Source: Manning River Times 1 October 2002.

News Flashback from September 1902.

"Jones' Island - We had a very heavy hailstorm here on Wednesday at about 7 o'clock, lasting a little over half an hour, and there were nearly six inches of hail all over Mr. Alf Shoesmith's paddocks.

"The heaviest part of the storm spread across Jones' Island, from Mr. Shoesmith's to Ghinni Creek, and was about 400 yards in width. Mr. Shoesmith and some members of his family were at a meeting at Croki at the time the storm took place, and when returning home between 10 and 11 o'clock the hailstones were then about three inches thick from Mr. J McInnes' to Mr. G Lambert's, and this morning, at 7 o'clock, there was the same thickness of hailstones and they did not disappear until the sun melted them.

"At 12 o'clock one could pick them up in buckets full around Mr. Shoesmith's house in the shade, and he had to shovel them away from the doors, where they were about four or five inches thick. There were five or six of Mr. Shoesmith's family returning from the meeting, and they walked from the gate up to the house, a distance of half a mile, on nothing but hailstones as firm as gravel. It looked a very pretty sight in the moonlight - such as was never seen before on Jones' Island."