Massive hailstones from 'out of nowhere' pummel southern Queensland town of Chinchilla

Hailstones larger than cricket balls have pummelled the town of Chinchilla in Queensland's southern inland, causing widespread damage to the area.

The hailstorm that hit late on Saturday afternoon also brought strong winds and heavy rain.

Hailstones up to 12 centimetres in diameter hit businesses along the Warrego Highway, and the region received more than 75 millimetres of rain in less than two hours.

Chinchilla resident Mark Kurtz said the hail cut power to parts of the town, broke windows and damaged cars.

"A tree landed on top of the house next door to us and on the other side they had a hailstone go through their window and there's quite a few people around town who've had that problem," he said.

"I've been in Chinchilla for 30 years, I've never seen hail like that come through here anyway."

Local watermelon farmer and cattle breeder Terry O'Leary said his car was a write-off.
Terry O'Leary's car was severely damaged by the Chinchilla hailstorm Photo: Terry O'Leary's car was severely damaged by the Chinchilla hailstorm. (Supplied: Terry O'Leary)

"Both the front and rear windscreen have been completely smashed in, all the windows on one side have been smashed in, the hail was even that strong it knocked the front bumper bar off," he said.

"And then the whole bodyworks of the car copped a real pizzling as well."

Chinchilla resident Diane Tong said she and her son fled from their backyard when the storm hit.

"It seemed to come out of nowhere - we were out the back at one stage and Matt actually commented on the swirling clouds and then all of a sudden the big bangs hit the roof and they were the massive big hailstones which were average size tennis ball [or] cricket ball, but we did actually have some that were the size of softballs," she said.

The Bureau of Meteorology (BoM) said the intensity of the storm came from a combination of two troughs causing heavy instability. ABC