Coober Pedy: inside the Australian town where people live underground

In the dry, desolate landscape of the Australian Outback 500 miles north of Adelaide stands Coober Pedy, a seemingly unremarkable town of 2,500 people. But all is not what it seems here.

That is because 60% of the population live underground in this opal-mining centre, the name of which comes from an indigenous Australian term that roughly translates as “white man in a hole”. There are still 70 opal fields operating in the area but many of the old shafts and tunnels have been converted over time into living quarters. And as the number of subterranean dwellers has increased so churches, a hair salon, a bookshop and even a pool room have also been built.

This “troglodyte lifestyle may seem merely eccentric” in winter, said BBC Future Planet, but its purpose becomes clearer in the sweltering Australian summers, when “birds have been known to fall from the sky”. With temperatures regularly exceeding 50C, living underground provides a cool reprieve from the harsh desert climate.

Outsiders can experience the “subterranean serenity” for themselves, Travel and Leisure said, as Coober Pedy has two hotels, as well as offering the chance to “camp underground”. Once visitors are down in the converted mines, they find “it’s actually pretty homey”, Insider added.

And the experience is especially relevant right now as living underground could be an option for more people as global temperatures rise. People have been “living comfortably underground throughout history”, said Science Alert. Temperatures, the site said, are more consistent as rock and soil absorb and hold heat, meaning less need for “energy-intensive air conditioning or heating”. And “going underground maximises privacy”.

But not everyone is convinced. Will Hunt, the author of “Underground: A Human History of the Worlds Beneath Our Feet”, told Live Science that humans “do not belong” in underground climates as bodies are “not designed” for this way of life.

The residents of Coober Pedy appear content with life down under. Jenny Gough, who has lived in the town since 1961 and found $10,000 (£5,000) worth of opals while digging her underground home, told That’s Life that she would “never leave”.