Life against the odds in Australia's underground town - BBC REEL
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- Опубликовано: 25 ноя 2019
- Coober Pedy is at the centre of Australia's opal mining industry. Now the town, where 60% of its residents live underground, is becoming a leader in sustainable living.
Video by Clare Richardson and Henning Goll
To see more videos, please visit: www.bbc.com/reel/
#bbcreel #bbc #bbcnews
Mom I need a bigger room!
Get a shovel!
It's solid rock. Shovel wouldn't work.
"Dad I want a bigger room!"
"'Kay kiddo! You get the blasting box, I'll get the dynamite!"
Actually they just roll up the carpet and drive the boring machine in. Easy peasy. 🇦🇺
Kate,. How do mineral rights and property lines work? You seem to be familiar with area. If you're willing I would like to know what is legal regarding the adding rooms. Is there a code? How does the plumbing work? Thank you. Anything anyone wants to add is more than welcome.
This is an introverts dream. I will go visit there one day.
That's why I'm here - right now. Underground in my rented intravert's cave. I'm a happy little troglodyte.
@@tassadar1977 I live in Perth currently but once the borders re open I’m gonna head up there!
@@tassadar1977 any suggestions to visit?
@@bruhmoment9725 stay out of town. I liked the Dug Out b&b
Yeah I’m thinking of moving there..
Only got 24 hours to explore this town but it still worth it. Friendly people and such a cool place. Beautiful sunset as well.
What was cell phone reception like underground ?
Great spot, and they are right, in Oz we have a lot of space, and plenty of sunshine, solar makes a lot of sense in this country.
Would be stupid not to have solar. Australia is literally the land of the sun as a former Australian PM called it.
Actually they have the same problem arizona has. It too hot. The panels deteriorate quickly then they become a waste issue. Not that I'm against solar. Just realize it has limitations. It is a paradoxical truth. Sunshine is awesome for solar energy but heat isn't good.
@@catfan5756 they need to develop batter methods of keeping the setup cool, but that itself takes energy--unless you use geothermal.
Been there twice! It's an awesome place..and they have one of the best pizzas in oz.
Should probably mention that Coober Pedy residents pay 3x more for water than any other place in South Australia and that most of the pipes leak nearly half the water supply produced by the water treatment plant. Wouldn't be much of a problem if the town wasn't in the middle of a desert.
Welp
Amazing! Thanks for the slice of your life.
Takes a special person to live underground. We don't even like to stay home for covid let alone live in a hole with no windows.
Really? Im considered an essential worker n i was begging for time off like the rest of the world got during the covid lockdown. Never got it. I have so many things to read and do at home id never get bored
Nah people are already lazy homedwellers and only pretended to want to go outside because all of a sudden they weren’t allowed. Like little brat kids.
Until you try it you have no idea
Someone in a thread before this said they have to pay 3 times more for their water and that the pipes leak all the time ... ?
There are usually windows at the front and every room has an air vent to the surface.
I'd move there in half a heartbeat and be the happiest hermit in town.
you dont even have to worry about firenadoes there
We don't really worry bout tornadoes down under in general 😂
@@josh-290 oh sorry i mean firenadoes
Amazing....sustainable...go Koober Pedy people....lovely homes!
Again with the random copied and pasted propaganda... you are pasting this everywhere.
@Mahmoud Murad out with your rubbish
@M Murad What on earth has your spiel got to do with Coober Pedy??!! (Not that I could be bothered reading it all -- far too long!)
@M Murad hmmmm interesting
I was there last week 👍
Super cozy and comfortable
that sounds ferociously hot! i live in a hot climate and i can't fathom living in those types of temperatures
27 November 2019
Fantastic
Underground Town , Australia 🇦🇺
I see the future, our future, but I can't really imagine how this can be applied to big cities like Rome, Naples, New York, Jakarta, with millions of people.
Additionally, I have some doubts that living without a window is mentally healthy.
I would love this
I wanna move there!
Thank you for this - really interesting. I agree: cities are hell! I've always loved Opal - to me it's magical & so very beautiful. Great they run the town mostly on solar power - they've got the space & the sun, but in souther Europe there's loads of sun & I think there should be solar panels on every building & car park - I'm shocked there aren't - yet.
Awesome! You all are lucky.
I've been there. They really aren't.
Take a good look everyone,cause that’s gonna be our future if things keep going the way they’ve been going.
S M no no. Not news. Science. The climate change we are going through was driven by humans putting a tonne of carbon monoxide into the atmosphere. It’s not debatable. Concordance among 99% of climatologists. It’s like saying 99% of doctors think smoking causes cancer and you say nahhhh you’re watching too much news...
Nah dude this is 10X better than where we're headed
Aussie Chunda where did you get that information? Caused isn’t accurate, there are many contributing factors to Earths changing climate, the most prominent is human behaviour, space radiation, has there been an increase in the last 100 years of space radiation or something? What studies have you seen that support this theory?
