The skies north of Broken Hill turned red as a wall of dust described as a tsunami descended over the region.

At Milparinka Hotel, Melbourne Cup celebrations were halted as punters watched the dust head towards them.

Pincally Station owner Zanna Gale said it was certainly a Melbourne Cup they would never forget.

“This was incredible to see," Mrs Gale said.

“The pub filled with haze and there was grit on everything.”

While the rain didn’t come straight away, they recorded 20mm at around 2am the next morning.

Mrs Gale said this was the second worst dust storm they had with a severe one in 2009 that hit during the night.

Further south-east at Polpah Station, White Cliffs, Country Women’s Association of NSW president Annette Turner said this storm was not as bad as the 2009 one that lasted five hours.

Mrs Turner’s husband Barry was driving to town when he pulled over on their property to take footage of the dust storm.

“We are used to dust storms out here, I remember when we were living in Broken Hill in 1966 playing sport they sent us home as we couldn’t see,” Mrs Turner said.

“In the 1960s Barry’s mother had to shovel dust off the enclosed veranda.”

What followed the dust storm was about 11mm of rain – the first decent fall since February when 60mm was recorded on the property.

“The rain is starting again, which is good,” Mrs Turner said.