Latest news with #CooberPedy
The Sun
04-07-2025
- Lifestyle
- The Sun
I enjoy lux living & fab sleep in my cut-price home – in an UNDERGROUND CITY…when you see the weather you'll understand
A MUM has revealed what life is like living in a $277k underground home to escape Australia's brutal 55C heat. Sabrina Troisi, 38, is from Stuttgart, Germany - but now lives in Coober Pedy - a remote South Australian town with a twist. 9 9 9 With temperatures soaring to a sweltering 55 degrees in the shade, residents have been forced to think outside the box. To escape the dangerous heat, Sabrina lives in a "dugout" with her husband, Nick, son, Thomas, 14, and daughter, Leah, 13. "Dugout" is the local term for homes carved out of the hillside. The family paid £132,000 for their unusual underground property - which has two living rooms, two bathrooms, a pool table, an indoor and an outdoor spa - all tucked beneath several metres of rock. Sabrina, who works as an office manager at a mine, said: "Walking into our house is just walking into a hill, basically." The living space at the house is about four metres underground, while Sabrina's workplace - further into the hillside - sits around six metres down. Coober Pedy, with a population of around 1,600, is known for its unique underground lifestyle. Around 60 per cent of the residents live in dugouts - made easier by the soft gypsum-rich sandstone which holds its shape without extra structural support. Originally trained as a childcare educator in Germany, Sabrina came to Australia on a gap year where she met Nick, her tour guide. The pair fell in love and eventually settled in Coober Pedy in 2013, drawn by its "charming environment" and unusual dwellings. Rescuers dive from helicopters into floodwaters to save stranded as floods batter Australia Sabrina said: "We had friends in Coober Pedy and wanted to move away. "We used to travel through it a lot, up and down the highway and it's just got a charming environment most of the year. "Underground is just fascinating so we thought, Coober Pedy was 100 percent the place for us." At $277,000 AUD, their dugout was much cheaper than the average Adelaide property - which sits at $796,000. The mum-of-two said: "It's much cheaper to live underground than above ground. "It's cheaper because you don't need to heat or cool the rooms and you just need lights inside. "It's also much cheaper to rent or purchase dugouts because the roof is already there, you just tunnel into the hill to make a building." Some homes are machine-dug in two months. Others can take years: "I have seen people digging for 10 years," she said. 9 Sabrina's favourite part of underground life is the peace and quiet. She said: "There's no outside noise. When you shut the door, everything disappears. It's completely dark, completely quiet, perfect for sleeping. I love sleeping underground. "I wake up in the morning without windows, so you don't actually look out the windows and see what the weather is like, like any other person. "But you assume it's normally nice weather in Coober Pedy, so there's not much rain here. We get maybe five to 10 rain events a year. "So you can probably leave your umbrella at home. Sabrina has gotten so used to the quiet, underground way of life that city breaks now exhaust her. She said: "When I go on holiday, I'm actually exhausted from the busy, busy streets of Adelaide or streets of a bigger town, because I'm so used to the quietness of Coober Pedy." But not everything is better below deck. 9 9 Sabrina revealed that the biggest downside is the dust - and housekeeping that comes with it. She said: "If you don't seal the walls regularly it gets quite dusty because you are inside a hill. "Otherwise you have got the crumbles from the ceiling dropping into your soup when you are at the dinner table. And that gets quite annoying. "You do want to varnish the walls and it does rub off so you need to do it regularly." Despite the darkness, the family still gets their fill of sunshine and fresh air. Sabrina said: "It's normally sunshine outside so if you want your vitamin D intake it's normally just 10 minutes a day, so it's not impossible. "We do go for walks and we have got a garden. However, when you have a garden, you have to pay for water, which is quite expensive in Coober Pedy, so a lot of people actually use the shower and the laundry water." Sabrina's children, who were toddlers when the family moved in, barely remember life above ground. She said: "When we go on holiday and stay in hotels, they notice every little noise, roosters, planes, anything. Underground, you don't hear a thing." Life in Coober Pedy is remote - the nearest town is over 400 miles away - but it's close-knit. Essentials like hairdressers, vets and banks are only accessible with long drives. 9 9 Sabrina said: "It's very relaxed. Everything's five minutes away. No traffic lights, not many cars." When her dog got sick and needed to visit a vet 650km away, a neighbour offered to do take it in their car after seeing Sabrina's call for help on Facebook. "That's what Coober Pedy is like. It's a very welcoming town. Everyone helps each other," she said. Despite the challenges, Sabrina wouldn't trade her lifestyle for the chaos of the city. She added: "If we ever moved, I'd want to live somewhere quiet. Not busy like Adelaide or London." As for whether underground living could catch on elsewhere, she's not convinced. "You have to have the right material like we do to build structures.
