Old news from Armidale and New England

Monday 7 December 1857, The Sydney Morning Herald

(From the Armidale Express, 28th November.)

THUNDERSTORMS. – On Friday night (20th) several thunderstorms passed over or skirted this township. The lightning was remarkably vivid, especially about midnight, when the flashes followed each other in an almost continuous discharge. We had a seasonable supply of rain through these squalls, and the crops were immediately improved in appearance. About dusk the electric fluid struck a post adjoining Mr. Walter Neil’s cottage, near the racecourse. The doors of the house were open at the time, but whether the lightning entered and was guided through by the draft, or came down direct upon the post, is not known, the flash having nearly blinded the inmates, and the thunder deafened them. The post, which was split up into fragments and scattered about by the shock, had been used as a prop for a clothes line. It had a flat top, and had no metal upon it. We are also informed that during the same squall, but at an earlier hour, a bevy of nine chickens were killed by lightning, at Uralla, whilst the hen, which was in the centre of the brood, escaped, and was afterwards endeavouring to rouse up its dead charge. On Monday evening last, another heavy thunderstorm passed over Tilbuster, whilst its southern wing gave a copious fall of rain during the brief space of ten minutes. The wheat crop near the town looks well, but more rain is required for maize planting, the time for which will soon be past.