Marble Bar, Western Australia. May 2021

After our windscreen accident on the way to Marble Bar and having an extended stay in Port Hedland to get it fixed, we decided on a day trip to Marble Bar. We had been to the info centre in Port Hedland and we were told that there was no road suitable for a caravan to travel to Marble Bar and then Tom Price, which was our plan. So we decided on a day trip there and back.

Marble Bar is known as Australia's hottest town as it has consistently high temperatures. 

The record is 160 days of over 38.7 degrees in 1923-24. Locals say the temperatures were well over 40 degrees and not 38.7 as officially reported.

At the entrance of town are a series of iron figures and signs depicting the past and the present.

 Our first stop was the information centre located in the government buildings. We got there just as it closed, however the volunteer was still inside and heard us talking so let us in briefly. That was lovely of her to offer to do this, and she gave us some good tips on where to go and what to see. We also found out that  new road has been constructed almost to the road leading to Karijini National Park, so we could have done a loop and stayed in Marble Bar over night, instead of a day trip. The Government buildings were built in 1895 and today house the info centre, mines department, court house, and police station.

Outside the info centre in the garden bed was the first Sturts Desert Pea that we were to see on this trip.

Just west of town is a colourful jasper bar that crosses the Coongan River. In 1881 Nathaniel Cooke was searching for gold and mistook the outcrop of jasper for marble, and the name of Marble Bar was born. The outcrop was formed between two basalt bars and was exposed when two plates collided and pushed the  landforms up exposing the bar. It would have been formed more than 3 and a half billion years ago. The water next to the outcrop is a popular swimming area for locals but there was a slick of something floating on the top of the water so we didn't go in. We did splash some water onto the rocks and the rocks changed colours, shame it doesn't show how pretty the rocks looked in the photos.

One can not take any jasper rocks from the pool area, but further down the road just before the Comet Gold mine is a heap of jasper just sitting there for one to find a piece of two. There is a fine of $10,000 for taking rocks from the pool.

The Comet Gold mine was founded in 1936 by Tommy Starr, who discovered gold south of Marble Bar. The mine is noted as having the first AC power in Western Australia and also supplied the town of Marble Bar. 

The 75m high chimney was once recognised as the highest structure in the southern hemisphere. Today the mine is owned by Haoma Mining and has a tourist centre displaying gemstones and relics from the early mining days. Marble Bar area is still the most productive gold mining area in the Pilbara.

In the town itself is an interesting pub named the Ironclad Hotel. The name could come from the fact it is ironclad, or maybe it was named after one of the early gold mines in the area, the Ironclad Gold Mine.

There is a WW2 air base about 35km south east along a mostly dirt road, but it was getting late and we had a 2 and a half hour drive back to Port Hedland, so we gave it a miss. The air base was comprised of two runways and adjoining bunkers to house 20 aircraft. There was also a prisoner of war camp about 8km away. During the war the Japanese sent reconnaissance missions to find the base, without any luck. Maybe we will visit them next time.