Charlotte Martin
Ceduna reached a record temperature on Australia Day, hitting 49.3 degrees by 4.30pm, Monday, 28 January.
Local Steve Milner said by that point the centre of Ceduna was deserted.
“There was not a soul to be seen, there were no cars on the road,” he said.
“People were down at Shelly Beach and sticking to the coastline, lots of people were in caravans or tents so were in and out of the water.
“It’s the end of the school holidays, but there’s still a lot of people on the road.”
Just 60 minutes later and the town received its high heat reprieve.
“It only took an hour to drop nearly 20 degrees Celsius,” Mr Milner added.
“It had dropped off massively, I started to open up the house and blow all the hot air out at about 5.30pm, 6pm.”
