Faye's Underground Home

Faye's Underground Home is a preserved dugout residence in Coober Pedy, South Australia, built in the 1960s by Faye Nayler and two friends who hand-excavated the sandstone. Located on Hutchison Street, it showcases the town's distinctive underground living adapted to extreme desert heat. Now operated as a small museum, it retains original rooms, furnishings and opal-mining artefacts, illustrating pioneering life and the evolution of Coober Pedy's opal fields.

Visitors can explore a hand-dug underground home carved into sandstone, comprising bedrooms, kitchen, living areas, bar, wine cellar and an underground swimming pool. The interior retains original 1960s furnishings, domestic items, opal displays and personal memorabilia of Faye Nayler. Guided tours explain how the home was excavated and how residents live underground to escape extreme heat. The setting is cool and dimly lit, with narrow passages and low ceilings typical of Coober Pedy dugouts.