Feeling the heat: small towns at risk of burning

As the temperatures break records in the dry, flat Mallee region, concerned residents take refuge in air-conditioned rooms

- By Stephanie Convery OUYEN

In the slanting, late-afternoon summer sun, the fields around the small Australian town of Ouyen almost 450km north-west of Melbourne - turn the colour of honey. The edges shimmer with silver, that old cruel trick of feigning water where it hasn't rained for weeks.

Summer is always hot out here in the sparse, flat Mallee, but this year is shaping up to be particularly harsh.

Just last month, on Thursday 8 January, Ouyen got to 47.5C.

Last Tuesday, according to preliminary data, the nearby Mallee towns of Hopetoun and Walpeup reached 48.9C, but the Bureau of Meteorology (BOM) said temperatures in Ouyen could have got even higher.

This might seem insignificant, were it not the highest recorded temperature in Victoria's history.

It's just one extremely hot day here among many: the fifth day in a row that temperatures exceeded 40C, with four more forecast to follow. The harvested fields are bleached yellow and the earth is a sweep of red dust. It hasn't rained since before Christmas.

For most locals, the heights of such days are best enjoyed behind a thick pane of glass and down-draught from a functioning air-conditioning unit.

"When it gets hot like that, not many people are out working unless you have to be," Deane Munro said.

"Most places just bunker down-do a bit in the mornings and bunker down in the afternoons... we just try to make sure we work our week out so you don't have to work in those conditions." The 54-year-old is a fourthgeneration farmer and Ouyen local. He grows wheat, barley, lentils, hay, oats and vetch on 10,000 hectares he runs with his brother. Their father and uncle still work on the property, and the next generation is gearing up to join them.