Somebody driving into town the first time, you wouldn't think there was a lot here

because 95 % of it is hiding underground.

People drive in and go, " Where is the place?

I don't understand ".

Coober Pedy is from the Aboriginal kupa-piti,

which means " white man in a hole ".

At the moment upstairs it is about 122 degrees Fahrenheit.

Down here we 're sitting on about 71, 72 degrees.

No air conditioner necessary.

We're right out in the middle of nowhere.

It takes a day to drive here from Adelaide.

I'd say there's about 1, 000 underground dwellings and at least 1, 500 people living underground.

We 've got five underground churches, we got underground motels,

there's some amazing underground homes here.

Many bedrooms, underground workshops,

you name it, underground we pretty well got it.

I bought my dugout as a fairly small two - bedroom dugout

and I 've been extending it over the years.

Some of this I blasted out, when I could get away with it.

The cops don't like us blasting in town.

We don't do it anymore.

Back in the old days if somebody was going to have a baby,

we'd drop around there with a couple of compressors on a weekend

and some jackhammers and a couple of cartons of beer

and by the Sunday night we dug out a room, cemented the floor,

and walled it up and there's your new baby 's room, honey.

Even though we're so far away geographically from anywhere else,

I don't know why but we just love the place to bits.