Around the world, and in Australia, there are some amazing examples of innovation and ingenuity breathing life back into abandoned mines.

If you’re up-to-date with your frontier scientific research, you might already know about the Sanford Underground Research Facility. It’s located in Lead, South Dakota, at the former site of the Homestake Gold Mine – once the most productive gold mine in the Western Hemisphere. According to the scientists behind the lab, when you’re looking to the universe for answers you need protection from the sun’s cosmic rays, and the best place for that is deep underground.

But not all old mines have to be about Nobel Prizes and ground-breaking discoveries. In Moldova, old mines have been converted into extensive wine cellars, housing some of the best wines in the region. While a little further west in Italy, locals have found old mines to be ideal for storing cheese.

In the UK, one mine has even been transformed into a trampoline park. Offering daring underground adventurers, the chance to bounce on various trampolines suspended as high as 56 metres from the floor.