Yahoo
25-05-2025
- Automotive
- Yahoo
Young truckie shares job secrets amid major warning for Aussie industry: 'Massive problem'
She might have more than 200,000 followers across social media, but just don't call her an influencer. She's a truck driver who happens to make videos, taking Aussies behind the wheel to show what life is like on the road and behind some of the country's biggest vehicles. Casuarina Smith isn't who you would expect to be driving big rigs or road trains in mining sites, but she's worked her way up in the industry dominated by older men. At the age of 26 she threw in her job at an insurance company and a "miserable" corporate career to follow her dad and sister into the truckie life. "We're farmers, turned truck drivers," she told Yahoo News Australia of her family. "There's just no money for the small guys anymore [in farming]." The change from sitting behind a desk to sitting behind a wheel instantly suited her. "When I transitioned ... I was taking home more money every week from driving trucks," she said, recalling that she was "blown away" by the potential money that could be made. Better known as CJ, some nine years later and she's now become one of the most prominent faces in the more than $70 billion Aussie trucking industry. In a previous trip driving from Adelaide to Coober Pedy when she was still fresh in the industry, her dad came along for the ride and CJ filmed parts of the journey for her own recollection. It helped spark an idea, and eventually – about two years ago – she began posting videos of her job because she couldn't see anybody else out there doing it. "Typically in our industry we're not allowed to post anything online," she said. "It's very shunned, and I guess it's seen as a liability." "I thought that was really disappointing because how do we encourage other people to get in the industry if we're not actually showing what's involved?" So she went to HR and showed them a video of the trip she drove with her dad and got permission to post about what she's doing on the road. Since obtaining the "top licence" and navigating the world of fuel tankers and road trains she's turned the unique role into a small social media empire and become the de facto representative for a new generation of truckers. "I had all these questions that I had no idea about, and I thought if I can learn something and share that with others, then others don't have to feel stupid in asking those questions," she told Yahoo. With so many drivers about to retire "and take that knowledge with them", CJ is trying to ask as many questions as she can to pass on the insights from older colleagues before it's too late. It's a service that could prove vital for the hugely important sector in Australia. Earlier this month, a report revealed that about 28,000 heavy-vehicle driving jobs went unfilled in Australia last year, prompting truckies to call for an industry overhaul to attract more young drivers. The same report, from the International Road Transport Union, found that nearly half of drivers in the country were over 55 and therefore nearing retirement, while a meagre five per cent of drivers were under 25. Sad sound in truckie footage shows brutal reality of Australian roads Aussie truckie praises caravanners for simple road act that saves lives Calls to end major $250 million loophole amid destructive car buying trend It's a worrying state of affairs, says Wade Lewis, who is the vice president of the Australian Livestock and Rural Transporters Association. "State and federal governments are going to have to step up and say we are going to start putting a lot more focus on this because it's really important we have young people coming through," he told the ABC, adding that long-distance truckers can comfortably earn as much as $150,000 a year. "We already have a massive, massive problem. Every single trucking company is on trouble with drivers – they can't get them," CJ told Yahoo News about the headwinds facing the industry. "Truckers have got a bit of a dirty name," she said. "I think at schools, no one encourages someone to be a truck driver." CJ doesn't just share videos relevant for those interested in the industry, but also for everyday drivers, highlighting potential road mistakes that could end in serious disaster – like trying to overtake a turning truck. Particularly when she's driving on remote roads where she's able to get a drone up to perfectly illustrate the potential dangers of not giving trucks the requisite space. "My god, it happens all the time," CJ said. "There's an overwhelming naivety about how much space we need... People just don't know. "People see a tiny gap and jump in it not realising we actually had that space on purpose." It's advice that is echoed by the Executive Director of the National Heavy Vehicle Regulator (NHVR), Michelle Tayler. Speaking to Yahoo News recently, she said the one thing truckers want to convey to drivers is to always remain respectful of sheer power and size of Australia's transport trucks. "We've got more than 200,000 truck drivers across the country ... and they're on the road all the time," she said. "It's a two way street... As a truck driver they need to respect the fact that they're in a much larger vehicle and it can be quite intimidating to smaller cars. "But also as a smaller vehicle, if you're putting yourself in danger, you're really leaving your life in the hands of that truck driver," she said. Do you have a story tip? Email: newsroomau@ You can also follow us on Facebook, Instagram, TikTok, Twitter and YouTube.
