IN SHORT

• White Cliffs' iconic underground dugout homes cannot be meaningfully assessed against national construction codes, which were written for conventional above-ground buildings.
• Central Darling Shire Council is advocating for the dugouts to be removed from the local environmental plan so that a state environmental planning policy can govern approvals instead.
• Council says it is currently legally responsible for any issues arising from these structures despite lacking the legislative tools to properly manage them.

White Cliffs is unlike almost anywhere else in Australia. Beneath the sunbaked red soil of the opal fields, hundreds of people live in homes that were carved out of the earth decades ago to escape the region's brutal summer heat. These dugouts are part of the town's character, its economy and its identity. They are also, at present, an administrative headache that the local council says it is not equipped to handle.

Central Darling Shire Council resolved at its February ordinary meeting to formally advocate for the removal of the White Cliffs dugouts from the local environmental plan. The push is part of the council's submissions to the broader review of the Far West Regional Plan, which sets the land use framework for the entire region.

The core of the problem is straightforward. National construction codes and building standards were written with conventional above-ground structures in mind. They set requirements for things like ceiling heights, natural light, ventilation and structural load that simply do not translate to homes that are underground, hand-excavated and often irregularly shaped. When a resident wants to extend, renovate or build a new dugout in White Cliffs, a development application lands on the council's desk. The council is then required to assess it against standards that were never designed for that kind of structure.

Councillors noted that this leaves the shire in an uncomfortable legal position. The council holds the regulatory responsibility but lacks the legislative framework to exercise it properly. If something goes wrong with a dugout that received council approval, the shire is exposed despite having had no workable tool for assessing the application in the first place.

The proposed solution is to transfer regulatory control to the state government through a dedicated environmental planning policy. That would allow a minister with the appropriate resources and legislative authority to set rules that are actually suited to subterranean dwellings, rather than forcing a small remote council to apply urban building codes to underground opal miners' homes.

For residents of White Cliffs, the change would mean clearer and more appropriate pathways for development approvals. 

Read our coverage of the White Cliffs land disputes:

Underground War: Native Title vs. Home Ownership in the White Cliffs Dugouts

“I’ve got my super in it:” The Opal Mining Ban That’s Rocking White Cliffs

"Lied to"; White Cliffs Diggers Mental Health Crisis an 10-Year Wait for Opal Mining Future Continues

White Cliffs mining future hangs on AGs desk