Prolonged extreme heat across South Australia reaches 106°F in Adelaide and disrupts health, work and daily life

Evening Journal (Adelaide) Sat 2 Mar 1872: ‘The weather is still very hot and sultry. Today the thermometer is 105F in the shade’.

Kapunda Herald and Northern Intelligencer Tue 5 Mar 1872: ‘The weather during the last ten or twelve days has been insufferably hot, and as a consequence, illness has been unusually prevalent. Several of our tradesmen are ill…dysentery and English cholera are, we hear, also very prevalent’.

Evening Journal (Adelaide) Wed 6 Mar 1872: ‘Under Mr. Muirhead’s verandah, at the junction of Hindley and King William streets, the thermometer reached 104° shortly before noon, and 106° about 3.30 p.m., on Tuesday… On Monday afternoon Michael Naylan, of Norwood, died at the Highbury Hotel after a short illness. … the verdict returned was died from natural causes, death being accelerated by the hot weather’.

Border Watch (Mount Gambier) Wed 6 Mar 1872: ‘For the last seven days the weather has, night and day, been excessively close and warm, and-continues without any immediate prospect of change. The following table shows the neat in shade and sun since the 28th February as registered at the Telegraphy Office…’

The Express and Telegraph (Adelaide) Wed 6 Mar 1872: ‘After the usual formal business, the Treasurer rose to move an adjournment of the House until April 9…on account of the extreme heat of the weather…’

Southern Argus (Port Elliot) Fri 8 Mar 1872: ‘We have lately had a long series of intensely bot and oppressive days, and there as yet seems no signs of a change. The heat has been considerably aggravated by the number of bush fires about, as, even when a cool wind was blowing, its pleasant effect was lost through its having to come through an atmosphere of fire and smoke’.

Northern Argus (Clare) Fri 8 Mar 1872: ‘We have had a week of almost unbearable heat; the thermometer has at times stood at 92 deg. in the cool bar of the Glare Hotel. As for work, it is out of the question, except with those who really cannot avoid it… Grasshoppers are making their appearance in great numbers, and where there is a little green grass it is inevitably devoured’.

The South Australian Advertiser (Adelaide) Fri 8 Mar 1872: ‘Freeling March 6: The weather for this last week has been very trying, the heat being almost unbearable. The farmers were crying out a few weeks back about the dampness of the weather, afraid that they would have to rake or harrow their stubble, as it was impossible to make it burn, but these last few roasters we have had have turned the tables altogether, as you will see fires raging in all directions…’

South Australian Register (Adelaide) Fri 8 Mar 1872: ‘The recent hot weather has had the effect, if not of starting, of promoting a large number of fires in the bills to the east and south-east of Adelaide. Commencing from about Stevenson’s garden till arrival at Strathalbyn charred fences and timber or smouldering embers are to be seen at intervals, and at times when driving through the ranges, even at night, the temperature is found to be rather warm, owing to the fires, some near the road and others at a considerable distance. In Strathalbyn, too, the heat is thought to have been much increased— although it certainly has been severe enough— by conflagrations surrounding it, although not at very close quarters. It is to be hoped that with the change of weather that has now come the last may be seen of these fires for this year’.