Damaging winds and driving rain lashed Victoria on Monday night while snow flurries were reported in northern New South Wales as a low pressure system brought bitter, wintry weather across south-eastern Australia.
The Victorian State Emergency Services fielded more than 300 requests for assistance overnight as strong winds and rain hit the state, felling trees, damaging dwellings, and flooding low-lying areas and river catchments.
The strongest wind gusts of 115km/h were recorded at Wilson’s Promontory in Victoria, and gusts of more than 100km/h were recorded across the state and also in north-western Tasmania.
The Victorian SES said it fielded 129 calls regarding fallen trees, including a tree falling on a house in the outer-east Melbourne suburb of Ferny Creek late on Monday night. Ambulance, police and fire brigade units also attended the scene and assisted with helping people from the building.
A car was trapped in flood water in the south-eastern suburb of Oakleigh.
The SES had 78 calls for emergency assistance with building damage and 77 for flooding on Monday night and Tuesday morning.
Rain and winds also hit New South Wales on Monday night, with parts of the Riverina region getting a dump of snow overnight. Residents around Tumbarumba and Kunama woke up to snow on the roads, with more expected to fall on Tuesday night.
A video uploaded to social media showed snow flurries on the road between the Tablelands towns of Guyra and Ben Lomond, towards the Queensland border.
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The wind was also strong in the Illawarra region of New South Wales, with gusts of over 80km/h in Nowra and Wollongong.
There were multiple flood warnings active for Victorian creeks and rivers, with watch and act alerts active for Watts River in the Yarra catchment, the Latrobe River from Yallourn to Traralgon Creek in Gippsland, and the Goulburn River at Yea township, where rainfall totals of between 60mm and 90mm were expected across Monday and Tuesday.
Moderate flooding was expected in Healesville on Tuesday morning, with the Watts River at 3.11 metres at 7.46am and rising, exceeding the minor flood marker of 2.80 metres. It was expected to peak at 3.20 metres.
Jonathan How, senior meteorologist at the Bureau of Meteorology, said Victoria, New South Wales and the ACT bore the brunt overnight of the low pressure system currently driving the cold snap across the south-east of Australia.
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“In terms of rainfall, the heaviest rainfall went through Melbourne’s eastern suburbs, and then out towards Western parts of Gippsland,” said How.
More than 100mm of rain fell at Mt Baw Baw in Victoria, and 86mm at Mount Dandenong and into eastern Melbourne suburbs.
Parts of the south-east of New South Wales and near the ACT saw rainfall totals of between 20mm and 40mm and also very strong winds.
Wind chill kept apparent temperatures low in Sydney, with the “feels like” temperature sitting around 3C on Tuesday morning, and -1C in Wollongong.
“The damaging winds across Victoria and Tasmania have eased overnight but the bureau still has a severe weather warning current for damaging winds exceeding 90km/h,” How said.
“As of this morning, that does extend all the way from parts of the south coast in New South Wales up through the Central tableland, and that still does include the Illawarra including places like Woollongong, Kiama, and Nowra.”
While blizzard conditions had eased for the alpine areas of NSW by Tuesday morning, there was still a risk of damaging winds. The NSW SES advised people in Wollongong, Nowra, Braidwood, Katoomba, Araluen and Nerriga to stay alert to wind conditions.