While Sydney has suffered the coldest start to July in 44 years, with average minimum temperatures of just 7.2C, parts of central west NSW to southern Queensland came to a halt on Friday after a strong cold front brought with it deep snow and widespread school and road closures.

In Oberon many residents were afforded a rare day off normal duties. The local golf course was besieged by families with bodyboards and rarely-used toboggans, while snowmen appeared in  every front yard.

"I've got my own gardening and cleaning business and I can't even go to work so we're having a day off together," said Brooke's mother, Wendy Stanton. "It's spectacular. We've all been playing in the snow, tobogganing and having snowball fights all morning."

Brooke's brother, 13-year-old Ben, was also off school, making the most of the blue skies after Thursday night's storm.

"The kids are having a ball – they're driving me crazy to get out again," said Mrs Stanton.

The town's visitor centre had been inundated with phone calls from potential visitors keen to experience the snow, said worker Lynne Causer.

"It's been exhilarating, our phones have been hot – probably the only thing that's hot here," she said.

Local baker Stephen Barlow tackled the icy conditions in shorts and T-shirt, clearing snowcaps from his ute after finishing his shift at his bakery at 5.30am. He said he had not seen such significant snowfall in 40 years.

In the Blue Mountains, the Great Western Highway was closed on Friday, as were over half a dozen schools from Wentworth Falls to Mount Victoria. Blue Mountains mayor Mark Greenhill officially declared it "snowball day" as local resident and Blue Mountains Council spokeswoman Adrienne Murphy said it was the most snow she had seen in the area in 20 years.

In Wentworth Falls, the Glassford siblings, Curtis, 11, Sage, 8, and Mischa, 5, made their own ice bricks and began building an igloo.

"It was quite industrious at 7am," said their father, Sean, a landscape gardener. "They didn't finish it - still, it's a bit different to your snowmen!"

Most council agencies had closed, including libraries and the Echo Point Visitor Centre, she said, and the RMS and SES were dealing with any emergencies in the area. Further south, snow halted traffic on the Hume Highway.

Sydney temperatures have hit record lows, making it the coldest start to July since 1971, according to Blair Trewin, senior climatologist with the Bureau of Meteorology.

Snowfall totals are in the order of 10-15cm for the Blue Mountain towns of Lithgow, Katoomba and Wentworth Falls, and 10-15cm for Orange, Anthony Duke, a meteorologist with Weatherzone, said. Stanthorpe in Queensland received 8cm of snow overnight.

"It reminds me of when I was a little kid," said Mrs Stanton. "But it's already starting to melt."

But the joy – and disruption – is not likely to last long.

This month's chill, though, should give way to milder conditions, said Rob Sharpe, a meteorologist with Weatherzone.

"For Sydney, that's going to be it for July for particularly cold weather," he said, adding, "It should be good for a fortnight at least" as high pressure systems and relatively weak cold fronts keep the worst of winter at bay."