Photo gallery of the storm & damage here:
http://www.news.com.au/couriermail/g...382-01,00.html

The damage this time reminds me of the Australia Day 1976 hail storm we had in Toowoomba. We lost all the tiles and windows off the southern side of the house, and the wind was so strong that glass & hailstones were driven all the way up the hall to the other end of the house. There was still unmelted ice in the yard at noon the next day. That storm was really fickle - some houses were trashed completely yet the other side of the street was untouched. In East Toowoomba we were belted, yet a few km away in West Toowoomba they weren't even aware that a storm was happening and horse racing was proceeding unhindered at the Clifford Park Racecourse.

We do seem to be returning to the weather patterns I remember as a kid. Right through primary school, from October onwards there always seemed to be an afternoon storm that would break around 3:00PM just as school got out. By the mid '80s that pattern was a rarity.

cheers,
Colin