The hammer has fallen on more than 33 properties that the District Council of Coober Pedy auctioned off in a bid to recoup unpaid rates.
Coober Pedy is synonymous with opal mining and its underground residences called dugouts, which remain cool in the desert heat and are often popular with miners.
The council's CEO, Dean Williams, said the highest-selling dugout fetched $36,000.
The cheapest vacant plot sold for around $1,800 while the most expensive above-ground house cost $43,000.
"A lot of these properties owed more in rates than what the property was worth," Mr Williams said.
About 70 people attended the two-day auction at the Desert Cave Hotel, a popular dugout-style accommodation.
Mr Williams said about 40 more people joined the auction online and there was "fierce bidding" among out-of-town bidders.
He said among the 33 properties that sold, just over half were vacant plots that were popular with people looking to renovate.
"We're happy with that because it means new people coming into the town, buying a block of land and building, or buying an existing house and renovating," Mr Williams said.
The average two or three-bedroom house went for between $34,000 and $40,000 and made a good investment, he said.
Mr Williams said the houses were "pretty basic" but were still popular among potential renovators.
"If you are an investor, you would get a decent return on your investment."
"In fact, probably a lot higher than you would in a city. But you probably would not get the capital gain."
Some properties advertised were not connected to water or electricity.
Mr Williams said the properties that were sold had any outstanding rates wiped.
The council managed to recover about 55 per cent of their costs back.
"We expected a little more from the sale prices," Mr Williams said.
"We thought we'd get between 60 and 70 per cent of our money back."
Auction was a 'last resort'
In 2019, the council was put into administration because of mismanagement and rising debts.
Tim Jackson, the administrator of the Coober Pedy council, said that under the Local Government Act the council was permitted to auction off houses to recover funds if property rates remained unpaid for three or more years.
"The fact that we [have] close to 40 [properties] is evidence that that hasn't been done for a number of years."
Mr Jackson said that councils did not typically have a surplus budget so the burden of unpaid rates fell on residents doing the right thing.
"We don't want to sell people's houses — it's a last resort," he said.
"We'd rather people come and talk to us, negotiate a payment plan, that's the best course of action."
Mr Williams said all but one house that went to auction was tenanted.
"We made sure that that person had somewhere to go. The last thing we wanted to do is kick people out of their homes," he said.
Mr Jackson said the council would closely monitor the situation to prevent it from ever happening again.
For anyone who has missed out on their dream of desert living, Mr Williams said there would likely be another 20 properties that would go on sale before the end of the year.
