General News
6 November, 2025
What the hail!
Saturday’s wild storm created havoc across the Clifton district with giant hail and strong winds causing extensive damage to homes, businesses and vehicles.
The first wave hit around lunch time and residents were stunned by its severity, despite warnings issued by the Bureau of Meteorology which correctly forecast storm “super cells”.
The town and district immediately looked like a disaster zone, but there was more to come as the cell doubled back, striking again and again.
Huge hailstones were blown by intense wind, battering mostly the southern side of structures.
Windows and skylights were smashed, solar panels were severely damaged, pvc gutterings and downpipes were damaged while front and back windscreens on vehicles were broken and large hail dents were inflicted on most of the panels on the impacted vehicles.
In the odd case, paint was stripped from buildings and aged weatherboard walls on at least one very old building was holed.
Leaves and branches were stripped from trees and gardens were battered.
The intensity of rainfall varied with not much in some parts but significant totals in others.
There was enough rain to put a fresh through King’s Creek and in some areas paddocks were left looking like lakes or at the least, rice paddies.
State Emergency Services (SES) crews were quick to spring into action and spent most of the weekend providing assistance to householders impacted by the storm.
Q-Build crews were also fast to move with a team effecting repairs to Clifton Police Station, Clifton State School, Clifton State High School and government owned residences.
At government schools staff pitched in and helped clear debris.
The Clifton police 4WD vehicle was so severely damaged it has apparently been declared a write-off.
By 3pm on Saturday Premier David Crisafulli was on the phone to Member for Condamine Pat Weir expressing his concern at the news he had been receiving relating to the devastation in the Clifton district.
Mr Weir travelled to Clifton on Monday morning visiting the Police Station and State School before checking out some of the town’s streets where houses were damaged.
Elsewhere on the Darling Downs, storms produced extensive damage at Pratten and the surrounding area and there were reports of damage at Nobby and Allora although apparently not as widespread as at Clifton and Pratten.
Large parts of Clifton, Nobby, Greenmount, Kings Creek, Ryeford, Back Plains and Ellangowan lost power of Saturday afternoon, affecting over a thousand Ergon Energy Network customers.
Further heavy rain was received on Monday.
