Conditions began to improve around midday, and residents said that blue skies were back in the evening.
Residents awoke to a strange orange glow, fearing bush fires or nuclear explosion.
Even the iconic Opera House was obscured by the fine red dust, carried for miles across eastern Australia by gale-force wind.
Even the sea was transformed, as seen in this picture of Sydney resident Gareth Bishop.'Life on Mars'
Sydney resident Andrew Hawkins said "It was like waking up to see that Armageddon is upon us."
The sky was bathed in a red hue, and I must say that the thought did cross my mind that either my eyes were playing up on me, that something catastrophic had occurred ... or that it was something meteorological," he told the BBC.
Tanya Ferguson described the dust storm as the weirdest thing she has ever seen in her life.
"It was like being on Mars," she told the BBC, "I haven't been there, obviously, but I imagine that's what the sky would look like."
The world is in a terrible condition, people.
