In the ’80s, Before prepping was a widely known hobby, an Adelaide man took it upon himself to build his own doomsday bunker. This was no small 1 room air-raid shelter; it was a fully decked out nuclear bunker that could sustain life underground for the foreseeable future (once society had crumbled, that is). The underground structure is the size of a small house, with a living room, kitchen, two bathrooms, and a bedroom. All the features that can aid in survival from a nuclear holocaust have been installed, such as multiple water tanks to hold purified water, an air filtration and purification system and multiple 8-inch thick blast doors. The blast doors were imported from overseas and made from solid metal – now I’m not the most athletic guy (with my weak office worker build), but when I tried to move these doors, it was quite a struggle; I could definitely see how they could keep out a hoard of bloodthirsty zombies. 

My favourite part about the bunker is the way you enter. I was just minding my own business walking around the abandoned house above when I noticed some scuffed carpet. I lifted the carpet and saw a trapdoor; upon further investigation, the trapdoor could be raised and underneath was a small rusty ladder leading into a concrete room. The first thought that ran through my mind was that this seemed eerily similar to the Josef Fritzl case, where a man converted his basement into a makeshift dungeon to hold his daughter as a sex slave for 24 years. As I descended the small rusty ladder, I hoped that I wouldn’t find a room full of bodies or an emaciated family. When I reached the bottom of the first ladder, another one went deeper down into the reinforced concrete. Figuring I had gone this far, I may as well keep going. At the bottom of the second ladder, the chamber was slightly flooded with sludge water; I then proceeded to drop my beanie into the water R.I.P. To exit this chamber, you had to pass through a small thick blast door that was only about half a meter high and wide. This dropped down to another small section and a ladder that led out into the bunker’s main living room.

I was able to take a 3d Lidar scan of the bunker to get an idea of the floorplan. As you can see, it is quite an ample underground space that many thousands of dollars would have been sunk into building and planning logistics. Now in current times, I can understand the need for a doomsday bunker – it seems like the collapse of society is closer than ever. But, on the other hand, this place was creepy as fuck, and I would rather die than live inside the dank confines of this bunker. Interestingly I was sent a message from someone who said this property was once used as a cult with women and children held captive in the bunker. Fortunately, I can’t find any information on this story, so it may all just be hearsay; however, with the colourful history and many property owners, I can definitely imagine there might be some truth to this.

P.S. Just a heads up – since I explored this, the new owners have installed a reasonably capable security system on the property, so if you try getting in the bunker, you might end up leaving in a paddy wagon.