The severe weather hit large parts of the state of Victoria on Tuesday. The storms were sometimes accompanied by torrential rain and wind gusts of more than 150 kilometers per hour. East of Melbourne, a 50-year-old farmer was fatally hit by flying debris on his tractor.
High winds also fueled bushfires in the Grampians Mountains west of Melbourne. Several houses went up in flames.
The wind also caused a lot of damage to buildings. Roofs were torn off, trees uprooted and power lines destroyed. Due to the collapse of high-voltage pylons, the country’s largest power station, the Loy Yang A coal-fired power station, was shut down for a while.
At the height of the storms, about 530,000 households were without power, according to data from Australian electricity market operator AEMO. On Wednesday morning, this still affected approximately 285,000 households.