Table of Snowfall Events in South-East Queensland
1878-2015

Compiled from data provided by the Bureau of Meteorology, Brisbane, newspapers, observer reports, dated
photos and Nicholas Oughton’s own records.
Compiled by Nicholas Oughton (revision date 15 January 2016)

Date of fall	Ref	Location	Remarks	Sn
3 June 1878	1b	Stanthorpe	A fall of snow	Sn
29 July 1878	1	Stanthorpe and Wallangarra	Light snow falls in district	Sn
7 May 1879	2	Stanthorpe and Maryvale	Very light snow	Sn
11 July 1879	3	Southern Downs districts	Snow reported, Spring Creek, Darling Downs	Sn
12 Aug 1879	4	Stanthorpe district	Sleet and snow	Sn
3 July 1880	5	Laidley district, Toowoomba (sleet and a little snow)	Mt mistake, 2-3 ins. On ground in sheltered areas afternoon of next day.	Sn
14 July 1880	5b	Toowoomba, Warwick (heavy fall)	Sleet and some flakes of snow at Warwick	Sn
July 1981	N	Kilarney	Falls made with snow from spouting of house	Sn
23 Sept 1881	5a	Stanthorpe	Fall of snow in the morning	Sn
27 July 1882	6 6a, 6b	Brisbane, Stanthorpe, Sugarloaf Toowoomba, Warwick, Clifton	Widespread snow showers. 2” reported at Clifton Plains. Falls observed in Brisbane	Sn
13 Aug 1983	6c	Border Districts	Sleet and snow	Sn
July 1884	N	Killarney	Heaviest fall to date fell on Thursday morning. In gullies shaded from the sun lasted till Mon am.	Sn
18 Jun 1885	6d	Darling Downs	2 Falls of light snow	Sn
Jun 30 1887	6c	Wallangarra	Light falls of snow	Sn
10 July 1888	6/1	Stanthorpe	Bitterly cold with snow	Sn
14 July 1888	7	Toowoomba	Small flakes of snow falling	Sn
24 June 1889	8	Toowoomba	Signs of snow	Sn
14 July 1889	9	Warwick, Killarney	Slight falls of snow similar to 1881	Sn
July 1890	10	Wallangarra	Sleet	Sl
24 Sep 1991	10c	Border Ranges and Bonoo Boonoo	Ranges whitened for some days	Sn
23 June 1892	10d	Maryland (8 ks East of Stanthorpe)	Heavy fall of snow
July 17 1894	10b	Queensland Border	Snow (Ref heavy snow at Tenterfield on 17^th)	Sn
23 July 1894	10a	Queensland Border	Snow has fallen	Sn
21,22 July 1895	11	Wallangarra, Stanthorpe district, Balandean	3” of snow on the ground	Sn
30, July 1995	11a	Stanthorpe	Snow	Sn
21-22 Jul 1896	12	Stanthorpe and Darling Downs	2” on the ground at Stanthorpe	Sn
23- 24 July 1898	13	Canbooya, Pittsworth, Cabarla, Toowoomba, Stanthorpe. Leyburn.	Heavy snow storms for 1 hour at Cabarla, 15 mins at Pittsworth. Blizzard at Toowoomba on 23^rd. Snow in Stanthorpe on the 24th.	Sn
13 June 1899	14	Yangan, Killarney, Wallangarra, Stanthorpe, Toowoomba.	Stanthorpe reports “fall quite as heavy as three years ago which was a record for this place”.	Sn
5 July 1899	14/1	South Eastern Mountains	Snow forecast	Sn
6-7 June 1900	15	Wallangarra	Snow falls and sleet over two days	Sn
20 June 1901	15a	Stanthorpe	Heavy snow on the border and Stanthorpe	Sn
27-30 July 1901	16 16a	Many districts of the Southern Downs and Granite Belt	Snow was widespread in this 4-day event during a major snow outbreak. 3” and deeper.	Sn
30 July 1905	17	Stanthorpe	Snow storm	Sn
30 Aug 1905	18	The Border (Emmaville)	Snow	Sn
15 Sep 1906	19	Near Longreach	Snow on the Bellfield ranges	Sn
23 June 1908	20	Stanthorpe, Wallangarra,	Light snow	Sn
12 Jul 1908	20a	Cambooya	Thunderstorm followed by hail and snow	Sn
20 July 1910	21	Dalveen, Cambooya, Pittsworth.	Sleet and Snow	Sn
17-8 Jun 1914	22	Southern Downs	Snow	Sn
9 June 1915	23	Dalveen	Snow followed by sleet	Sn
17-8 Jun 1916	N	Wallangarra	Sleet, Snow on Mountain tops	Sn
23 Jun 1916	23a	Wallangarra	Light snow	Sn

