Laboratory to study dark matter opens 1km under Australian town – with no bananas allowed

From deep inside a gold mine in Stawell, Victoria, researchers are hunting for the invisible substance thought to make up 85% of the matter in the universe

• Get our free news app, morning email briefing or daily news podcast

How is this for a commute to work: drive 240km north-west of Melbourne to the outskirts of the town of Stawell. Near sheep grazing in unfenced fields, take a left and gear up: hard hat, steel-capped boots, glasses and an emergency self-rescuer - a portable oxygen source that looks like a cross between a hip flask and a hand grenade. Pass rumbling machinery and then descend 1,025 metres underground.

The office in question is the only one of its kind in the southern hemisphere: the Stawell Underground Physics Laboratory (SUPL), where researchers will hunt for dark matter, the invisible substance thought to comprise about 85% of the matter in the universe.