A British mother-of-two is on a mission to build the “most luxurious cave imaginable” by digging a hole for a home – complete with chandeliers, a sauna and a gym – all by herself in the sweltering Australian desert.
Jennifer Ayres, 50, a water engineer from Darlington, Durham, moved to Australia 15 years ago for work and started her cave project in the town of Coober Pedy in 2021, first living in a tent for three months and then a caravan as she dug her new home under the guidance of local cave-building expert Andy Shiels.
The 2,400 square metre 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.
Jennifer has been inspired by her love for the Australian desert and the loss of both of her parents in the last five years – which she said taught her “how short life is”.
She wants to create her dream cave on a plot of land which cost just 20,000 Australian dollars – £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, a Smeg integrated coffee machine, temple doors from India she found 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.”
After buying the plot of land last year, Jennifer lived in a tent for three months and then a caravan as she worked to turn her design drawings into a reality – which wasn’t always easy due to the extreme temperatures.
“I had to store my electronics in my fridge because they kept powering themselves off due to overheating,” she added.
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”.
“In the last five years, I lost both my parents and realised how short life is, so you should do what you want and what makes you happy,” she said.
“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 said.
Beloved by Jennifer, the desert town is also the cheapest place in Australia to buy property, according August’s Domain House Price Report.
“The price was another deciding factor,” she said.
She added: “I turned 50 last year. At my age, you don’t want to get into debt or get more mortgages, so we’re self-financing.
“We were looking at our budget, and I realised I had to go back to work to get a bit more money in for the project. I’ll earn a bit and then I can do a bit more on the house.”
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 100,000 Australian dollars (£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.
“Andy and I started with just scraps of paper and a tape measure,” she said.
She added: “We kept going forwards and backwards with the planning department with my drawings until they were approved.”
Jennifer plans to put a two-bedroom house and a one-bedroom “granny flat” in her cave.
She plans to rent out the latter, which will include a sauna and a gym, as an Airbnb in the future.
The footprint of both homes is 630 square metres 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.
“After tunnelling, I still have to do a lot of work on the internals – I’m going to be doing most of that myself as well,” she said.
She added: “I need to learn how to lay concrete or tiles on the floor – I haven’t decided which one I want yet – as well as putting plumbing and the electric in.”
After purchasing the land in April 2021, Jennifer had to wait for her plans to be approved before she could start digging.
While she was finalising the plans for her cave, she lived in a tent on her land for three months during the Australian winter, when temperatures can drop as low as 0C in the desert.
She now lives in a caravan that she first parked on her land and then, following an aircon-less summer in it, underground in her cave.
“Sometimes it got to 49 degrees; some days I literally cried because I hated it that much, but you just keep going because you’ve got that goal in mind,” she said.
“When I got my first tunnel, I put my caravan underground, where it’s a constant 22C to 24C. It is amazing.”
Her husband and her sons visit her sometimes, but she mostly spends her time alone in Coober Pedy, immersing herself in the local community.
She said: “I’ve never known a town with so much going on. I’ve played golf in the desert with a Catholic priest, joined the gun club, went to underground pubs and restaurants – it’s unreal.”
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.”
