Roads melt as temps soar but locals keep their cool

In the town famed as Australia’s hottest place to live, the locals have learned to “lean into” the extreme nature of their everyday weather.

Marble Bar, in the Western Australia’s Pilbara, is one of many country centres grappling with the worst heatwave since the summer of 2019-20.

Extended heatwaves are common in the town, where the record temperature was 49.3C in December 2023.

“We deal with it for six, seven months of the year – it’s tough going,” Marble Bar Community Resource Centre coordinator Bazz Harris said.

“Most of the locals lean into it – people will walk 100 metres down to the general store and they make sure they’ve got a hat and a bottle of water.

“The trick is to get a cool night’s sleep, get six seven hours in a cool environment at night, and you can deal with the day.”

Since January 1, the town has not recorded a daytime temperature under 42C, and on Wednesday, it was above 47C.

Last summer, the town had a 26-day stretch of maximums over 43C, and during its most famous heatwave in 1923-24, there were 160 consecutive days over 37.8C (100F).

“We’ve got six generations of people who have called it home, but for the ring-ins, which is me and everyone that runs a business in town, it’s different,” Mr Harris said.

“It’s hard to keep staff here. People come up and take jobs, and when they get those string of 12-15 days of 40C-plus, then you quickly figure out who’s gonna be hanging around and who’s gonna go.”

The massive iron ore trucks used in the region also face challenges in the heat, he said.

“When the trucks are loaded with four trailers chock-full of iron ore, they actually melt the tar and dig the road up.  It’s crazy to see that … the roads definitely do melt, that’s an actual thing.”

There are heatwave warning across the majority of South Australia, Victoria, and NSW, as temperatures soar up to 15C above average.

In Port Augusta, at the head of the SA’s Spencer Gulf, mayor Linley Shine said the community was “very used to” extreme weather and knew how to handle it.

“I could get in the car right now and go for a drive in town and our main CBD area would be very, very quiet, because people here know how to prepare for these types of events,” she said.

The city, famous for being the driest city in the driest state on the driest continent, reached 46C on Wednesday, with 47C forecast for Thursday and 44 on Friday.

Like the Pilbara, a telltale sign of the extreme heat was the impact on local roads.

“It’s very, very common to start seeing the bitumen just melt, they call them ‘bleeding roads’,” Ms Linley said.

“We’re very used to this as a community, this happens every year –  the big, important thing is taking care of our vulnerable people and checking on them which our community is very good at doing.

“People here are tough, they’re pretty resilient, and we look out for each other as well. We are a really good, kind, caring community, especially in times of need like this.”