  Establishing a deep underground physics laboratory to study, amongst others,
double beta decay, geoneutrinos, reactor neutrinos and dark matter has been
discussed for more than a decade within the austral African physicists'
community. PAUL, the Paarl Africa Underground Laboratory, is an initiative
foreseeing an open international laboratory devoted to the development of
competitive science in the austral region. It has the advantage that the
location, the Huguenot tunnel, exists already and the geology and the
environment of the site is appropriate for an experimental facility. The paper
describes the PAUL initiative, presents the physics prospects and discusses the
capacity for building the future experimental facility.
