This isolated community was for many years known as the hottest town in Australia. It is now accepted that the mining towns of Pannawonica and Paraburdoo, in the Hamersley Ranges a few hundred kms to the west, have higher maximum.

Marble Bar is known as the hottest town in Australia, a fact acknowledged by the Guinness Book of Records. For 161 consecutive days to 20 April 1924 the temperature in the town never dropped below 100°F (37.8°C). This record still stands.

Swimming holes

Marble Bar was named after a local deposit of mineral first thought to be marble, but which later proved to be jasper. It crosses the Coongan River 5 km west of the town. The watering hole below the Bar is a popular swimming area for locals. Both the Marble Bar Pool and the nearby Chinaman's Pool are suitable for swimming and picnicking. The latter was named after the Chinese market gardens which were once established here by Chinese migrants to the goldfields.

Coppins Gap

Coppins Gap (50 km north east): one of the few breaks in a 100 km-long of mountain rock wall. There is a tranquil swimming hole at the base of the hills that is a great place for a swim.

Doolena Gorge

Doolena Gorge offers safe swimming, scenic sights and shady picnic areas. It is an excellent vantage point to witness a spectacular sunset lighting up the cliff face and creating a red glow across the rock. This stunning display can be enjoyed from the banks of the waterhole. Alternatively you can climb the gully to the top of the waterfall for a stunning outlook.

Comet Gold Mine

The Comet Gold Mine (7.5 km) is the only significant remnant of the town's gold mining past. The mine opened in 1936 and operated continuously until 1955. It allegedly boasts the tallest smoke stack in the Southern Hemisphere (at 75 metres). Today the Comet is a museum and tourist centre with a diversity of gemstones, jewellery, rocks, minerals and local history on display. Underground mine tours are available.

Corunna Downs RAAF Airfield

In the blazing heat of the Pilbara, some 36km south of Marble Bar in desolate semi-desert spinifex country, there can still be seen a few scarce remains of one of the best-kept secrets of Australian involvement in World War II.The heavily camouflaged and carefully hidden No. 73 Operational Base Unit was known as Corunna Downs - the name of the still-active cattle station on which the base was located.

The long runways built to handle the heaviest four-engined bombers of the day remain - partly overgrown. It seems slowly but surely they are being reclaimed by the desert. The main runways, measuring 1650m and 2300m long and each 50m wide constructed with bitumen surfaces, are now cracked and parched from exposure to the relentless sun out here and are pretty well covered with sand. In addition there were some 6 km of taxiways now almost indistinguishable. A third 2000m runway was apparently planned but never built.

At any one time some 300 men were based here, living around the airfield in tents in temperatures which sometimes soared to about 50C - harsh conditions indeed. The Japanese never found the base, in spite of a lot of searching. Scattered around the field, and interspersed with subsequent mining infrastructure, are ruins of gun pits and aircraft dispersal areas. Corunna Station has a museum with interesting wartime relics.

Brief history