WATCH: Weekend of wild weather brings rare snowfall to towns in Australia

Thousands of residents in Australia's south-eastern state of New South Wales state were affected by power outages on Monday after a weekend of wild weather brought rare snow and rain.

Heavy snow blanketed a large part of the state's north on Saturday with the State Emergency Services responding to over 2,000 calls for assistance, local media reported.

Local residents said heavy snowfall had not been seen in the region for the last 10 years.

As much as 40 centimetres of snow fell in northern parts of New South Wales on Saturday.

Miriam Bradbury of Australia's Bureau of Meteorology said it was the highest amount since the mid-1980s.

She added that snow also fell in parts of neighbouring state Queensland for the first time in 10 years.

The severe weather forced the closure of some schools in the state's mid-north coast with authorities issuing flood warnings in some of the affected areas.

According to New South Wales emergency services, the huge amount of snowfall, combined with heavy rain and thunderstorms in other parts of the state, led to more than 1,455 incidents over the weekend.

More than 100 vehicles got stuck on the road and tens of thousands of homes were left without power.