SYDNEY, Australia -- People skied on beaches in Tasmania, children built snowmen in Melbourne and the heaviest snowfall in 150 years dusted some Sydney suburbs in a freak blast of icy Antarctic weather that dissipated today.
The frigid polar front, accompanied by gale force winds, bellowed through Australia's eastern states Friday, bringing freak snowfalls to Sydney, Melbourne, Hobart and the capital of Canberra -- where residents are accustomed to the Southern Hemisphere's usually mild Australian winter.
Some meteorologists said the snow flurries that powdered many northern Sydney suburbs were the heaviest since 1836 when so much snow hit the city that early settlers were able to build snowmen.
Friday's snowfall, however, did not reach Sydney's harborside civic center and the white coating in the suburbs only lasted for several minutes before melting.
But the story was different in Tasmania, Australia's island state just off the southeastern tip of the mainland, where heavy snow blanketed much of the state and city streets became ski runs.
Tasmania's capital of Hobart was covered with about 4 inches of snow and all but isolated Friday as telephone lines failed and most major roads were closed, forcing schools, offices, shops and courts to shut down for the day.
Hobart's airport also was shut down as well as the Tasman bridge in the heaviest snowfall to hit the city since August 1951.
The white power also fell on the shores of the Tasman Sea and some people were spotted skiing on beaches at Kingston, Blackman's Bay and Sandy Bay on the southern coast.
The capital of Victoria state got about 3 inches of snow, enough for young inner city children who had never seen snow before to build snowmen.
Canberra, located between Sydney and Melbourne, experienced its heaviest snowfall for 26 years.
The polar air also brought snow to the central city of Melbourne, 550 miles southwest of Sydney, for the first time since Sept. 11, 1969.
Good snowfalls also were reported in the Snowy Mountains of the Victorian Alps where ski resorts this weekend were expected to do their best business of the season.
The narrow Antarctic cold front passed out of Sydney late Friday and into the Tasman Sea today and sunny skies returned to Sydney, which had been enjoying warm winter highs near 70 before the freak polar weather hit.
