Marble Bar - Hottest Town in Australia.

Bigger than many countries!

Welcome to Marble Bar.

With a late start leaving Broome, we decided we would free camp somewhere along the road, heading south. We were surprised by how many caravans were on the road, heading both north and south. Carolyn kept screaming "take me back to Broome", but I just kept the foot down, and we reached Stanley Rest Stop around 4.00pm. It was already pretty busy, so we decided this would be our overnighter. They just kept piling in, and by nightfall the place was almost full. When we awoke bright and early the next morning, we could see that even more had arrived during the night!

Town of Marble Bar.

Around Marble Bar.

We were on the road early, destination Marble Bar. This iconic outback town makes you sweat just hearing the name! That's right folks, Marble Bar is the hottest recorded town in Australia, both for maximum temperature, a hefty 52 degrees centigrade, and also for the hottest spell on record, a blistering 160 consecutive days, back in the 1920's, when the mercury exceeded 100 degrees Fahrenheit (38 Celsius). Now that's hot!! Thankfully, it is mid winter, so the maximums are only in the low 30's! The drive out here is across flat plains, on a

Iron sculptures line the road
into Marble Bar.

Caravan Park & town.

good sealed road. The road is strewn with dead cattle. That's right, not kangaroos, but cattle! The good roads are the result of all the mines, and the road kill is the result of all the huge road trains carrying ore. There are dozens and dozens of trucks. The stretch of road through Coongan's Gorge is especially interesting, as some of it is very twisty and narrow. You have to be on the two way, talking and listening to the road trains, as you don't want to get a big surprise on a blind corner or crest! The system works well, as we hear "bloody big caravan eastbound at the 40km curves!" He saw us before we saw him, as we gave him a hello and thank you. 

Says it all! The water tank lookout.

The heritage buildings restored
and in use today.

Driving into Marble Bar we didn't know what to expect. At the beginning of town were a series of terrific iron sculptures. We found a neat, tidy little town, actually a bit larger than we had expected. The caravan park was easy to find. We pulled up at reception to find a hand written note on the door, "Gone to Port Hedland. Find a site and fix me up tomorrow." So we did just that, totally amazed to find that the little caravan park was almost full!" Next morning, we paid our dues and headed up town to find out all about Marble Bar from the Tourist Office, which is also the Shire Office. The lady was most helpful, and so armed with a map we were off and running. 

Marble Bar Roadhouse.

Part of the War Memorial.

What would bring people to this god forsaken place? The answer is simple, GOLD!  Back in the late 1880's the place was a boom town. However the gold rush was short lived, though gold has continued to be mined up to the present day, at the old Comet Mine. Our first stop was the Roadhouse, where the brochure said they had a nice cafe. It definitely was a surprise! The hot food bar at the counter grabbed our attention! We've never seen black chicken wings before!! Next to them we some other fried objects, which we were unable to name. It wasn't looking

Chinaman's Pool.

Jasper at Marble Bar Pool.

good for coffee and cake! Carolyn was turning green, so we back tracked out the door. That was a good start! We forgot about food, and followed the heritage trail around town. The RSL Park had a wonderful war memorial. More of the spectacular iron work. Very impressive. We were surprised to learn that Marble Bar had been the site of a secret airbase during WW11. The Base and Airstrips were so well camouflaged that it was never detected. B24 Liberator Bombers carried out countless successful bombing raids against the Japanese

The Old Church at Marble Bar.

Thousands of Corella at
Chinaman's Pool.

from 1942 to 1945. It closed down in 1947. It was located on Corunna Downs Station about 35kms from town. Just out of town are the beautiful Marble Bar Pool and Chinaman's Pool. These permanent water holes are popular picnic spots for the locals, and at Marble Bar Pool, you can see the magnificent rock that gave Marble Bar its name. Ironically, it is not marble, but Jasper, striking non the less. There is a Jasper deposit a little further out of town where you can chip off a sample, but not at the Marble Pool where a big fine awaits any would be prospector! We continued our drive out to the Old Comet Mine

Driving out to Coppins Gap.

The Comet Gold Mine, Marble Bar.

where there is a visitor centre. A lovely, lonely lady welcomed

us, and gave us the history of the mine. She and her husband are employed by the current owners and live and work at the mine. Talk about remote and hot! She was such a refined lady, and seemed quite out of place working at such a site. The history was fascinating. It was quite an operation with the mine having AC power before Perth, and employing up to 200 men. The mine also diversified into other minerals such as copper, to

Marble Bar Pool.

Coongan River near Marble Bar Pool.

keep it viable. After the mine, we drove out to Coppin's Gap, around 65 kms each way. The lady at the tourist office had told us it was her favourite. The last 30kms was on a red dirt road, frequented by road trains going to a mine. You have no idea how much dust is kicked up by a four trailer road train with over 100 hundred wheels. When one comes towards you from the opposite direction you just stop and get smothered in dust. On the way back we were catching up to one, so we just stopped, as there was no way we could ever get past! Coppin's Gap was worth the drive. We were the only people there. There was a deep pool set among the towering red cliffs. Just beautiful. It was time for a cold drink so we headed

Time for a beer.

Beautiful Coppin's Gap.

back to town for a beer at The Ironclad Hotel. We arrived just in time for Happy Hour and half price drinks. A beer and a wine for $10.00. Bloody amazing up here! This is a great outback pub. It was forced to close a few years back, would you believe, because so many of the town's people were barred, there was no one left in town to come for a drink!! The pub was in full swing. The black fellas had control of the pool table. The noise and the bad language was horrendous, and that was just the women!! A young English lass, doing her 3 months remote stay to extend her visa, was behind the bar. What stories she will have to take home!

We enjoyed our stay at Marble Bar. A couple of days was enough to check out the sights, and winter was definitely the time to visit. Bright and early in the morning we are off again, back to the main highway, and further south to Karratha, to catch up on a couple of things we didn't have time for on the way up.