"Nungarrin - Western Australia" a Nungarin Travel Page by Lionman

Nungarrin only has a population of a few thousand and is about 150 K north of Narrogin in Western Australia, about 300 K NW of Perth and accordingly is even hotter than Narrogin. I once drove between the two places in summer in a car without air conditioning. The temperature was 45 degrees C at the start of the journey and 50 degrees C by the time we reached Nungarrin and we had consumed a whole crate of soft drinks en route. Most of the road was a deserted and unrelentingly straight line on a flat landscape and we only saw about three other vehicles and one "road train" with three trailers on the whole journey. Had we broken down we would have had to lie under the vehicle to survive the heat as there were no people, no other settlements, no trees and no shade of any kind. Not a safe place to travel without a short wave radio for emergencies.

In WW2 there was a small military camp in Nungarrin and the climate is so hot that some small WW2 tanks are still there, like baked free-standing museum pieces amongst the trees, on the cracked tarmac of long unused military parade squares.

The town is tiny and comprises a widely dispersed scattering of single story homes set in extremely bleak gardens. The ground everywhere is scorched and baked yellow by the unrelenting heat. However one redoubtable and charming elderly local lady (Hazel Harper) has triumphed by creating a huge and lush garden filled with a riot of flowers. She also bakes the finest decoratively iced ceremonial cakes for 100 miles around and owns an immaculate white 1960's Ford Futura.

The local hotel and pub has a comically twisted balcony, warped by the fierce heat of the sun. There is an almost uncanny silence everywhere, but for the whine of insects and the liquid cries of the "bottle birds".