{"id":398752,"date":"2026-01-08T01:52:12","date_gmt":"2026-01-08T01:52:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/398752\/"},"modified":"2026-01-08T01:52:12","modified_gmt":"2026-01-08T01:52:12","slug":"marble-bar-residents-share-their-tips-for-keeping-cool-in-nationwide-heatwave","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/398752\/","title":{"rendered":"Marble Bar residents share their tips for keeping cool in nationwide heatwave"},"content":{"rendered":"

In Australia’s “hottest town”, a forecast of 45 degrees Celsius or above is business as usual.<\/p>\n

The country is in the midst of what weather authorities are calling the most significant heatwave in six years<\/a>, but residents of Marble Bar, 1,470 kilometres north of Perth, are unfazed.<\/p>\n

Home to about 200 people, Marble Bar is nestled in the centre of the arid Pilbara region, between the major mining towns of Newman and Port Hedland.<\/p>\n

The town first gained international recognition when it set a world record with 160 days above 100 degrees Fahrenheit (37.8C) in the 1923\u201324 summer.<\/p>\n

\"A<\/p>\n

While the rest of Australia sweats, 45C is a regular summer’s day in Marble Bar. (ABC Pilbara: Kimberley Putland)<\/p>\n

“This heat for this time of year is just a Tuesday for us,” Marble Bar Community Resource Centre manager Bazz Harris laughed.<\/p>\n

Even so, with the town’s prominent temperature gauge clocking up a reading of 51C earlier this week, residents have shared their tips on how to keep cool in a heatwave.<\/p>\n

“We have had a gentleman who purchased 30 bags of ice and filled his blow-up pool with it, and sat on his front porch with a beer,” Mr Harris said.<\/p>\n

“The trick there \u2014 he was butt naked \u2014 it was not a sexy sight, but it’s what he did to keep cool.”<\/p>\n

\"A<\/p>\n

Bazz Harris says people take extraordinary measures to stay cool. (ABC Pilbara: Kimberley Putland)<\/p>\n

Sleep and hydration key<\/p>\n

Pilbara locals enjoy fresh waterholes to keep themselves cool in the long summers, and early showers before the cold tap turns warm.<\/p>\n

But for those without access to waterholes, Mr Harris’s top tip came down to sleeping habits.<\/p>\n

“A good eight hours’ sleep at night in a cool air-conditioned bedroom and you can deal with the day.”\"A<\/p>\n

Marble Bar’s maximum temperature for this month sits at 51C. (ABC Pilbara: Kimberley Putland)<\/p>\n

Misting toilet invention<\/p>\n

Marble Bar resident John Mladenovich recalled finding a tin shed toilet at an exploration site in the Great Sandy Desert where an automated mister had been installed.<\/p>\n

“The thunderbox, they called it,” he laughed.\u00a0<\/p>\n

“As soon as you sat on the dunny, it was automatic; they had this mist coming down.<\/p>\n

“In the breeze, it was almost like you were in aircon.”\u00a0<\/p>\n

\"A<\/p>\n

John Mlandenovich likes to keep cool by drinking a beer and watching the cricket. (ABC Pilbara: Kimberley Putland)<\/p>\n

On a more serious note, Mr Mladenovich recommended wearing a wet towel over your head, neck and face, or running under the sprinkler.<\/p>\n

“But make sure you’ve got your clothes on,” he said.\u00a0<\/p>\n

He also urged anyone sweltering through the current heat to remember to replace their electrolytes when drinking plenty of water.<\/p>\n

“One orange, squeezed, a whole lemon and a teaspoon of baking soda \u2014 drink that, and you’ll feel refreshed,” he said.<\/p>\n

But most importantly, Mr Mladenovich said sitting in the shade watching the cricket with a beverage in hand was the best way to keep cool.<\/p>\n

“One thousand per cent, you don’t feel the heat,” he said.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"In Australia’s “hottest town”, a forecast of 45 degrees Celsius or above is business as usual. The country…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":398753,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[64,63,212341,61838,740,212342,3286,212343,7963,212340,44,21879,212345,2876,212344,25962,1192],"class_list":["post-398752","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-australia","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-beat-the-heat","tag-bom","tag-cricket","tag-heat-records","tag-heatwave","tag-heatwave-conditions","tag-ice","tag-marble-bar","tag-news","tag-pilbara","tag-sprinkler","tag-summer","tag-summer-tips","tag-wa","tag-weather"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/398752","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=398752"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/398752\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/398753"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=398752"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=398752"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=398752"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}