Giant hailstones wreaked havoc across parts of central Queensland when a storm cell passed through the region on Sunday afternoon.
The Bureau of Meteorology said hail up to eight centimetres in diameter was recorded in Rockhampton, Yeppoon and Mackay, with wind gusts in excess of 100 kilometres per hour.
"Similar size to a tennis ball, maybe even baseball-size," forecaster Kimba Wong said.
"The spread of the storm itself was quite isolated and very focused, and unfortunately it ran straight through the suburbs or Rockhampton."
Cars, windows and solar panels smashed
Rockhampton SES controller Eddie Cowie said there were more than 40 requests for assistance between Rockhampton and Yeppoon, with windscreens, windows and solar panels smashed, and cars and roofs damaged.
Mr Cowie said he had not seen a storm like it in about a decade.
"We've had other storms in the last couple of years, severe storms that have created hail around the region, generally small hail that hasn't created as much damage," he said.
"This particular storm, we had tennis ball-sized hail coming down, so it's been many years since I've seen that sized hail.
"We attended a retirement village or nursing home on Dean Street in North Rockhampton where we had 10 units that were damaged in one location."
SES crews were stood down late last night due to poor weather conditions and resumed the clean-up this morning.
Fruit trees also suffer
Ian Groves, a fruit and vegetable farmer at Bungundarra, west of Yeppoon, is one of many assessing the damage.
"We did lose a couple of lychee trees in the wind; the main damage is solar panels and shed roofs around the farm at the moment," he said.
"There's 27 solar panels smashed on the packing shed alone, so we're up for a bit of damage repair. We'll have to see what insurance will or won't cover.
"But no-one was hurt ... it could have been a lot worse."
Mr Groves was hiking with some of his workers when he saw the storm approaching.
"We only just got back by a minute before the hail started crashing down," he said.
"Some of the hail was pretty big, about the size of an orange; luckily it didn't cover the ground completely, the hits were sort of a few feet apart, individual hits."
While the damage to property and crops will be costly, Mr Groves said he made sure to enjoy the novelty of having ready-made ice falling from the sky.
"We did enjoy a cool drink with the hail as the ice to keep it cool."
