I was driving home at about 8 o'clock on Sunday night, through Mayfield. The hail was pretty intense, and the lightning was just about constant in the skies above.
I pulled over in Mayfield under some big trees (yes kiddies, never park under a tree in a storm -- unless the hail is bad). Several cars followed me in, and a couple of trucks. I sat there for at least 20-25 minutes before the hail died down a bit.
The roads were slippery, much of the road was flooded. Emergency vehicles were going back and forth, as people slipped around on thick puddles of ice.
I got home, with it still raining intensely. The house had copped it -- three rooms had water damage on the carpet. Apparently the hail had been so horizontal that it had come in under the veranda awning, and poured in under the laundry door -- the water was flowing down the laundry drain.
I took photos of the hail piles -- 3 inches thick in places (I have photographic evidence). 123mm of rainfall/hail in a short space of time it seems. It seems to have been very concentrated around Wallsend, Jesmond and Waratah.
But I dispute the story that the hail was the size of golf balls -- certainly none of the hail I saw was anywhere near that size. I'm suggest the hail was a bit bigger than a pea. The problem was that it came down in large volumes, for a lengthy period of time.
It is easily the most hail we've had in a number of years. I was up in Cessnock on Sunday afternoon too -- they haven't had rain in many months, so the storm was a welcome change from a lengthy dry-spell.