The 2003 Bendigo tornado was a Fujita scale

Fujita scale

The Fujita scale , or Fujita-Pearson scale, is a scale for rating tornado intensity, based primarily on the damage tornadoes inflict on human-built structures and vegetation...

 category F2 tornado

Tornado

A tornado is a violent, dangerous, rotating column of air that is in contact with both the surface of the earth and a cumulonimbus cloud or, in rare cases, the base of a cumulus cloud. They are often referred to as a twister or a cyclone, although the word cyclone is used in meteorology in a wider...

 which hit the city of Bendigo

Bendigo, Victoria

Bendigo is a major regional city in the state of Victoria, Australia, located very close to the geographical centre of the state and approximately north west of the state capital Melbourne. It is the second largest inland city and fourth most populous city in the state. The estimated urban...

, Victoria

Victoria (Australia)

Victoria is the second most populous state in Australia. Geographically the smallest mainland state, Victoria is bordered by New South Wales, South Australia, and Tasmania on Boundary Islet to the north, west and south respectively....

, Australia

Australia

Australia , officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a country in the Southern Hemisphere comprising the mainland of the Australian continent, the island of Tasmania, and numerous smaller islands in the Indian and Pacific Oceans. It is the world's sixth-largest country by total area...

 about 6.30 pm on 18 May 2003. The main areas hit were the city's northern suburbs of Eaglehawk

Eaglehawk, Victoria

Eaglehawk is a former gold-mining town in Victoria, Australia and a suburb within the City of Greater Bendigo.The town is situated to the north-west of Bendigo on the Loddon Valley Highway. The highway is known locally as High Street until the intersection with Sailors Gully Road and as Peg Leg...

 and California Gully

California Gully, Victoria

California Gully is a suburb of Bendigo, Victoria, Australia. The suburb is located north west of the Bendigo city centre along Eaglehawk Rd. At the 2006 census, California Gully had a population of 3,844....

which had severe damage and power outages. There was flash flooding and minor damage across other suburbs of the city and other parts of central Victoria experienced power outages.

Several houses had their roofs blown off and up to 50 others were damaged. Wind speeds ranged from 130km/h to a maximum of 150km/h at the core of the storm.