Underground Motel – White Cliffs

The Motel on ‘Poor Mans Hill’

The Motel opened in 1989. It has gradually expanded currently providing accommodation for almost 100 people. Peak periods at the motel are in April, July and September/October, with the quietest month being February.

The White Cliffs Underground Motel is built almost entirely by hand, using jack hammers. No two rooms are the same and walking through the Motel is a world of discovery. The entire complex is the size of a football field underground.The Motel on ‘Poor Mans Hill’

The Motel opened in 1989. It has gradually expanded currently providing accommodation for almost 100 people. Peak periods at the motel are in April, July and September/October, with the quietest month being February.

The White Cliffs Underground Motel is built almost entirely by hand, using jack hammers. No two rooms are the same and walking through the Motel is a world of discovery. The entire complex is the size of a football field underground.

With the most underground rooms out of the three underground motels in Australia, staying at the White Cliffs Underground Motel is an experience like none other. It is dug into ‘Poor Mans Hill’ (Smith Hill), so called due to the lack of opal, the first excavations of the site were done by a local opal miner around the early 1900′s.

By the 1980′s the site was renovated and became the Hornby family home. As the Hotel in town overflowed with guests, the family began to offer visitors the opportunity to sleep underground. Guests were invited to join the family, share meals and enjoy the ambience of a dugout. The demand to sleep underground continually increased and in 1989 if formally became a motel. It was officially opened as a Motel by the Hon. Gary West Chief Secretary and Mininister for Tourism on 14 May 1989.

While the motel has grown to a complex with 30 underground rooms and 2 above ground rooms, some of the traditions remain. Visitors share meals in the way of a family, and experience the simple pleasure of sleeping underground In 2002-3, 12 additional rooms were dug for staff and they become extreemly fond of their subterranean abodes.

A Haven in a Hostile World

This is a different world. In an above ground building, windows provide ventilation. In a dugout, the combination of door, vents, and air shafts create a gentle breeze that ensures a fresh, dry ambient living space. Light filters through the shaft during the day, and you can tell the time of day once you become accustomed to it.

‘Cool in summer, and warm in winter’. If the doors are kept shut, to reduce airflow, the temperatures vary little from 22 degress all year. This helps to reduce heating and cooling costs, and is kind to the environment. Heaters and airconditioners are not needed underground. With wild dust storms and temperatures outside soaring to 50 degrees, and plummeting to below zero, the dugout is a haven in a hostile world.

Sleeping in a dugout at the Underground Motel is like sleeping in the ‘womb’ of the earth – cosy, tranquil, protected and private. With minimal noise and light, people talk of having their ‘deepest sleep ever’.

Guest Facilities

The motel boasts a tranquility that ensures a relaxed and peaceful stay. Once you venture underground, the distractions of modern life are let behind. There is no radio or mobile phone coverage, no fridge, TV or bathroom noise. Generally facilities and amenities are located along the edge of the complex, supporting both the peace of underground living, and the stability of the soil structure.

The rooms are known as ‘dugouts’ where you sleep nestled in the hill, in a cosy constant temperature insulated from the harsh and noisy environment of the external world. Rooms can accommodate from 1 person to 5 people, with adjoining rooms for large groups or families.

The complex contains a lisenced restaurant, cafe and bar, which was all renovated and altered in 2012. Lunch is now available, fresh and tasty meals are served each evening in the restaurant, and breakfast is served from 7.30 to 8.30 in the dining room each morning. It is likely that you will sit with and warm to someone you have never met. It is here that friendships are formed and people chat well into the evening, often seeking the same people to share breakfast with the next morning.

You may arrive for a pizza night, with the flavours of the local bush, or sometimes a traditional bbq. There is also a bbq available for guests wishing to cook their own food. The swimming pool sits in the Motel landing, with expansive views over the surrounding landscape, and there is a games room available for the use of our guests. So enjoy a game of table tennis or darts, or perhaps a movie night. We have just opened , a history and culture centre for visitors to White Cliffs, and for Motel guests.

So take a break and enjoy all that the underground has to offer!  We look forward to seeing you at the Underground Motel White Cliffs soon.