Jervis Bay Items – on this day

Nowra Leader 22nd October 1937.
There was rather a humorous incident during the progress of the terrific hail storm at Huskisson on Sunday last, when a retriever dog was racing for its home.  Every now and again, when an out-size hailstone would strike it' somewhere about the head it would bound aside as if it was being assaulted by a stone thrower.


Hail storm passed over Huskisson,
Hail stones fell in bucket fulls, and out near Errowel the hail could have been shovelled up in barrow loads. There were still plenty lying on the roadside on Monday morning.  Mr. and Mrs. Wally Osmond, of Nowra, were spending the afternoon at Huskisson, and were sheltering in their car from the storm. The hail was so heavy that it burst through the hood of the car. Roofs of houses looked as though a fall of snow had occurred. Windows of many cottages were broken. It lasted 15 minutes.


This photo is from the Denman collection, it shows Owen Street Huskisson and the buildings covered in ice after a hail storm in 1937.

Hail and a water spout 1938. Canberra Times. The bay is often subjected to large storms, a hot humid day, culminating in a large thunderstorm is quite common over summer. I don’t think I have ever heard of seven and a quarter inch wide hail stones before. I took these photos in June 2015 during the most violent thunderstorm I have seen in 30 years of taking photo's of Jervis Bay.

The Sydney Morning Herald. 1938 Huge jagged hailstones which dented iron roofs, ruined gardens, broke windows, and tore holes in motor car hoods, fell during a fierce storm which occured at Jervis Bay at 6.30 p.m. A the time the storm was reported to be the  severest in the history of the town. " Dr N.W Bansard, a resident, said he had never seen such large hail. Many of the hailstones would have killed a man if they had hit him squarely, he declared". "Inky black storm clouds hung over the town for two hours before the storm broke and it went across the bay. A huge waterspout rose out over Wreck Bay. It was a thick column of water,  which joined sea and sky,  and made a  most awe-inspiring spectacle." During the storm people locked themselves in their houses, and not a living thing was to be seen in the open.

October 1937 – Nowra Leader