Underground bunker demand increases following coronavirus, bushfires in Australia

A Gold Coast company says it has been overwhelmed with inquiries for underground bunkers during the COVID-19 crisis since it launched late last year.

Underground Bunkers Australia creates custom-made safety bunkers that can be kitted out to function just like a house, but 3m below the surface.

The survival bunkers are completely concealed under concrete, soil and turf.

Selling for about $30,000, they can be fitted out with a shower, toilet, bed, fridge, lounge and optional CCTV cameras.

They also have air vents to balance pressure and a dehumidifier to stop mould.

While builder Nick Bayard is just a “regular bloke” and not a doomsday prepper, he said he understood people’s reasoning behind wanting to get a bunker.

“It is nice mentally to have somewhere in the event (of something), it can be anything, it doesn’t have to be a nuclear apocalypse,” he told 9 News.

Mr Baynard said half of the company’s inquiries came from people just looking for something different in the backyard and weren’t pandemic related.

But he said they never could have expected the rush the bushfire and coronavirus panic created in 2020.

“We have seen a lot of interest on the back of the bushfires and now the coronavirus,” he told the Gold Coast Bulletin in March just as Australia went into lockdown.

Their basic shelter can hold a family for a few days but Mr Baynard said things got complicated when people wanted to survive for longer and needed extras that were subject to council approval.

The company built one that would be habitable for up to two weeks.

“There is a lot of infrastructure that has to be added into a space to make it habitable,” he told the Bulletin.

“Mostly, we do try to market it as a shelter with dry storage for one or two days.

“We find people can be surprised by the cost once they give you their specifics, but it has to be a room that can supply you with everything, completely off the grid.”