We’ve passed through Meekatharra a few times now on long road trips north and south. I’d been hoping that we’d get to spend a few days last month…unfortunately that wasn’t to be. In the meantime I’ve added a few photos to my growing collection on Meeka’s main street, and I’ve moved it way up my list of places to stop for a while next time we’re in that part of the world.

…While Steve was having a rest one day, I took myself and my camera down to the lunchtime session Marble Bar’s iconic Iron Clad Hotel. I found a few locals getting in a bit of practice before the Friday night pool competition.

Marble Bar is officially Australia’s hottest town, holding the record with 161 consecutive days over 37.8C (100F). Fortunately it was a very manageable 32 degrees when we were there recently. This outback town is named for its jasper which the early explorers believed to be marble. There’s more photos of the jasper patterns and colours in an earlier blog post.

With a rich history of gold mining, Marble Bar still draws gold prospectors from far and wide, hoping to find their fortune.

The pub at Yalgoo is quite spectacular when seen for the first time hot pink and glowing in the late afternoon sun. However, it’s the paint job inside that’s the show stealer - the liberal use of a garish green the likes of which I’ve never seen before, certainly not in nature, but somehow, in this setting, it actually works. The walls are largely bare except for a couple of jokey 80s-style alcohol-related posters, a collection of old Yalgoo number plates, and an upside-down Exit sign.