Date of Fall	Ref	Location	Remarks	Sn
21 Jun 1917	24	Toowoomba	Snow fall for about 3 mins	Sn
9 Sep 1919	25	Southern Downs	Light snow and sleet	Sn
22 May 1921	Ph 4	Glen Aplin	Snow in front of house at Glen Aplin	Sn
30 July 1921	26a	Dalveen, Wallangarra	Sleet and snow Dalveen, Sleet Wallangarra	Sn
1922	Ph1	Amiens	Snow covered farmland (John Oxley Lib)	Sn
5 Aug 1923	27	Southern Darling Downs	Rather heavy fall of snow	Sn
10 Aug 1923	Ph 2	The Summit	Snow (Photo in BC Friday 10^th Aug p 18)	Sn
1925 25 June 1925	Ph 3 27a	Stanthorpe snow Thornton, Mt Mistake	Photo from Mt Marley looking over Stanthorpe Snow on summit of Mt Mistake	? Sn
1 June 1926	28	Dalveen, Wallangarra, Summit	Sleet and snow	Sn
24 July 1926	28/1	Southen Darling Downs	Snow and some sleet	Sn
27 June 1927	29	Brisbane and border districts	Snow	Sn
18 April 1928	30	Wallangarra	Light falls of sleet	Sl
15 June 1928	31	Border districts	Sleet	Sl
17 June 1928	?	Border districts	Sleet and snow	?
26,7,8 Jun 28	32	Stanthorpe and Border districts	Snow and sleet	Sn
25 July 1928	33	Wallangarra	Showers of sleet. Bald Rock snow capped	Sn
26 April 1929	34	Wallangarra	Light snowfalls in district	Sn
29 June 1929	34/1	Wallangarra	Heavy sleet, light snow	Sn
6-7 Jul 1929	35	Kyoomba	Heavy snow in the vicinity (3 miles from Stan)	Sn
25 Aug 1929	36	Stanthorpe	One of the heaviest falls of snow ever	Sn
11 Sept 1929	37	Wallangarra	Snow	Sn
3 Aug 1930	38	Stanthorpe	Light snow in Stanthorpe, sleet on D Downs	Sn
11 Aug 1930	39	Wallangarra	Sleet showers wallangarra snow on Mountains	Sn
6-7 July 1931	40	Wallangarra, Stanthorpe	Heavy snow. Falls on both days	Sn
17 Aug 1931	40a	Wallangarra	Snow clouds over mountains and sleet	Sl
20 June 1932	41	Wallangarra	Snow at Wallangarra and surrounding districts	Sn
27 June 1932	42	Wallangarra, Stanthorpe, Brisbane. Bunya Mts.	Sleet and snow. In Brisbane just not reaching the ground. Snow elsewhere	Sn
8 July 1932	43	Border districts	Snow. Sleet on the 7^th and 9th	Sn
13 July 1932	44	Donnybrook Mountain	Snow on trees	Sn
2 Aug 1932	45	Stanthorpe and Wallangarra	Sleet	Sl
9 Aug 1932	46	Wallangarra	Sleet and snow	Sn
17 May 1933	47	Stanthorpe	Sleet	Sl
30 July 1933	48	Wallangarra	Sleet	Sl
4 Aug 1935	49	Wallangarra	Heavy snow in Mountains. Snowballing in town	Sn
16 June 1936	50	Wallangarra	Sleet	Sl
7 July 1936	51	Wallangarra	Sleet showers	Sl
6 June 1937	52	Stanthorpe	Sleet	Sl
21 June 1937	53	Stanthorpe	Clouds of fine sleet enveloped the Granite district	Sl
22 Aug 1937	54	Stanthorpe	Sleety showers	Sl
25,26 Jul 38	55	Toowoomba and D Downs	Snow and sleet	Sn
30,31 Jul 1938	56	Warwick, Wallangarra	Light snow on Paddy’s Knob, highest point on Condamine Range. Light falls of snow and sleet at night at Wallangarra, melted touching ground	Sn
9 Aug 1938	57	Stanthorpe	Small amount of sleet	Sl
6 June 1939	N	Wallangarra	Sleet	Sl
11 July 1939	58	Stanthorpe, Wallangarra	Sleet, but snow possible on mountains	Sn
9,10,11 Au 1939	59	Stanthorpe, Bunya Mountains Wallangarra	Sleet and snow at Stanthorpe. 6” at Bunya Mts. Nanango residents say snow in each 2 previous years on Bunya Mts. 6” drifts at Wallangarra	Sn
9 June 1941	60	Wallangarra	Showers of sleet in the afternoon	Sl
1 Oct 1941	61	Stanthorpe, Wallangarra	Sleet and snow flakes. Wallangarra snow	Sn

