Volume 48: Issued Friday 23rd July 2010
A Phenomenal Fall of Hail
The Sydney Morning Herald Wednesday 18th November 1896
In the metropolis yesterday the weather was oppressive. About 5 pm a change came, and the rain fell copiously, 12 points being recorded in the shower. The lightning flashes were very severe, especially over Pennant Hills. The Hon. Mr. Garrard, Minister for Instruction, informed Mr. Russell that while going through Turramurra and Pymble, the country looked as white as though a heavy snowstorm had taken place. In places the hailstones were 2 ft deep. The wind changed in Sydney to south and blew at a force of from 20 to 25 miles an hour.
In connection with the lightning storm, a correspondent sends from Chatswood – “The lightning was very strong here and one of the flashes struck a tree, bursting it into fragments, some of which were picked up 60ft away”.
Progress of the Suburbs
The Sydney Morning Herald Saturday 28thJune 1913
- an extract from this article
The late Robert Pymble was the pioneer orchardist. His orchard was at the side of the Pymble railway station, and here it was learnt for the first time that the district was well adapted for citrus fruits, as well as for the ordinary summer fruits-peaches, apricots, pears, apples, nectarines, etc.
Mr. Pymble imported the first orange seed into the district. It was not long before other orchards sprang into existence, and they were magnificent. Some of the heavy timber remained around them, and protected the orange trees from decimating blasts.
There were no diseases, no blights, no other troubles. Everything in the orchard was lovely, and the branches of the different trees touched each other, although they were planted 22ft apart. Some of the fruit trees grew to a height of from 20ft to 30ft, land were laden with delicious fruit.
CIose by Pymble's orchard was the famous one of the late Hon. Richard Hill. This was one of the show-places of" Sydney, to which Governors and distinguished visitors were driven as a thing not to be missed. Delightful social functions took place under the shade of the old apple trees. Mr. Hill's orchard ran from Pymble to the site of Mr. Carson's residence.
This magnificent orchard was sold by Mr. Hill to Mr. M'Keown for £7500, which gives some idea of the value of a good orchard around Sydney 40 years ago. But not long after, a hail storm, the worst which ever visited Sydney, destroyed that orchard; in a few minutes stripped the heavy fruit-Iaden trees as bare as they are in the dead of winter. On another occasion, in the early days, the residents had a heavy fall of snow, and for the first and only time local people indulged In snowballing near Sydney.
Sydney deluge damages roofs
The Sydney Morning Herald Saturday 28thJune 1913
Phones ran hot today when thousands of Sydney home owners sought repairs to roofs damaged by torrential rains last night
.
Roofing contracts have labour and material for only a fraction of the work, and say they will be kept busy for many weeks ahead.
Heaviest rain fell on the fashionable North Shore suburbs of Wahroonga and Turramurra, where the deluge was four to five inches.
1950 RAIN TOPPED 86 INCHES
The Sydney Morning Herald Monday 1st January 1951
Sydney had 86.33 inches of rain in 1950, breaking the previous
record of 82.76 inches in 1860.
Each year's rainfall is computed at 9 a.m. on December 31.'' Any rain falling later is credited, to the next year.
The Turramurra weather station reported last night a record rainfall of 100.23 inches for 1950.
The previous highest total at Turramurra was 86.05 inches in 1949.
SYDNEY RAINFALL. 1936.
TO THE EDITOR OF THE HERALD.
The Sydney Morning Herald Wednesday 20th January 1937
Sir,-In the "Herald's" columns earlier this month prominence was given to the fact that Sydney's rainfall for 1936 was 3036 points and comment was made that this fell short by 17 inches of Sydney's average yearly rainfall. I have for many years kept as a matter of interest a record of the rainfall at Wahroonga, and on adding the total for 1936 there found that it came to 4337. Being struck by the difference of 13 Inches between Sydney and Wahroonga on these records, I checked over from your files the readings recorded for the 12 months for Sydney and Turramurra respectively (as your files did not record the Wahroonga rainfall), and found that for the 12 months the Turramurra total was 4130, and the monthly falls between Wahroonga and Turramurra were fairly similar, but between Sydney and both those suburbs differed considerably.
It has struck me as a matter of Interest that, whilst Sydney's figures indicate a most unusually dry 12 months, the figures of Wahroonga and Turramurra are only four inches and six inches respectively less than the average yearly rainfall. It seems a matter of some interest that the Observatory recordings do not indicate the rainfall received by other parts of the metropolitan area, including suburbs so close to the city as those mentioned.
I am, etc,
TWN
COUNCIL'S NEGLIGENCE
Damages Awarded For Flood
SYDNEY, Tuesday.
The Canberra Times Wednesday 14th July 1937
Expressing the opinion that the Council had acted negligently in
replacing a culvert with a pipe which was too small to take storm water, Mr. Stevenson, P.M., at the Hornsby Small Debts Court to-day, in a reserved decision, gave a verdict for damages totalling £61/14/ with £16/17/ costs in favour of nine plaintiffs against the Kuring-gai Council.
The plaintiffs comprised a father, his two sons and five daughters, and a boarder, were the occupants of a house in Eastern Road, Turramurra, which was flooded with water during the heavy rain on March 7, 1936.
THE FRUIT PESTS BILL.
The Sydney Morning Herald Thursday 10th November 1904
A deputation of fruit growers from the St. Ives and Gordon districts waited yesterday upon the Attorney-General, as member for the district, to ask that he would use his influence against the passing of tho proposed Fruit Pests Bill. Members of the deputation pointed out that they kept their orchards clean and free from pests, and produced the best results, and to impose tho heavy penalties provided In the bill would take the heart out of them. They hoped, therefore, Mr. Wade would do his best to oppose the passage
of the measure.
Tho Attorney-General said as tho bill was introduced by a private member and as they had approached him as member for the district he was free to tell them his views of the bill. Ho did not believe in legislation which would interfere with any individual in the conduct of his business unless strong reasons could be shown for it in the interests of the general public, or unless gross neglect could be shown on the part of the individual.
He knew that they did their best to keep their orchards clean and free from pests, and it would be inflicting hardships upon them to pass the measure into law. The details of the bill were In some instances so very drastic as to merit condemnation. One of its provisions was that if fruit fly was found in a case of fruit when opened for sale the orchardist would be liable to a penalty of £5.
Everybody connected with fruit knows that a case might be packed in the morning showing no signs of disease or fly, and within 24 hours it would have developed. Another clause treated orchardists as criminals, because it cast upon them the onus of disproving their guilt. For those reasons he was prepared to do all that he could to prevent the passage of the bill.
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