Some accommodation is underground.
A collection of photos showing you what it's like there, along with photos from the streets.
Remember Coober Pedy is a fair way from anywhere up the middle of Australia.
Underground Hotel
A back street.
Inside Faye's cottage which was dug out by Fay with a pick and shovel some 30 years ago with the help of two others.
Fay is elderly and lives in a home somewhere in Queensland.
Ceiling in the bedroom, the hole is for air as pipes go up through the rock out above the dirt. The top is covered if it rains, and can be placed wherever, to let more air in or less.
To the lounge room.
The stove - everything is as Faye let it.
The Church of England Church - You can see how it's in front of the hill.
Inside the underground Church of England
The Catholic Church on the outside.
Still at ground level on the inside.
Underground Catholic Church.
Amazing place.
ReplyDeleteWhen I lived in the desert Southwest where it can hit 115 degrees, I always wondered why we didn't build homes into good, cool, earth.
Maybe the landscape was rather different not lending to building underground...
DeleteIn Belgium we have many dug outs from WWI.
ReplyDeleteGreetings,
Filip
Oh yes, I forgot about that...thanks for the reminder.
DeleteHow fascinating, especially Faye's house just as she left it. I wonder what it's like to live in an underground how and in such a severe climate. Do you know any memoirs or autobiographies by someone who has?
ReplyDeleteI don't know of any autobiographies or similar. When being inside the underground house and church, it much the same as being on top of the ground. No windows down under, that's all. My husband wouldn't go in the house though, but in the Churches he did..
DeleteIn America we call the church of england the Episcopal Church
ReplyDeleteOh I didn't don't know that Adam....interesting to say the least..
DeleteHere in Australia we have many Church of England Churches, usually in most towns and of course cities.
Wow what a place, I would so like to one day visit Coober Pedy
ReplyDeleteIt's very different. One day you might get there..
DeleteI've not visited Coober Pedy, but I suspect Lightning Ridge is similar.
ReplyDeleteHaven't been to Lightning Ridge so can't compare. I must look for photos on the Internet of the Ridge..
DeleteMargaret is it amazing place.. In Turkey I have seen similar undergroung houses. But yours ae different
ReplyDeleteI have seen photos of the houses in Turkey, they also are built from the side of the hill or mountain...
DeleteFaye was obviously a gutsy and determined woman. I hope she is LOVING her retirement.
ReplyDeleteVery much so was Faye according to the guide. I believe Faye is in her 80's now..
DeleteThese pictures are a real surprise to me.
ReplyDeleteI KNOW there's a town there, I've just never seen it and in my mind, all I see is acres of flat nothingness with a shack or three and mounds indicating where the mines are.
The town is quite lovely. I thoroughly enjoyed looking into Faye's cottage.
It's amazing how we think some things should be, but when we see it's totally different.
DeleteThere is a hardware shop there as well. Once we bought a jug from there, was the last one till the next lot came..
Fay's cottage is quite lovely, it also has a swimming pool but that was above ground.
Gosh that is really amazing. I hope to visit next year.
ReplyDeleteWorth the visit in my opinion. Very different from what we are used to.l
DeleteDefinitely interesting, and probably keeps a constant temperature, but not for me. I'm waaaayyyy too claustrophobic to be in that house.
ReplyDeleteApparently it does keep an even temperature in all seasons.
DeleteNot being able to see outside could make some people feel like that. I was ok, my husband wouldn't go in.
Hello Margaret,
ReplyDeleteVery nice post. Great to see the view over that wondrful place.
Nice to get a look in that cozy cottage. Good pictures!!
Many greetings,
Marco
Hello Marco...always lovely to see something different..
DeleteThank you..
Super cool. I LOVE specialty hotels, and what a cool stop!
ReplyDeleteVery different to the usual ones..
DeleteBoa tarde, não imaginava construções como as belas fotos mostram, a fotorreportagem é excelente.
ReplyDeleteAG
A unique outback town in Australia...
DeleteFayes house looks really cosy and nice - to a certain extent these places remind me of the houses and churches that I visited in central Turkey that had been dug out of volcanic rock in Cappadocia.
ReplyDeleteSomething very different in Australia but a marvellous idea in that area..
Deletei've never been to coober pedy but my mum and sister went a few times. how wonderful to visit Faye's cottage. it is lovely and i bet so nice and cool underground. it's great to relive your holiday with these posts and photos. it's like getting two holidays. :) hope you are well
ReplyDeleteIt is like having two holidays, and we are at a place called Wynyard now in Tasmania...endulging in the sun, with the beach just a few steps away...
DeleteWe are ok, thanks as we hope you are too..
I know they are cooler but I like to look out windows, I would feel very closed.
ReplyDeletemerle.........
Merle, I would miss windows if I lived there, but some of the houses underground do have glass doors and glass panels each side as you enter underground..
ReplyDeleteI absolutely love Faye's cottage!!! Beautiful series, Margaret, thanks!
ReplyDeleteFaye worked hard to build her home...
DeleteThanks
Such an interesting, intriguing place and one worth visiting. Great photos.
ReplyDeleteLots of stories there to be told...thanks
DeleteI once stayed in an underground 'cottage' in Coober Pedy - it was hard to get used to the lack of windows!! Interestingly, when we went to Andamooka, another SA opal mining town, the houses could only be partly underground as the soil was too dry and rubbly to support the ceiling - maybe that's why Coober Pedy is unique!
ReplyDeleteI suppose after living underground for a while one would get used to no Windows..
DeleteOh really, that's interesting regarding Andamooka.
Coober-Pedy sure seems to have mad quite an impression upon you, and I can see why.
ReplyDelete