THE south-west was battered by a fierce storm on Thursday night, with damaging winds and even hail causing damage to trees and property.

Hamilton recorded a total of 30.2 millimetres of rainfall in the 24 hours to 9am and wind gusts of up to 80 kilometres per hour just before 3am on Friday.

Port Fairy copped some even more powerful winds with gusts of 95km/h recorded just after 2am and the total rainfall was 47mm.