Now, compare this with the current weather in Melbourne. Today, they're looking at a maximum of 41 degrees, and then, in the next 3 days, expecting temperatures of 43, 40 and 40. It's been hailed as the worst heat wave since the Great Heat Wave of 1908!
This morning, I was doing some research on the Great Heat Wave of 1908, for a library client. I love newspaper reports from the olden days. Here are some selections...
The Argus, Friday January 17, 1908
ANOTHER HOT DAY.
RECORD FOR THE SEASON
106.7 IN THE SHADE
NO CHANGE TILL SATURDAY
The people of Melbourne walked the city streets yesterday in spiritless fashion, so enervated by the blazing head that not even the 5 o'clock train had its usual attraction. The day was one of great disappointment...
...Before a temperature of 105deg, is reached there is much that can be said; afterwards the only possible thing to do is to sit down quietly and say nothing. Speech is superfluous...
RECORD DEMAND FOR ICE
1,200 TONS A WEEK
The amount of ice that left Mssrs. Senitt Bros.' factory last week - 220 tons - was a record for the firm. But it will probably be beaten this week, for the output of yesterday alone was nearly 60 tons. "And if this weather only continues for a few days more," said the manager, Mr. Tatchell, cheerfully, "then all the reserve stock in Melbourne will be used up."
FRESH-AIR SEEKERS
ST. KILDA AT NIGHT
...White-frocked girls, who have passed the day listless and heavy-eyed, chat and laugh as they trip along the Esplanade and pier. Theirs are the unconquerable spirits of youth. And even as they laugh their defiance at the heat the suggestion of a breeze rewards their indifference. So they chatter the more, and when they meet the latest "boy" - by accident, of course - the heat has no place in their memory...
...One fact stands out clearly - Melbourne men are slow to adopt seasonable dress. Here and there a white suit is seen, but in almost nine cases out of ten heavy suits and high vests are the favoured male attire...
And then, the next day, it got hotter...
The Argus, Saturday January 18, 1908
THE HOTTEST DAY
109.3 IN THE SHADE
BUBBLING ROADWAYS
...Citizens sought in vain for a comfortable and cool means of travelling. The leather lining of the cabs was almost too hot to touch, the atmosphere inside the tram-cars was stifling, and even the breeze created by the fast-moving trains brought no relief, for the wind was so hot that the motionless atmosphere of the closed carriage was almost preferable. With one common foe to fight, passengers relaxed all stiffness. Hats, coats, and vests were thrown off, even collars and ties were removed in the endeavour to make the train journeys bearable...
...Rules regarding dress were disregarded in all institutions. Public officers transacted business in their shirt-sleeves, and often minus collar and tie. Event court discipline bent before the heat, and Mr. Cresswell, P.M., appeared on the city bench with a fan in his hand...
People got grumpy...
The Argus, Monday, January 20, 1908
FIVE DAYS OVER 100DEG.
A RECORD FOR MELBOURNE.
FURTHER HEAT PREDICTED.
...On Saturday, hardly anyone bothered about the temperature. The people were too listless. The man who inquired the temperature got a curt answer. "I don't know," the business man would reply snappishly. "I don't suppose it's as hot as yesterday, but it's more trying. I'm tired of the heat and the dust and the tar-steam. and - I hate the sight of a thermometer."
And then beach chaos ensued...
The Age, Monday, January 20, 1908
EVENING AT THE BEACH
REFRESHING THE CHILDREN
It would have been hard to estimate the thousands who on Saturday and Sunday nights croded the foreshores with scarcely a break from Port Melbourne to Sandringham. Four lines of trams and two railways carried them in hordes. And they came also in all sorts of private conveyances, from the costermonger's cart lit with a candle in a bottle, to the gorgeous motor car blazing with dazzling light. At Port Melbourne and South Melbourne the Esplanade and sand were crowded with hot and tired people. In places at St. Kilda it was not easy to move about, so dense was the crush...
SLEEPING IN THE OPEN
MANY HUNDREDS SPEND THE NIGHTS ON THE BEACH.
The overpowering heat has been responsible in Melbourne for a distinct departure from the usual practice in regard to sleeping arrangements. Hundreds of families have deserted their bedrooms, distributing themselves on the balconies in beds made on the flooring boards; on verandahs, slung in hammocks; on the lawns at the backs and fronts of houses, in public gardens, and on the shores of the Bay...
...The hot weather has settled in four or five nights the mixed bathing question. People of opposite sexes do not now query whether companionship in the water is right or wrong. They just dress appropriately, bathe together, and find no one is particularly scandalised...
...On the Mordialloc pier a like spectale was to be seen. When the local constable went home after 1 a.m. from meeting the last train, visitors and ordinary residents were resorting there by dozens, and they remained like Patience on the proverbial monument, peering into space from the structure when it again became light. All down the eastern shore of the Bay people, trying to catch cool respiration, sprawled all Saturday night on the sands...
...Every one who slept on the sand no doubt found it an agreeable experience until dawn. Then a want of unanimity was manifested as to shaking off dull sloth and early rising. Scores of vital young men were up at peep of day, bathing boisterously near the short and indulging in all kinds of horse play just when other people wanted most to be asleep...
So, Melbourne peeps of 2009... how are you handling the heat?