Date of Fall	Ref	Location	Remarks	Sn
21 June 1943	62	Dalveen	Sleet	Sl
25 Jun 1943	63	Wallangarra	Sleet	Sl
19 July 1945	64	Warwick	Sleet	Sl
18,19 May 46	65	Applethorpe, Summit	Snow falls for 11/2 hrs 2”on ground at Summit	Sn
20 June 1946	66	Wallangarra	Snow reported	Sn
25 Aug 1947	67	Bald Mountain	Light snow	Sn
4 June 1949	68	Stanthorpe, Wallangarra, Boonah Dalveen	Snow, heaviest for 20 years. (See 1929 above). Sleet at Boonah. 6 ins at Dalveen	Sn
19 July 1949	69	Springbrook, Cunningham’s Gap, Mt Tambourine, Donnybrook, Mt Mitchell	Sleet reported at Springbrook and Mt Tamborine. Snow reported at Mt Donnybrook, Cunningham’s Gap and Mt. Mitchell	Sn
21 Jul 1951	70	Wallangarra	Sleet in morning	Sl
21 Aug 1951	71	Wallangarra, Stanthorpe, Dalveen, Amiens	Light sleet and snowfalls in the district	Sn
12 July 1953	72	Lamington Plateau	Sleet reported	Sn
16-17 Aug 53	73	Stanthorpe and district, Dalveen	Good snow cover. Sleet reported at Dalveen	Sn
7 July 1954	74	Mount Mitchell	Mt Mitchell snow capped	Sn
1 June 1956	75	Wallangarra, Eukey	Light snow reported	Sn
9 June 1956	P76	Stanthorpe district	Light snow reported but melted as hit ground	Sn
10 June 1956	P77	Bunya Mountains, Eukey	2 short falls of snow, Light falls on Bunya Mts
22 May 1957	P78	Stanthorpe district	Light falls of snow and sleet at Stanthorpe and Marshals crossing (8 miles SW of Stanthorpe)	Sn
4 Sep 1958	P79	Stanthorpe, Wallangarra, Dalveen, Amiens, Eukey	Light snow	Sl
21 Sept 1958	P80	Brisbane	Light snow flakes seen by 4 observers at 5.15pm: OIC Met Office Eagle Farm at Moorooka, a New Zealand woman at Wooloowin, Bowen Hills near Cloudland and at Taringa (Screen temp at time 60 degrees F)	?
21 Sept 1958	P81	Donnybrook Mountain	Heavy falls of snow. Cover could be seen from Wallangarra	Sn
24-5 July 1959	P82	South East Districts	Snow reported in scattered areas from Biggenden to NSW border	Sn
25 July 1959	P83	Toowoomba	Snow in heart of city from 6 to 8am. Sleet during the day
25 July 1959	P84	Bunya Mountains	Heavy snow on peaks, lighter falls at foot
25 July 1959	P85	Posiers, The Summit and Amiens districts	Snow up to 3 inches deep
25 July 1959	P86	Crows Nest, Anduraurba, Pechey, Glenauen, Plainly, Boonara (6 miles from Goomeri), Biggenden, Mt Walsh	Light snow
25 July 1959	P87	Warwick	Light snow early morning, sleet during day
24-5July 1959	P88	Stanthorpe, Wallangarra	Heavy Snow
25 July 1959	P89	McPherson Range	Snow capped
25 July 1959	P90	Dalby	Sleet at 6am
5 July 1960	P91	Cunningham’s Gap and Bunya Mountains	Light falls	Sn
12 July 1960	P92	Sunday Creek, 25 K from Kilcoy	Evening Falls	Sn
13 July 1960	P93	Southern districts	Snow in scattered areas on 24 mile front, 150 miles of NSW border (Kingaroy to near Roma)	Sn