Aussie Chunda well no I won’t debunk them like any good scientist I ask for evidence before accepting so called facts particularly with all the misinformation on the net. I will, however, review these studies before I come to a conclusion in either direction. When you used the word caused that threw me because we don’t usually talk about direct cause and effect in science it’s hard to prove, we talk about contributing factors. I also know that there is over 99% concordance among climatologists that humans have been the main contributors to climate change but maybe there’s radiative forces that is the main contributor and these climatologists are wrong. Anyways I’ll check out your sources 😊
Aussie Chunda sorry bud you gotta do better research. So radiative forces also include human activities that increase CO2 it’s just a radiative response to the forcing agent (such as CO2).
Mad max 😎
flinstone town 😇
So cool! I want to GO
They are so lucky.
Opal‼️‼️ wowww
just dope
I'd live there
Wise men are hard to find.... Coz they live off the grid in the wild outside the chaos.... 😍
Cool
John, you made the right decision living in Coober Pedy.
Beatiful city is city rock
No stop lights....and no people. Nirvana!!!
There's a nice little pub in Coober Pedy.
What more do you need?
Maybe if they made their own beer...
Here from Airack
I honestly don't understand why all the people who live southern from mediterranean even need power plants... They could easily do with solar and wind only right now!
I’d love it. But I’d want beams for support and stuff so there is no chance of a cave in. and doors for sure
Agreed
It’s rock not dirt but I don’t think anyone would mind what you did in your own “hole” if that made you feel better =)
Not needed
Like some wood beams will stop the ROCK ROOF FROM FALLING IN?
@@THERTOGALthat made me laugh out loud. yeah probably not 😆
This is pretty cool. As far as I'm aware, no African homes adopt this approach which is a shame as I think it's a pretty good idea to go underground in order to avoid the heat.
Also, is the music really appropriate? It sounds more reminiscent of the American Desert than the Australian one. Although to be fair, I think the only thing needed to make it "Australian" would've been just one didgeridoo.
Not as easy as that. It has to be the right sort of very competent but not too hard rock. Also the excavating machines are right there on site, otherwise it would be very expensive.
Both Australian and American music evolved in their earliest British settlement days from gaelic, celtic, Irish, Scottish, Welsh and English music and folk songs. Same instruments, same drumming, strumming and beats.
(Though African traditional music influenced early American music as well.) Early music in both countries was based on British/Irish folk melodies. There are early songs in both nations that have completely different lyrics and sentiments to them but have exactly the same music of a common folksong. The sad songs coming from the hard and brutal lives and injustices suffered in convict and pioneer days were put to the tunes of gaelic and celtic Keening songs. Their olden equivalent to modern African American Blues songs.
After the banjo was invented in America it almost immediately spread throughout Australian regions and complimented the folkstyles of music and dance. Australian Woolshed dancing evolved from folk dancing the same as American Barn dancing but with a different style and form. Old sailor's jiggs were also the forerunner of tap dancing and the modern shuffle and moon walking dances.
Over the years the drumming and strumming and wailing has evolved into Country Music in both nations though along different lines.
Hollywood cowboy music created Country and Western in America alongside their Country music. Whereas Country music has always remained only Country in Australia as the vast and long lasting, empty country regions of Australia exist still as the old environment of the olden day bush ballads and rough, isolated sheep and cattle droving lifestyles.
More modern music has been influenced in both nations by world music but Country music in Australia still retains the old themes of the long, distances, silences and lengths of solitude...... and sounds that echo around the vast empty spaces that can still be experienced in the remote places of country here and interpreted through Australian country music. Also the fun and rowdiness when people of remote areas travel far to gather together for a meet up.
Google Australian Bush Ballads or Colonial Droving songs if interested.
Pfff and who built the underground city and the church?
Wonder what the cost is?
I wonder how the insects and snakes are in their underground homes? I don’t know much about Australia but do they ever have to deal with rain leaking in if it rains there?
Oh man I would love to live there now. My three kids and my husband would do very well over there.
24C never need cooling? Mate, I like to get out there in just a shirt when it's
Love living in the city. Couldn't think of anything worse than living in a place like that. Each to their own though.
Filthy urbanite.
Opening on others’ sometimes contrasting views is the beauty of going through the comments section.
imagine? voluntarily living in an ant heap?
You have no idea until you try it
There's also Lightning Ridge in North West NSW. Opal mining and underground living.
That's where the premium black opal is
I envy them.
COOBER PEDY back in 2002..OH SCORCHING HOT!!!!!!!! HAPPY DAYS!!!!!!........still longed for the COOL green and pleasant land of ENGLAND once or twice.....it gonna take a tough man or woman to live and work there...........
How do i become a member?
Wondering about where the water source comes from?
Probably a deep aquifer?
Wow I hope one of these dwellings are listed in airbnb
I can feel the heat through the screen. Looks lovely, but no thanks for me.
Sounds nice but what is the risk of it collapsing?
It's rock. Not soil.
zero as in zero, they are hard rock not soil.
To each their own.
Ahead of the times these people are. Just look at life in 2021
Wheres the bathrooms??
All underground houses have proper bathrooms and toilets like normal houses above the ground.
I am investigating of this tipe of houses
Amazing! And they save money on HC!
only works under dry and hot climate conditions
Excuse my ignorance, what about ventilation?
Air shafts .
What in case of earthquakes?
