"Antarctic vortex" delivers snow along Australia's east coast

Snow, snow and more snow is dumping as another wild Antarctic weather system batters eastern Australia, blanketing towns with snow along Australia's Great Dividing Range stretching as far north as Queensland closing major highways and transport routes between Melbourne, Sydney and Brisbane.

A low pressure system off the New South Wales (NSW) coast is also driving cold southerly winds - up to 90 km/hr - and bands of moisture onshore, during what Australia's media have called an " Antarctic Vortex".

Queensland's best snow fall in a decade was caused by cold air that has been squeezed through a high-pressure system from the Great Australian Bight and an then combined with the east coast low off the NSW, Adam Blazak told local media on Friday.

"It's tricky because you have to get this cold blast and it has to combine with a rainfall event," Blazak told local media on Friday. "Usually we get these cold blasts come through but there's no precipitation."

A local Queensland resident from Stanthorpe - approximately 180 kilometers south east of the Gold Coast - Michael Hilton, said he was in awe at what he saw when he ventured outside just after 3am following the best snow falls in almost a decade.

"I missed the 1984 snow. I've never ever, ever seen anything like this in my life. It's just like a winter wonderland," Hilton said.

The snow has closed a section of the major highway between Sydney and Melbourne and parts of one of two arterial transport routes between Sydney and Brisbane, affecting Australia's freight transport.

The Great Western Highway, the only link to the farming regions of inland New South Wales from Sydney has also been closed leaving motorists stranded, forcing Australian authorities to provide rescue services and accommodation for those stranded. Endi