Date of Fall	Ref	Location	Remarks	Sn
13 July 1960	P94	Bunya Mountains	Commenced 2am, 6 inches deep at 9am and still falling. Reported heaviest in memory. Snow patches on Mt Mowbullan late afternoon
13 July 19660	P95	Muckadilla, Yuleba, Mitchell, Cooranga North, Surat, Roma, Bell	Snow reported in districts
13 July 1960	P96	Darling Downs	Sleet
19 July 1960	P97	Wallangarra, Dalveen, Amiens, The Summit, Applethorpe, Mt Tully, Liston	Snowfalls reported in these Granite Belt districts	Sn
22 June 1961	P98	Wallangarra, Stanthorpe and neighboring districts, Bunya Mountains, Muckadilla	Light snow reported with sleet at Stanthorpe. 2 in at Wallangarra.	Sn
27 July 1961	P99	Stanthorpe	Light snow and Sleet on Granite Belt	Sn
10 Aug 1961	P100	Poziers, The Summit	Light snow	Sn
24, 25 Aug 1961	P101	Stanthorpe, Wallangarra	Sleet during the night	Sl
21,22 Aug 1962	P102	Wallangarra, Stanthorpe, Eukey, Pozieres, Thulimbah, Summit	Light snow	Sn
13, 14 June 1963	P103	Dalveen, Passchendale, Stanthorpe, Eukey (3 inches deep), Wallangarra, Tenterfield	Light to heavy snow. Sleet at Boonah on the 13th	Sn
12 May 1964	P104	Granite Belt	Light snow, hail and sleet, earliest on record	Sn
22,23 Jun 1965	P105	Granite Belt	Sleet and very light snow	Sn
19,20 Jul 1965	P106	Clarke Range (western Mackay), Central Highlands, northern Warrego, Maranoa, Darling Downs	Light snow falls reported over wide area extending from the Clarke Range (western Mackay), the Central Highlands, through the northern Warrego to the Maranoa and Darling Downs	Sn
19,20 Jul 1965	P107	Dalrymple Heights	Light snow reported northwest of Mackay. believed to be the northernmost occurrence of snow in Australia in recent times
13 July 1967	P107a	Girraween National Park	A covering of snow fell on this day	Sn
15 May 1968	P108	Stanthorpe	Light snow	Sn
23 July 1968	P109	Stanthorpe	Light sleet and snow	Sn
16 Aug 1968	P110	Bunya Mountains. Proston	Snow reported	Sn
21 Aug 1968	P111	Stanthorpe	Snow reported	Sn
22 Sep 1969	P112	Stanthorpe, Summit, Kilarney	Snow reported	Sn
27 June 1971	P113	Dalveen and Granite Belt	Light falls of snow	Sn
8 July 1972	P114	Stanthorpe, Wallangarra, Sumit	Snow. Sleet in Toowoomba	Sn
7, 8 Jul 1974	P115	Moorlands (East of Stanthorpe)	Snow, heaviest for some years. 2 ins Mt Tulley	Sn
10 Sep 1976	P116	Stanthorpe district	Snow fell in district	Sn
10 June 1977	P117	Mt Mowbullan	Reports of snow on Bunya Mountains	Sn
18 July 1978	Ph 5	Girraween National Park	Approx 3cms of snow shown in photos of the Girraween area. Photos: Paul Grimshaw	Sn
21 June 1982	P119	Mt Canning, Mt Mitchell	Sleet Mt Canning. Mt Michell snow capped	Sn
3 July 1984	P120	Bellthorpe, Cunningham’s Gap	Snow reported. Rain and sleet at Upper Pilton	Sn
3 July 1984	P 120	Applethorpe, Toowoomba, Stanthorpe, Girraween National Park, Springbrook, border ranges, Wallangarra, Waranga,	Heavy snow throughout many districts in the most widespread outbreak in SE Qld. Snow observed on the top floor of Lennons Hotel in Brisbane.

