On a day when bushfire offered the main threat for the region, it was high winds which caused grief for many people, uprooting trees and throwing limbs onto cars and homes in Ballarat, Creswick and other areas.
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In Creswick, a microburst or mini-cyclone composed of extremely strong winds ripped through a corridor of homes from one side of town to the other.
Scott McMillan had started the day driving a truck form Penola in South Australia where, he said, the weather was a perfectly cool 20 degrees.
By the time he got to Lake Bolac it was 35.
However nothing prepared him for getting home to Creswick, to find trees ripped from the ground and smashed through his fences.
His home and that of his neighbour just off the Midland Highway were two of many to suffer damage as the winds crashed into the town.
Council and emergency workers were spread thin, cutting up and clearing fallen trees of all species, from pines to gums.
Roadside signs were not spared either, with several blown over or splintered in the storm.
A car outside a mechanic's workshop was one of a number to come off second best after a tree landed on it. Emergency services recorded 159 calls for assistance to 5pm on Thursday across the district, with powerlines also being brought down in several places.
Mr McMillan said he was glad his children were not at home when the windstorm hit, and he marvelled at the survival of his neighbours' vegetable garden, which came through unscathed despite being surrounded by fallen and broken trees, rhubarb blithely unaware of the carnage it had witnessed.
"It's a bit of a mess, isn't it; I've got a bit of work to do," he said in a masterpiece of understatement as he started his chainsaw for the next round of what will become next year's firewood.
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