ALL roads between Ararat and the Grampians were blocked on July 18, 1949, by the heaviest fall of snow ever recorded in the region.<\/p>\n
The snow was six inches deep in the main street that afternoon, and three to four inches falling in other parts of town.<\/p>\n
Snow fell continuously from midnight until 3pm.<\/p>\n
Alexandra Gardens was transformed into a picture from a storybook, which a thick blanket of snow extending to the lake\u2019s edge.<\/p>\n
Excited residents \u2013 many of whom had never seen snow before \u2013 build snowmen every few metres along streets.<\/p>\n
School children were given a half day holiday to go snowballing in the hills.<\/p>\n
The fall was the heaviest since August two years earlier when snow fell for three hours.<\/p>\n
On August 25, 1947, more than two inches of snow fell on Ararat and three inches on Cope\u2019s Hill.<\/p>\n
It was the heaviest fall Ararat had experienced.<\/p>\n\n
A golf tournament had to be postponed because the course was covered with thick snow.<\/p>\n
August 23, 1917, saw a remarkable cold snap and a heavy fall of snow.<\/p>\n
The fair shade meteorological station at the local post office recorded a minimum temperature of 1.6 degrees Celsius, but there would be a difference of probably four degrees between the fair shade and grass maximum.<\/p>\n
A light fall of snow was experienced early in the afternoon, and locals indulged in snow balling, but the snow didn\u2019t lie on the ground except in protected places.<\/p>\n
Soon after seven o\u2019clock that night, a heavy fall set in and the countryside was rapidly covered with a soft white blanket.<\/p>\n
The fall was the heaviest on record, and neighbouring hills and highlands were thickly covered. Even the flats were coated with snow, and snow was visible on the mountains all day.<\/p>\n
At Survey Hill, near the rifle butts, the deposit was in many places over 12 inches deep and One Tree Hill and Mount Chalambar were solidly coated.<\/p>\n
Snowball throwing was the order of the day. The children of the Ararat Church of England Grammar School were taken in two classes by the headmaster Mr Cochrane and teacher Miss Wymond to the ranges for a nature study on snow. The class ended with the making of a huge snow man.<\/p>\n
Local photographers had a field say taking pictures of the winter wonderland including an icicle pendant which formed on the fountain in from of the Town Hall.<\/p>\n
Snow falls in the district weren\u2019t exactly uncommon. The first written report was on September 6, 1862, but as it was merely mentioned that snow fell \u201cgreatly to the delight of people\u201d, it couldn\u2019t have been heavy.<\/p>\n
The earliest record storm was on the day of the Ararat Agricultural Society\u2019s show in the early 1870s.<\/p>\n
Horses were powdered with white, and the fall was sufficiently heavy to weigh down some of the tarpaulins roofing a temporary shed which collapsed under the weight.<\/p>\n
On August 7, 1899, a heavy snowstorm covered the neighbouring hills, while on Easter Sunday, April 15, 1900, snow fell freely in the afternoon, and snowball battles were fought on the hills.<\/p>\n
There was another big fall September 5, 1905, there was a big fall. Snow fell at intervals during the day.<\/p>\n
The Grampians and all the hills around Ararat were covered with snow.<\/p>\n
Closer to Beaufort, rain, hail, sleet and snow fell throughout the day.<\/p>\n
The first snowstorm occurred at about 10am but there was so much rain lying about that it soon melted away.<\/p>\n
At four and five o\u2019clock there were heavier falls, and the unique spectacle of a funeral passing along the streets in a snowstorm was witnessed.<\/p>\n
Mr and Mrs Peter Barr had lost their youngest daughter, Lillian Alexandra, and the funeral was timed for 5.20 on Sunday afternoon.<\/p>\n
Snow fell on the coffin as it was being carried to the hearse and continued to fall enroute to the cemetery, and throughout the burial service.<\/p>\n
Throughout the night further heavy falls of snow occurred, and at seven o\u2019clock in the morning roofs of houses and the tops of fences were covered to a depth of from four to six inches.<\/p>\n
The surrounding hills and trees were blanketed in white, and the ground was covered to a depth of several inches, and in sheltered places there was a full foot, or 12 inches, of snow.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
ALL roads between Ararat and the Grampians were blocked on July 18, 1949, by the heaviest fall of snow ever recorded in the region. The snow was six inches deep in the main street that afternoon, and three to four inches falling in other parts of town. Snow fell continuously from midnight until 3pm. Alexandra […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_seopress_robots_primary_cat":"none","_seopress_titles_title":"","_seopress_titles_desc":"","_seopress_robots_index":"","_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"coauthors":[],"acf":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[],"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/pdqUu4-5m","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/theadvocate.net.au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/332"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/theadvocate.net.au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/theadvocate.net.au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/theadvocate.net.au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/theadvocate.net.au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=332"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/theadvocate.net.au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/332\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/theadvocate.net.au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=332"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/theadvocate.net.au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=332"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/theadvocate.net.au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=332"},{"taxonomy":"author","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/theadvocate.net.au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/coauthors?post=332"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}