Sitting in the front bar of the Ironclad Hotel, John Watson explains what brought him from the other side of the planet to one of Australia’s hottest towns.
“I started a bucket list,” the Englishman says.
“I’ve decided to come to Australia, do some metal detecting, go prospecting, bring my two little daughters a nugget each home and hopefully a big pot of gold for daddy, for our future.
He says he loves the outback, and Australia.
“Never been before — what a fabulous place,” he says.
Marble Bar is known for scorching temperatures, visits from NASA scientists and geologists and an annual race meet that involves punters stripping to their underwear and sprinting down the racing club’s home straight.
But residents hope the opening of a new airport will bring an influx of visitors to the Pilbara town.
East Pilbara Shire President Anthony Middleton says Marble Bar’s geological significance offers the best tourism potential.
“It’s got the earliest signs of life dating back 3.5 billion years, and that’s just outside of Marble Bar itself,” he says.
He says a geo-heritage centre is being discussed.
“We already know that it’s well visited by NASA scientists and NASA geologists who actually visit the stromatolites and the micro-fossils, but we are actively looking at what the geo-heritage centre looks like in the foreseeable future,” he says.
“We have got an application in with the federal government in relation to national recognition for these sites.”
Opening up
An upgraded Marble Bar Airport could open by the end of August, which would enable direct flights between Marble Bar and Perth, with 100-seat jets able to use the new airstrip.
Cr Middleton says the new airport will open further opportunities for tourism, including for visitors to drive through the desert from Marble Bar to the Northern Territory border.
“If we can get some signage and some interpretation out there, open that region up for the tourism and enable people to safely visit … in conjunction with the First Nations people, we’d be in a better place,” he says.
Pilbara Tourism Association project officer Neil McGilp says the town has huge potential, despite misapprehension that some travellers may have about visiting such a remote location.
“Bitumen road access from the highway is just fantastic [and] puts it right on the tourist trail for the grey nomads and families towing their vans,” he says.
“Something like that new airport will allow them to bring in big, big numbers.
“It’s something in the psyche of Australians to want to come and visit [Marble Bar], so it’s up to us to show them that it’s easy to do.”
Welcoming ‘all sorts’
Marble Bar Tourism Association treasurer Wendy McWhirter-Brooks, who is also a shire councillor, says she loves the “warm and vibrant, welcoming community” and stunning scenery of Marble Bar.
But she says visitors often don’t know what to expect.
“You come to Marble Bar out of those pindan flats and all of a sudden you’re in the hills and you’ve got that variety of scenery, and light and dark,” she says.
“And then you’re in and you’re into the Marble Bar scenery once you come through the gorge.
“It really is a surprise.”
She says the town attracts “all sorts” of visitors, from Pilbara residents taking a break, to retirees travelling around Australia.
“We love them all because everyone offers something different,” she says.
Heatwave tourism
Cr McWhirter-Brooks says some tourists even brave the town’s scorching summer, either to experience temperatures in the high 40s, or for the “good fishing at that time of year”.
“We do have people coming at the hottest time of the year and of course that’s the wet season, so that’s when it’s green and lush and the rivers are either running or trickling and you can swim in fresh water,” she says.
But those visiting in the cooler months are often caught off guard by chilly mornings and evenings.
“They come looking for winter woollies,” Cr McWhirter-Brooks says.
