Stormy Start to Winter

The weather bureau predicted that a famous (infamous?) winter south coast low pressure system was forming in the Southern Ocean and to expect damaging winds up to 110km/hr and 100mm rain overnight.
So we battened down the hatches.
Nothing! Overcast and calm the next morning.
But by the time we had driven into town for a few appointments all hell broke loose.
We had 12 hours of driving rain (55mm) and winds up to 106 km/hr!
The bureau got it right, just their timing was out.
At least our 'hanger' finally came down.....without any damage, thankfully.

The storm caused huge amounts of damage as it moved north through Wollongong and the metropolitan area of Sydney where it hit just on 5pm as people were leaving work.
Winds in Sydney were up to 130km/hr. This, together with the highest tide of the year, produced some pretty spectacular surf along the suburban beaches.
It even snowed up on the western slopes of the Great Divide a few hundred km from Sydney..
Further information and pictures here.
The chaos continued north to Newcastle hitting that area as the Australia v Scotland Rugby Test Match started. How they played in these atrocious conditions was beyond me. Unfortunately Scotland ended up getting over the line ahead of the Wallabies with an after the final bell penalty kick.
Hopefully this is not a sign of things to come, weather AND football wise.