Australia’s Underground Homes

Coober Pedy is a town in South Australia. Not many people live in Coober Pedy. Fewer than 2,000 people live there. Coober Pedy is a small town, but it is famous. It is famous because many of the world’s opals1 come from this town. An opal is a kind of blue stone that is very beautiful, and it costs a lot of money. Opals,
however, are not easy to find. People work hard to dig into the ground to get them. Coober Pedy is famous for a second, more special reason: about 1,500 people there live in about 1,000 underground homes called “dugouts”!
The first question people ask when they find out about Coober Pedy is, “Why do the people in Coober Pedy live underground?” The answer is Coober Pedy is located in a very hot desert. It is more than 40 degrees Celsius in the summer!
People want to live underground because it is cool underground. Then, they don’t need to use air conditioners. There are also five underground churches, some underground hotels and a few underground stores. There is another good reason to live underground. It is very easy to make your small home become a big home.
When you want more space to live, you can just dig a new room!
However, Andy Sheils lives in Coober Pedy and he says there is a problem. He says when visitors first come to his town, they don’t see any houses. They are confused. They say, “Where is the place? I don’t understand!”

1. The article says the underground houses are cool in summer. What other good things are there about underground houses?
2. What bad things can you think of when you live underground?
3. Would you like to live in an underground house? Why? / Why not?