Scorching summer heats up as residents and travellers in the South West find ways to cool down

The scorching summer has only just begun as residents and travellers in the South West head to the beach to cool down this week.

Even our region’s furry friends are finding new ways to stay cool as the Busselton temperature soared to 36C on Wednesday, backed-up by a 35-degree day on Thursday.

The Bureau of Meteorology reports temperatures will ease over the weekend — with a top of 24 on Sunday and possible showers — but will again climb to the 30-degree mark into next week.

The warm weather brought hordes of swimmers to the foreshore on Wednesday.

Visiting from Mandurah, Emily Taylor, 11, said her favourite way to beat the heat was going for a swim, or jumping off the Busselton Jetty.

Jennifer Minoughan said she was enjoying spending time with her grandchildren — whether it was hot or cold, at the beach or at the pool — while on holiday in the South West.

Also at the foreshore was Trevor and Julie Smith from Bunbury who shared two different approaches.

“What we do if it’s really hot, you just close the curtains, close up shop, wait for it to cool down and put the air-conditioner on,” Mr Smith said.

“Swimming, swimming, swimming — and shade,” Ms Smith said.

Siblings Kaliyah, 9, and Jasper Buck, 12, agreed getting in the water was the best thing on a hot day.

“(We) just went (jetty jumping),” Jasper said.

“It was good and refreshing,” his sister told the Times.

While jumping in the ocean was a fan favourite for many, it wasn’t possible for some such as the animals at Sunflowers Animal Farm who needed to find creative ways to cool down.

Manager Steve Jones said experience came to the fore in dealing with the mini-heatwave.

“We’re quite used to the animals surviving this kind of heat, so all of the staff are out today during the heat of the day, several times, hosing down animals, hosing down their cages, and generally trying to keep the environment comfortable for them,” he said.

“Most of the animals are good, but when we look at extreme heat ... we need to take those extra measures, so you’ll see things like sprinklers in the paddocks, plenty of shade, and we make sure that they’ve got plenty of fresh water all day long.”

Different animals call for different techniques, Mr Jones said, with Whistles the emu enjoying his hose down the most.

“Whistles loves water and Whistles just loves a shower under the hose, so he’ll sit down and you could do that for him for hours, and he will not complain — emus are big lovers of the water,” he said.

“They (the pigs) do love a mud bath. It does two things for them — one is it keeps them cool, and the other thing is the mud keeps the insects off them, so it protects them from the flies, and so they need that mud bath to be happy.

“They (the cows and kangaroos) go and lay under a nice shady tree and flick a bit of dust on them and just ride it out. That’s the best way to deal with it.”