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I think it says a lot about the tenacity of life in general and humans in particular that the Swan River Colony survived a single Perth summer, let alone lasted long enough and grew well enough to become a thriving city by the time air conditioning was invented.

Can't you just picture them? The women in particular, in their copious underwear, ankle-length dresses, huge sleeves, corsets . . . this is the kind of costume they were wearing in the early years of the colony.

I'm wearing a thin t-shirt and thin board shorts, I've got my hair pinned up off my neck, and the air conditioner is doing its best in the next room, and the fan is directing cold air in here as best it can. But I am sweltering. I cannot imagine what it would have been like in that kind of get-up, in a house even less well-designed for the heat than this one. It's amazing that any of them even lived to have kids, let alone managed to build a successful colony.

Can you tell the heat is dominating my thoughts just a bit?