Date of Fall	Ref	Location	Remarks	Sn
3 July 1984		Girraween National Park	Up to one foot of snow recorded
3 July 1984	P120	Binna Burra Lodge and ridges	Snow was reported during the afternoon at Binna Burra Lodge and on ridges near Uki (15 km southwest of Murwillumbah)
4 July 1984	P121	Stanthorpe, Bunya Mountains	Snow reported throughout the day
5 July 1984	P121	Wallangarra	9.00am snow and sleet
6 June 1985	P122	Eukey	Snow reported	Sn
2 Sept 1985	P123	Ballandean	Snow was reported from Amiens, Pozieres and Ballandean on the Granite Belt on the morning of the 2^nd	Sn
18 July 1989	P124	Stanthorpe	Widely scattered light snow did not settle	Sn
9 Aug 1989	P125	Granite Belt	Wide spread light snow	Sn
20 July 1992	P126	Texas, Amiens, Pozieres, Eukey	Snowfalls at Texas, Amiens, Eukey on southern Granite Belt (Courier Mail 21 Jul 1992)and light snow at Pozieres (Gold Coast Bulletin)	Sn
14 July 1996	P127	Mt Tully, Mt Superbus	Snow Mt Tully (18 km west of Stanthorpe) and Mt Superbus (just east of Warwick) (Courier Mail) “First sleet and snow in Queensland’s high range country for years” (Courier Mail)	Sn
19 Aug 1996	P128	Granite Belt, Eukey	Snow on Granite Belt – snow melted almost as quickly as it hit the ground. Grassier at Eukey “had snow last month too”. (Courier Mail)	Sn
23 June 1998	P129	Eukey	Snow fell for about 2 minutes during the morning at Eukey	Sn
27 July 2000	P130	Bunya Mountains	Sleet	Sl
27 July 2000	P131	Springbrook, Mudgeraba	Very light snow melting on impact with ground	Sn
17 July 2004	P131a	Granite Belt	Sleet in the district	Sl
23 June 2005	P132	Eukey, Ballandean, Amiens	Very light snow, settled very briefly. Some sleet. Sleet reported at Wacol in Brisbane	Sn
12 Aug 2005	P133	Springbrook	Very light sleet and snow	Sn
17 Nov 2006	P134	Stanthorpe	Very light snow and sleet	Sn
8 June 2007	P135	Eukey, Wallangarra	1-2 cms of snow reported by Bob East at Eukey	Sn
28 July 2008	P136	Granite Belt district	Good light snow falls about 1-2 cms at Eukey	Sn
12 Aug 2010	P137	Applethorpe	Rain showers with sleet	Sl
5 June 2012		Eukey and Granite Belt	Sleet observed falling	Sl
12 June 2012		Eukey and Balandean,	Snow falling but not settling	Sn
25 June 2013		Eukey	Light dusting, but did not cover ground	Sn
29 June 2014		West of Stanthorpe	Flakes of snow and sleet. No settling	Sl
13 July 2015		Eukey	Very light dusting reported	Sn
16-17July 2015		Large area of Granite Belt	Heavy snow, 6-8 cms overnight	Sn
16-17July 2015		Toowoomba, Cunningham’s Gap,	Light snow and sleet falling but not settling	Sl

A special thanks to the Bureau of Meteorology, Brisbane who provided the skeleton of records used in the above table.

Notes on the Table

1. This record includes reports of settling and non-settling snowfalls and sleet in South East Queensland.
These falls predominantly occurred in the Granite Belt and Southern Downs districts. An ‘Sn’ indicates snow
and an ‘Sl’ sleet. A ‘?’ indicates that a reported fall of sleet or snow is uncorroborated by a second source.

2. The references include information sources such as net-based newspaper archives, library databases and
paper-based references. An ‘N’ is used when no archive, library or paper-based account can be found to verify
a reported event, for example, a photo may have an attached date, but no text-based corroboration can be found.

3. There have been 160 snow days in 137 years in Queensland giving 1.16 snow days per year. These occurrences
range from non-settling snow showers to 4-day events with 3-12 inches on the ground.

4. In general, many weather observers believe that snowfalls in South East Queensland tend to be under rather
than over reported and that this more than compensates for the occasional misreporting of an event e.g. sago
snow, sleet or hail being falsely identified as snow.

In addition, when sleet is reported at centers such as Wallangarra (840 meters) or Stanthorpe (800 meters), snow
may have fallen unobserved on the surrounding mountains. For example those adjacent to the Donnybrook
State forest, which rise to 1300 meters in altitude. These areas are inaccessible and some distance from habitation.
There have been 26 sleet days in the past 137 years.

5. Snow has been observed falling in Brisbane on a number of occasions most notably in 1882, 1958 and 1984. In
1898 Sleet and snow was recorded in George Street, Brisbane (23 July) according to Queensland Government’s
‘Queensland's history - 1800s’. On some occasions, it is likely that soft hail or sago falling in the Brisbane area
was mistaken for snow.

Explanation of Terms

Snow - ice crystals, most of which are branched, sometimes star shaped. Can be from a few millimetres to
several centimetres in size.
Sleet - raindrops and snowflakes falling together.
Sago snow - small ice pellets less than 5 mm in diameter resembling grains of rice. Often incorrectly referred
to as sleet.
Soft hail - small white opaque round or conical pellets of ice, 2 to 5 mm in diameter. Sometimes difficult to
differentiate from sago snow, also often incorrectly referred to as sleet.

In the table above many of the “sleet” reports may have actually been sago snow or soft hail.



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