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Dick Wagner and Heather Ewart chat during a break in filming of the White Cliffs episode of Back Roads. - ABC

There is a lot to be said for living underground, especially when the outside temperature gauge is stuck around a sweltering 40 degrees Celsius β€” or higher.

Three metres beneath the red earth of White Cliffs, in the dugouts as the homes are called, it is always a moderate 22 degrees and is forever dark.

And quiet β€” the opal mining town three hours east of Broken Hill seems a fairly tame place above-ground these days.

Importantly, according to long-term resident Dick Wagner, there are no windows to clean.

"You turn the light out of a night and it's just so black and quiet and peaceful for sleeping β€”it is just wonderful," he said.

"Shouldn't tell people that because everyone will want to come here and live!

"You've just got to understand that this was a dugout 125 years ago and if it hasn't decided to fall in now, it's not going to.

"Once you can get that out of your head, you're laughing."

Many of the dugouts have been burrowed through the remnants of the town's early mines, first dug in the 1890s.

While the stability of the homes has never been in question, their future now is.

The dugouts are all held via licences through the NSW Department of Industry, and many residents have, for years, slowly been working to secure freehold title.

But out of the blue, in September last year, some residents started getting letters in the post telling them their licences had been cancelled.

Otto Rogge was the first one in town to receive a letter.

"It was a bit of a shock," he said.

"We all don't know what's going on and there is an enormous build-up of anger."

Mr Rogge, a prolific photographer from Germany, has been travelling to White Cliffs for 33 years and leased his first dugout in 1991.

"We knew that we had signed licenses where it was a possibility that we could lose the place, but we did not expect it after all the promises of a freehold title," he said.

"It's quite random and it seems that the whole community is sort of split in half suddenly."

'Complex and sensitive' issue, department says

The plan for freehold title was delayed and then halted after a historic native title decision granted 128,000 square kilometres in the far west of NSW to the Barkandji people in mid-2015.

Those who have had their licences cancelled can continue to live in the dugouts while the Department considers whether they can be reissued after an Indigenous land use agreement is negotiated.

But these negotiations are expected to take a year to 18 months.

The NSW Department of Industry said it was working with residents and native title holders to secure long-term occupancy and was committed to a "positive outcome" for everyone.

"This is a complex and sensitive issue," a spokesman said.

'Digging' life underground

Nan Stubbs and her late husband Ken first came to White Cliffs on holidays from Victoria 26 years ago and got rained in.

After a few days they were looking to buy a dug out and started leasing one in 1992 for $100 a year.

Back then, there were no roads. Or electricity. Or sewerage.

"Some people find it a bit claustrophobic, but I've never felt like that at all," Ms Stubbs said of her dugout home.

"It's a very special feeling. We don't have four straight walls and yeah, we dug those rooms ourselves.

"A lot of it started as old [mine] diggings back in the 1890s and we just expanded on those.

"There is no defining thing underground and it's not unknown for somebody to suddenly burst into someone's living room and then they've got to hastily brick it up again."

These days, Ms Stubbs's daughter Randel Greene and her husband Rod spend the winter months in White Cliffs as "winteries" and Ms Stubbs comes down for part of that time.

"When I read the letter, I just couldn't believe it," Ms Stubbs said.

"Your heart sank because you know, we've put so much into it, especially Randel and Rod β€” since my husband died, they've put so much into it.

"My husband's ashes are here.

"Look, it's almost impossible to explain: I live in the most beautiful place on a lake in Melbourne, and I love it there, but coming up here just feels like coming home."

  • Watch Back Roads on ABC TV 8pm Monday
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