Our winters are warm

Our summer is hot
And water is precious

These words are written on the town water tank on the top of a hill overlooking Marble Bar. Marble Bar has a reputation for being hot and is surrounded by low hills in the middle of the Pilbara, I suppose it is not surprising. All that heat absorbed by the bare rocky ground and then trapped in the hills. They have a record of 160 consecutive days over 38.7C (the old 100F) from the summer of 1923-24. However we had cold nights and warm days whose maximum didn't go over 30C.

Early morning shadows on the water tank

I climbed the Water Tank Hill a couple of times. At dawn I was fascinated by the rich blue shadows on the tank cast by the early golden sunlight. The distant hills glowed orange red with deep purple shadows.

Overlooking Marble Bar town

Speaking to a Queenslander enjoying the warmth, who had plans to stay a while hunting for gold, she said the locals told her "You'll be gone by the end of August - it'll be too hot for you!" She thought she might last a bit longer than that. I know I'd certainly be hightailing it out of there before the heat set in.

Government buildings Marble Bar

Gold was found here in 1891 and the town was established in 1893. The Government building, still being used for government services was completed using local stone in 1895. It is undergoing some renovations at the moment. If you look closely at the photo the scaffolding is just visible.

Banded jasper or 'marble'

Marble Bar is named for the banded jasper which crosses the Coongan River just out of town. The reds, blacks and creamy white stripes reminded the pioneers of marble. It is quite startling where it is visible, although most of the bar was covered in a layer of dried mud when er were there. A few hardy bodies splashed in the pool of water there, but it looked a little unappealing to me, muddy and greenish.

Pippunyah solar diesel power plant - solar arrays

There is a state of the art solar diesel power station just out of town. It supplies power for both Marble Bar and Nullagine. A few stats: it saves about 223,000 litres of diesel and avoids 600 tonnes of CO2 emissions by supplying 1150mwh of  solar energy per year. Quite impressive.

Grevillea flowers

Every now and again we would come across these grevilleas in flower. The birds just love them for their nectar and there are always a variety of honeyeaters to be seen and heard near by. In the water courses the eucalypts were heavily in bud. From the top of the hill you could track the water courses by the lines of trees snaking their way through the hills.

View from Tank Hill in early morning and walker in blue