The Tunnel Rats
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- This article is about the group of urban explorers. For the team of soldiers involved in underground missions, see Tunnel Rats.
The Tunnel Rats is an Australian urban exploration group, number well over a thousand members, it has a special focus on exploring urban infrastructure and subterranean cavities, be they natural or otherwise. Having chapters in both New South Wales and Victoria their membership is generally considered closed to the public.
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[edit] History
Founded in 2000 by a loose knit group of students the group stayed relatively small during it's early years. A few of the founding members were past members of Cave Clan, another notorious urbex group, who for personal reasons chose to pursue their exploration in a different atmosphere.
By 2004 membership had reached in excess of a hundred, various websites and means were used for the organisation to communicate as the hobby had always been considered somewhat a legal grey area due to the undecided nature as to whether storm water drains and other such bodies are private property or not.
In 2005 members stumbled across an unknown bunker dubbed Faux-Gecko located at North Head that was accessed by a vent-shaft with a concrete cap on it, they also were the first members of the public to explore the Westlink M7 Light Horse Interchange at Eastern Creek.
By 2006 the membership had exploded to in excess of a thousand members, partly due to media coverage by a bunch of explorers who were arrested by police thought to be terrorists, all of whom were released without charge on that matter and also to do with an expanded interest in the hobby due to the Discovery Channel television show 'Urban Explorers'.
[edit] Diversity
The Tunnel Rats are known for their gender diversity with a higher ratio of female participants than any other urbex group. Consisting of members from all walks of life, from lawyers to media through to students and even law enforcement, there is no stereotypical 'type' of person who is involved in the group.
[edit] Activities
The activities most urbex groups participate in can be as diverse as the type of people the hobby attracts. The main areas of interest appear to be exploring abandoned buildings, quarries and other sites, as well as subterranean exploration of tunnels, cavities and storm water drains, of which there are many of significant size running under most cities.
All activities carried out by this group are dictated by a strict code of ethics, standing by a strict no-alcohol and no-drug policy for participants, the group also has dedicated chapters of their website to the code of conduct expected of explorers who adventure with them, including behaviour pertaining to photography, graffiti and the preservation of speleothems or potentially historic articles.