@@imaginevinee Not an earthquake zone, only stress release ones (sub 4 Richter) as the whole continental plate is moving. Big ones tend to happen at plate edges.
They have lots of ventilation shafts to create cross breezes.
But how do they get food so far into the desert? Is it trucked in, using fossil fuels? Do they have hydroponics? Would love to learn more.
They're opal miners. They have the money to pay inflated prices for food and water. There's nothing "environmental" about this setup.
Legends say they eat rock for dinner
I’ve been to Coober Pedy three times and that’s two time too many
Bruce and Sheila flintstone
How the sewerage work there?
Reliably.
24... im British thats too warm for me
I'd still paint the walls white. Easier to spot the critters.
Imagine the property taxes....
cheaper than in US for sure...
Water???
Minecraft addicts where you at?
been playing for 7 years so.. here!
The homes looks great but ppl with SAD like me already feeling depressed lol
There are special lights you can buy specifically to treat that.
Go outside for 5 mins that's all the sun you'll need
Plenty of sunshine above ground. I'm sure there would be no problem getting enough 😁😁
Coober Pedy the greatest place to live in Australia
Meh. Lived there for over two years and couldn't wait to leave. It certainly suits some people though.
@@kerensabirch5214 that's what makes us all different. I lived there for a couple of years in the mid 80's
I wonna move there
Of course it is in Australia!
How did a sweet little place like this come to get buried underground...
- russman.
🤣🤣 I see you have a great taste in games
Where do they get their veggies from?
From the moon mmm moon vegetables, there probably growers in town, you can control your gardens climate easy, and obviously it's on a road train root so same place they get there beer and meat
Only 1 main thing decides where i live, does it have stable fiber? :D
What about ventilation?
every underground houses there is proper ventilation, when they build the house they also put long big pipe going above the ground for air ventilation.
Earthquakes?
My heliophobia is acting up just watching this vidio
Man this looks like some kind of a fallout new vegas thing.
Huh? Nothing about a «underground town» here…
But cool that they ave switched to RE
Covid 19 Wtf is that? where have you been under a bloody rock? 😂
And thus there is the benefit of living underneath a rock.
Dward fortress: Ausi mod
53c is 127.4 f . To hot for this girl lol.
Of it wasn't for non windows I dont think living underground would be to bad.
In tornado alley that actually ould be smart if it wasn't for high water tables
Self sufficient with the water supply?
There's a huge underground fresh water reservoir, but due to much mismanagement more water is being taken out than is naturally replaced. (I simply looked in Wikipedia.) The government talks about fixing abandoned bore holes (no longer used by settlers, but still draining water) and other problems but has done remarkably little.
Would love to live here, guess I better grab a pickaxe or a labour job on the solar panels hahaha
Taking “land down under” a bit too seriously
Cell phones working pretty good there underground ?
That would be Buffalo bills Paradise
Coming in 2024 to build a Walmart super center on behalf of America .
Can't wait to get started !
Where do you Park your cars?
How do you keep them clean?
How do you take a shower ?I see laods of dust in there.
What kind of Jobs you have there?
Probably in a underground garage, and the dug out paid for the car and roller door, obviously there is plumbing and septic tanks
Jobs would be opal mining to tourism, to the local services
What about the crime rate ?
Theres a reason the woman in the vid has a heavy duty security door in front of a normal house door.
@@IzzyIsaBoss its because its the only one she could get...there no crime out there
NO Crime??? I was there back in 2002 and I saw the police station which had been blown up with dynamite on at least 2 occasions. Back in England they blamed me for it !!!!! Hey that's just English cops for ya...........*#*#*#*##
@@mottthehoople693 ahahahahah 🤣
Well, I hate to be a Debbie Downer but I just gotta ask…sure the wind and sun are plentiful making energy generation quite possible and perhaps easily affordable. Where the hell is your water supply? And, remote locations usually means high prices for small things…like food.
Hopefully they test the space for radon/ other sources of radiation
People seem to forget. You need money to do this!
That's why you dig holes to find opal to get a regular income too survive.
Preppers Paradise , if the world nukes go out on each other, best place to be is underground
If all the nukes were launched 80% of the land on earth would not be touched anyways.
For how long?)
In America, the leader of the free world will put you in jail for doing this.
Oh, nagging and hatred! Nice one, trumpist!
A good step towards zero carbon emissions. But how do they protect the residents against radon exposure?
This could solve homelessness and just for affordable housing. We need this all over the world.
What makes you think it's cheap? Imagine how labour intensive building into rock must be.
In Cooper Pedy underground houses are more expensive than houses above the ground. Most underground houses at least 2 bedrooms are above $300,000 Australian dollars. Cooper Pedy is not a place for homeless. However, Australia has very low homelessness population.
Earthquake.....
😱
I would imagine that being underground is pretty safe during an earthquake.
😱
Very far from any fault lines where they are
Sunny Gaming and also the damp
Where to run on earthquake?
No running just walk outside and enjoy the tremors
Cooper Pedy is almost in the middle of Australia, there's no earthquake in this area.
@@pinayladyoz8044 not true earth quakes happen there a news article about it
Electricity and internet ?