I thought of those summers this week while in the even-smaller town of Ouyen (population 1,170) in the Mallee, 150km directly north of Warracknabeal, as this month’s still-rolling, record-breaking heatwave built to its apex. These aren’t places well-known to people in the city. For many, north-west Victoria isn’t a destination, just somewhere to pass through, a detour on the way to Adelaide. Until the state’s maximum temperature records looked set to tumble there, and the media spotlight trained right on them.