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Heatwave: Hot weather in Birdsville, Queensland is business as usual

The Pelican Point Billabong is where you'll find a lot of Birdsville locals during summer. - ABC licensed

Much of Queensland and New South Wales is sweltering through the tail end of a horrific heatwave.

But in Birdsville, where BOM recorded a top temperature of 47.1 degrees Celsius at 4:12pm, the afternoon temperature has not dipped below 41C since Australia Day.

"People are out and about doing normal activities â?? they're tough out here," said the manager of the Birdsville Hotel, Ben Fullagar.

"I think people have just acclimatised to it, we get this every year."

To cope with the heat, Birdsville locals will be at Pelican Point Billabong, the local pool, or staying indoors with the air-conditioning blasting.

Birdsville officer in charge, Senior Constable Stephen Pursell, said there had been a long run of hot days but no bad heat-related incidents to report.

"People in town know what to do, people know how to keep cool and not to move around too much," he said.

"Being a small town, everyone keeps an eye on each other."

The small town is surrounded by hundreds of kilometres of dirt.

During summer, the nearby Simpson Desert Park is closed to tourists, as if a car were to break down days could pass before another person comes along to help.



"Normally there's people coming back and forth but [during summer] we don't want people going out there," said Senior Constable Pursell.

"Cars have aircons and people have mini fridges, but if something goes wrong â?¦ the heat's too extreme. You won't survive out there."



Mr Fullagar came to Birdsville from coastal New South Wales about four years ago, intending to stay temporarily for work at the hotel and then move on.

"It's a really nice community out here," he said.

"I only ever intended to stay for three months, but after my six weeks I just thought, 'this is brilliant'.

"I really loved it and now I'm running the hotel."

The heat has not been a deterrent for Mr Fullagar, who even managed to fit in mowing the lawns this morning â?? through 41C heat â?? without breaking a sweat.

He said he now found the 40-plus temperatures in Birdsville easier to deal with than the "sticky feeling" humidity on the east coast.

"My first summer was difficult, I must admit, but you just get used to it," he said.

"Now if I go to Brisbane and it's only 34 degrees and humid I feel very uncomfortable.

"It's very hot [in Birdsville], you can feel the sun really heating up your skin, but you don't have that sticky, clammy, uncomfortable feeling you do in humidity."


- ABC

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