July 3 1984 is a day that will long in the memory of Guyra folk. It was the day that saw the beginning one of the best snow events in the town’s history.
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The spectacular snowfalls on Tuesday July 3 and Wednesday July 4 1984 were the heaviest and most prolonged for many years, and nothing since has come close.
Guyra’s maximum temperature on the Tuesday was -0.3C, and the maximum on the Wednesday was 0.5C. These were record low maximums. The minimums were -3.0C and -6.0C respectively.
The snow started at around 8am on Tuesday and continued without stopping until the following evening with the temperature remaining below zero for this whole time allowing snow to settle and quickly build up to a depth of several centimetres, particularly overnight on Tuesday.
The New England Highway was blocked south at the Devil’s Pinch and several other locations north between Guyra and Glen Innes.
The railway line was also blocked north of Dumaresq. The outbreak was so intense that snowfalls extended over the border into south-east Queensland with snow falling in Toowoomba for the first time in 25 years.
In the Guyra Shire Chronicle published the following week on Friday July 13 the headline was ‘Life after snow!’
It reported that the official reading from the Post Office was 25cm, but it was deeper in many parts of the district with drifts reported up to 1.5 metres deep.
Even a week later the banked up snow still remained. Many roads in the district were impassible to normal traffic for at least Tuesday (3rd) and Wednesday. At Bald Blair some children were unable to return to school until Monday of the following week as they were snowed in.
In its archives, Guyra Central School reports that the snow fell continuously for 48 hours with depths of between 250mm and 300mm and in places up to 1.5m in drifts. Despite the blizzard conditions and sub-zero temperatures the school could not be officially closed.
At Black Mountain School they had the added problem of the septic tank freezing along with the pump that supplies water to the school.
Frozen water was a common problem with plumbers kept busy for days repairing frozen pipes and pumping systems.
Ordinary cars were unable to cope with the icy conditions with numerous reports of cars running off the roads – four wheel drives became the vehicle of choice.
Council equipment was extra busy during the week as graders cleared the snow from many of the roads of the district.
In town front end loaders were used to clear away deep drifts with tonnes of snow and ice carted away, with piles of dumped snow remaining visible for more than a week.
Editors note: We have had a great response and have so many pictures we will carry over until next week with more snow adventures. Keep the pics and snow stories coming – not just 1984, but hopefully enough to put together a timeline of snow events in Guyra and surrounds.