HOTTEST TOWN IN AUSTRALIA Big Righthand Turn MARBLE BAR Day 9
- Traveldriven
- Jul 12, 2017
- 2 min read
Updated: 7 hours ago
Great Northern Highway
The highway is the longest in Australia with a total length of 3,200 km. This inland highway connects Perth to Wyndham in the far North of Western Australia. Travelling from Perth the highway route passes through Newman and onto Port Hedland on the coast. Newman is the turn off to the town of Marble Bar. Marble Bar Road continues to the small stop of Nullagine and onto Marble Bar. A road distance of about 300 km.
Marble Bar
A town in the Pilbara of north-western Western Australia. Extremes of hot weather, with a mean maximum temperature second only to Wyndham, Western Australia.
Claimed to be the hottest town in Australia. A town of less than two hundred people in the Pilbara region of north-western Western Australia. A famous Jasper rock outcrop can be seen along the Coongan River near town. Marble Bar Comet Gold Mine has an interesting museum seven km out of town. The most famous building in the town is the Ironclad Hotel built in the 1890s, constructed of corrugated iron. There is one Caravan Park within Marble Bar. Entry is across a small dry creek. Shaded sites. I was told by a fellow camper to spray ant killer around the parked car as Singapore ants may damage the electrical wiring in the engine bay.
Several large gold nuggets were discovered in the area. Among them the 413-ounce Bobby Dazzler found in the 1890s. While I was in Marble Bar I used a White’s gold detector a few km out of town in a dry creek bed. Hot dusty work in the heat of the day. No valuable finds.
On another much earlier road trip I drove solo Marble Bar to New Norcia down towards Perth on the then unsealed Great Northern Highway as mentioned above. A driving distance of thirteen hundred km of gravel via Newman an iron ore mining town in the Pilbara of several thousand residents. The drive continued down the Great Northern Highway through to Meekatharra and onto New Norcia. This road trip was in a two-wheel drive car. Now-a-days the Great Northern Highway is all sealed.
Meekatharra
Translates as 'place of little water'. Established as a small gold mining town and currently has about one thousand residents. There is accommodation available in the Meekatharra Hotel. Petrol and Diesel fuel is available.
New Norcia
A monastic town of numerous abbey's a little over an hour's drive from Perth. Abbey tours do not include the monastery as monks live in the building.
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Fools & Clowns perish out here. A big Mac is rarer than gold.