Pinch and a Punch

"A pinch and a punch for the first day of the month", so goes the old saying. Of course 1 March also heralds in autumn which many of us think will be a blessed change after the heat of this last summer. A look at the "Central Western Daily" of 50 years ago shows that Mother Nature has always kept us on our toes. The front page story on 2 March 1959 reads:

"Freak Storm Hits Molong"

MOLONG, Sunday – Section of the main street was under 2 foot of water yesterday at the height of a freak cloud-burst which yielded two inches of rain in half an hour.

Jagged hailstones 1 and a half inches in diameter smashed private gardens and buried them under a 6 inch layer of ice. The hailstones stripped most trees in Molong of leaves and broke windows in homes near the centre of town.

The storm cut a very narrow strip through the centre of Molong and skirted market gardens on the town's western fringe. Traffic stopped as blinding rain and giant hailstones reduced visibility to about 20ft. Paintwork on many cars was chipped and many home water tanks are leaking. Molong residents agreed it was violent storm in living memory."

The Library has an extensive collection of local newspapers, most of them on microfilm. To find out more go to our catalogue (link from the home page) and do a Subject search "Newspapers Orange". If you want a complete list of the newspapers held do a subject search "Newspapers" there are 87 selections listed