Severe storms swept through regional South Australia on Tuesday, bringing intense rainfall and hail that damaged crops just minutes before a widely anticipated record-breaking harvest.
The severe weather struck parts of the Riverland and Mallee regions, including Sandalwood, Lameroo, Halidon, and Loxton. At Kamora Park Poll Merino Station in Sandalwood—located about 175 kilometres east of Adelaide—roughly 30 millimetres of rain fell in a mere 10 minutes, accompanied by hail up to a centimetre in diameter that blanketed the ground like snow.
Stud principal Katelyn Boughen described the sudden impact sounding like gunshots against tin roofs. She noted that a promising lupin crop on a corner of the property sustained heavy damage, with at least 50 per cent potentially lost. Anne Boughen, an aunt of the property owner, estimated that about a quarter of the station's crop—spanning roughly 400 hectares—was impacted, alongside washed-out paddock gutters, smashed sheep feeders, and stripped trees.
Nearby Lameroo also faced intense conditions, with residents recording 35 millimetres of rain and hail within an hour, which temporarily flooded the main street. The Bureau of Meteorology reported that western parts of the Riverland, the Mid North, Murraylands, and the North East Pastoral District bore the brunt of the storm system.
The abrupt storm follows an above-average rainfall season that broke years of drought and initially set the stage for a bumper harvest across the state. Despite the sudden setback, local farmers acknowledged the ongoing unpredictability of agricultural life, remaining at the mercy of shifting weather patterns.
