H.G Wells and the big chill in Canberra's 1939 heatwave

By Ian Warden
Updated April 23 2018 - 8:18pm, first published January 20 2014 - 3:00am

As we write, all Canberrans are going ''Phew! It's hot!'' (or sometimes less printable words to that effect). But the city has had heatwaves before, and during what may have been the worst of them, the one of January 1939, canny J.B. Young ran opportunistic newspaper advertisements with the bold heading ''Phew! It's hot. Beat the heat at J. B. Young's Kingston store.''

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