Snow has fallen across South Australia, Victoria and NSW as a cold snap has chilled residents enjoying spring sunshine only days ago.
Subscribe now for unlimited access.
or signup to continue reading
South Australia's mid north saw snowfall thick enough for people to even go for a bit of ski, some of the heaviest falls the region has seen in years.
Parts of Victoria have been dusted with snow.
Areas like Lismore and Lake Bolac in the state's Western Districts region saw snow as low as 200 metres, and there's more to come.
"They don't see snow this time of year, or at all, very often," said Bureau of Meteorology senior forecaster, Keris Arndt.
Ballarat experienced what is believed to be the coldest ever September day on record, as snow falls blanketed the region.
As gardens turned bright white, Ballarat's temperature maxed out at just 5.8 degrees at 10am on Friday morning, lower than the six degrees recorded on September 15, 1957.
At 1.40pm, it was just 0.1 degrees.
While officially the Bureau of Meteorology's snow level was 600m on Friday, the fact that Ballarat's temperature dropped below zero meant snow fell lower than expected.
But it wasn't just Ballarat which copped a dumping, with even lower laying areas such as Lismore and Mortlake also receiving heavy falls.
At Mt Buninyong there were reports of cars struggling to gain traction at the top of the mountain.
One particularly keen skier was even spotted cutting a shape down the 10th fairway at Buninyong Golf Club.
Bureau of Meteorology duty forecaster Miriam Bradbury said it was an unusually strong system to occur so deep into September.
"Snow in September is not unheard of in early spring, but it is unusual to see the snow hanging around on the ground," she said.
"It's something very difficult to track in terms of observations.
"All of the data we have is reported to us by people phoning in, or on social media.
"We base our estimates on what we see, and you'd say for what we've seen today, it was 1cm or 2cm that has fallen."
Further north in NSW and the cold weather has seen Mount Canobolas in the state's Central West cut off from 9am ahead of anticipated blizzard-like conditions.
A sheep graziers warning is in place, and wind gusts of 104 kilometres an hour have been recorded in the Blue Mountains at Mount Boyce this afternoon.
The Bathurst region on the NSW Central Tablelands saw the high winds close highways, while snow fell in Oberon.
