More than 17,000 people were left without power on Christmas Eve across regional Victoria, and dozens of flights were cancelled as wild weather continues to batter much of the eastern coastline.
Powercor crews were working as late as 10.30pm on Sunday evening to restore power to homes across the state’s north, central, and western regions.
The energy supplier said winds and lightning had felled trees and damaged trees across the network, with a further 5000 homes in Shepparton Ballarat impacted.
Further north, thunderstorms sparked severe weather warnings across NSW and caused chaotic scenes at Sydney’s busy international airport.
Video shared online showed the tarmac inundated with water as buses moved between the terminals, with water also leaking into the baggage claim.
As many as 10 flights were reportedly cancelled on Christmas Eve, with a further 12 domestic flights scuttled on Monday according the airport’s website.
Across the state, NSW SES responded to more than 200 incidents in a period of just three hours on Sunday, including 21 flood rescues.
The agency warned that while storms were subsiding in some areas of the state, many areas – including the busy south coast – were still in the firing line.
“We’re not out of the woods yet, moderate to localised high rainfall totals are possible for the South Coast on Christmas Day (Monday),” NSW SES said.
“Severe storms bring potential for localised heavy rain possibly leading to flash flooding, large hail, and damaging winds.”
The Bureau of Meteorology a minor flood watch for swathes of the popular tourist region on Sunday, including at the Moruya and Bega Rivers.
Minor flooding was also being forecast inland at the Tumut, Snowy, Upper Murray and Queanbeyan/Molonglo Rivers.
In the country’s northeast, BOM was forecasting for flooding to continue across Queensland’s Far North, including at Magnificent Creek and the Mitchell River.
Sprawling power outages, largely due to damaged power equipment, were reported across the Sunshine State in the wake of Cyclone Jasper.
On TikTok, one user shared a video of golf-ball sized hail in Burpengary, in the state’s Moreton Bay area.
As many as 55,000 homes were reportedly without power for intervals on Sunday, with outages continuing into Monday in the state’s central and northeast regions.
Residents took to social media to share photos of the “white” Christmas Eve, with large white-clear hail balls reported amid heavy storms.
The rainy weather was forecast to continue in Brisbane on Monday, with rainfall also forecast for Melbourne, Adelaide, and Canberra.
In the country’s west, firefighters battled to bring bushfires on Perth’s fringe under control as fires in the state’s southeast continued to rage.
A total fire ban was put in place for the state on Monday, with Watch and Act alert in place for an out of control fire at Callcup, Crowea, and Meerup.