip the worst cooling bills even during long heatwaves.
Water arrives through a pipeline that taps a deep aquifer in the Great Artesian Basin, which covers an area with low rainfall and intense sun. Basic underground homes often sell for significantly less than properties in major Australian cities, although they usually require upgrades.
Could Other Places Do The Same?
Coober Pedy is among a long line of communities that used stone as natural insulation, including historic underground cities in Cappadocia and rock villages in Iran. Many of those sites now function primarily as heritage or tourist attractions, while this small town still relies on underground housing as its everyday infrastructure.
Copying that idea in other hot regions sounds appealing, yet it suits a narrow set of conditions. Dry air helps, as damp climates can bring mold and leaks into underground walls, and the right type of rock makes safe tunneling a realistic option. For most cities, shaded streets, better insulation, and smarter cooling technology will carry the load, while Coober Pedy is a sharp example of how far people can go once they decide that the best way out of the heat is down.