A mum-of-two from England is creating the “most luxurious cave imaginable” in the sweltering Australian desert. She is digging it all by herself and the finished home will have chandeliers, a sauna and a gym.
Jennifer Ayres, 50, a water engineer originally from Darlington, Co Durham, moved to Australia 15 years ago for work and started her cave project in the town of Coober Pedy in 2021. She lived in a tent for three months and then a caravan as she dug her new home under the supervision of local cave-building expert Andy Shiels.
Jennifer began the project because of her love for the Australian desert. The loss of both of her parents in recent years also pushed her on as she realised “how short life is”.
The 2,400sqm recess, which will become a two-bedroom house and one-bedroom 'granny flat', is a nine-hour drive from Jennifer’s husband Julian, 51, and her two sons, Arthur, 17, and Charlie, 26 – who are still living in the family home in Adelaide, South Australia. She wants to create her dream cave on a plot of land which cost just $AUS20,000 – £11,400 – and has personally moved thousands of tonnes of dirt with machinery she bought herself – forgoing expensive contractors or an architect.
She has also collected statement pieces for future installation, including a copper bath, a black standalone sink, an integrated coffee machine, temple doors from India she bought second-hand, and chandeliers. “It’s not going to be a normal cave house,” she said.
She added: “I’m having really high roofs because of the chandeliers, and my whole house will be centred around the bathroom, with a copper bath and two showers – just everything I always wanted. My friends are killing themselves laughing about this, but it will be the most luxurious cave house imaginable, including a sauna and a gym.”
Jennifer was first asked if she would like to move to Perth in 2007 by her water company employer, at which time she thought she was moving to Scotland. At first, I thought it was Perth in Scotland and said ‘Why not?’ … It didn’t cross my mind that it’s Australia, but now here we are,” she said.
Jennifer’s family later settled in Adelaide, but she moved where her work projects led her – until the deaths of her father and mother, in 2017 and 2019 respectively, inspired her to take a year away from her career to realise her “dream cave”.
“It was just a joke one night, when I said to my husband, ‘Why don’t we just run off and live with the miners?’ From there, I just went wild. The next morning, I phoned an estate agent and we went to Coober Pedy that weekend to look for land.”
In Coober Pedy, temperatures can rise to almost 50C in summer, which is why most residents either use old mines as their homes or dig out their own, as the caves stay a comfortable 22C to 24C all year round, Jennifer points out. Beloved by Jennifer, the desert town is also the cheapest place in Australia to buy property, according August’s Domain House Price Report.
Jennifer is currently working for a contractor on a project in Sydney, but makes sure to return to Coober Pedy at least once a month to continue working on her dream home, on which she has spent around $AUS100,000 (£60,000) so far. Instead of spending the money on contractors, Jennifer bought machines and got to work herself.
“I have already moved thousands of tons of dirt with a conveyor belt and I thought it would be easier if I also got my own Bobcat – a machine to easily move materials from one location to another – so I can dump it by myself as well,” she said. She added: “I couldn’t afford an architect to draw the plans so I taught myself to do it.”
Andy, a local who is Jennifer’s “knight in mining armour”, is an expert in building cave houses in Coober Pedy and has acted as Jennifer’s mentor during her project. Jennifer plans to put a two-bedroom house and a one-bedroom “granny flat” in her cave.
The footprint of both homes is 630 sq m combined, and Jennifer hopes to finish the tunnelling for the flat by Christmas. She has had to dig down six metres to reach ground solid enough to build the cave, creating a steep driveway to her future front door.
But Jennifer is in no rush to finish her cave home. She said: “Waving your mum off at the airport, only for her to die the first night she’s back home – you realise life’s too short.”
“If I want the cave house, I will have it, even if it takes me 10 years. I’ll sit there and do it, because it’s fun.
“I don’t just want to get a team of builders, but I want it to be my house, that I built.”
