Hail Storm Catastrophe

Kent and Adelaide Streets, Maryborough during a hail storm, August 1924.Original photograph Maryborough Wide Bay & Burnett Historical Society.

Hailstorms have been a regular occurrence on the Fraser Coast. A reader recalls being at the Maryborough pool with her sister when the sky became an eerie green. It was the ominous harbinger of a storm that is still recalled with uneasiness by many locals. Thankfully, the reader was quickly ushered home by her mother. This was the hailstorm of the 17th December,1966.The reader remembers, with trepidation, hailstones bigger than softballs smashing through the side windows of her house at high velocity. The houses all around had walls, rooves and windows dented, damaged and destroyed by the storm that, at its peak, was vociferous.

The Maryborough Chronicle  (17th of December 1996) reports that based on 1966 values there was $100 000 worth of damage inflicted on the city. The Maryborough Base Hospital and the Wahroonga Retirement Village needed their windows and rooves replaced. Local schools experienced window and roof damage. St Mary's Catholic Church and Walker Street Methodist Churches did not escape the storm's fury. Even the Metereorological station was damaged and was out of use for a brief time.

Do you have memories of the Great Hail Storm of 1966?

Other hailstorm events can be found here:
5th December 1903
30th December 1909
22nd November 1956

Tags #hailstorm #maryborough #stormevent #damage #1966 #1924