Victoria is preparing to face the most dangerous fire conditions since the 2019–20 black summer, with help from neighbouring states on the way.
State Control Centre spokesperson Luke Hegarty said authorities were focused on preparing for very serious conditions forecast for Thursday and Friday.
“We’re expecting to see extreme fire danger across almost the entire state, with a total fire ban likely across the same area,” he said.
“This is the most significant fire danger that the state has seen – across the whole sections of state that we’re talking about – since black summer. It’s important that people understand that Thursday is a day with serious potential.”
He advised people to check the VicEmergency app or website and avoid travel on Boxing Day.
More than 100 interstate firefighting specialists were already on their way to Victoria to assist, from New South Wales, the ACT, Queensland and Tasmania, including two incident management teams and four specialised firefighting task forces.
Hegarty said the support would be appreciated by local crews, as firefighters battled a major bushfire in the Grampians that was not yet under control.
Overnight rain and cooler temperatures had done little to quell the fires, Hegarty said.
“For a fire like the size of the Grampians fire, we’d be needing significant amounts of rainfall, and that’s not what we saw.”
Another blaze in Bullengarook, north-west of Melbourne, continues to burn out of control and is at an advice-level warning.
Emergency Victoria has issued watch and act for several additional communities in and around the Grampians national park. “That’s as a result of the expected potential of this fire over the next few days,” Hegarty said.
Several states entered Monday battling dangerous blazes or warning of potential outbreaks, including New South Wales, with hot, dry and windy conditions expected to pose extreme fire danger in Sydney.
Angus Hines, from the Bureau of Meteorology, said temperatures were forecast to reach 29C in Sydney on Monday, but dry, warm winds from the interior were raising the fire danger.
The Hunter and other northern parts of NSW also faced extreme conditions and total fire bans. On Monday afternoon a watch and act alert was issued for Snowgums Drive in Goulburn in the Southern Tablelands amid an out-of-control grass fire, but firefighters soon gained the upper hand and the warning was downgraded to advice level.
Both western and northern parts of Western Australia were also facing heatwave conditions on Monday.
Perth was forecast to reach a top of 41C, while Midland – 15km from the CBD – had a forecast maximum of 44C. Further north conditions could reach 46C, Hines said, with warm and breezy conditions increasing fire dangers.
Victorian and South Australian authorities are both preparing for catastrophic and extreme conditions on Boxing Day. Hines described this as a “spike day” when both temperatures and fire danger would climb “quite sharply” due to a change in weather pattern.
On Sunday the Victorian Country Fire Authority’s deputy chief officer, Garry Cook, urged anyone travelling on Boxing Day to download the VicEmergency app before they left.
Towns and tourism providers were already nervous in Victoria as a massive bushfire cut through the state’s west at the weekend. The Grampians national park blaze had burned through more than 41,000 hectares by Monday morning – about more than 20% of the park’s footprint – and forced several towns to evacuate before pivoting north-east late on Sunday, prompting evacuation warnings for hamlets east of the park.
It remained out of control on Monday despite more than 300 firefighters battling to bring it to heel and secure containment lines before conditions worsened again later in the week.
A watch and act remained in place for a number of surrounding areas on Monday, including Barton, Mafeking and Watgania. Forest Fire Management Victoria said milder conditions on Sunday night saw a reduction in fire activity but the situation could change at any time.
“You must monitor conditions and be ready to act,” it said. “Hotter and windier conditions are forecast for Christmas Day and Boxing Day. Plan accordingly.”
Communities in the Halls Gap area were told on Sunday it was not safe to return, if they had already left.
Danger levels were expected to reach catastrophic in the Wimmera and extreme in most other districts, including Melbourne, where temperatures are expected to reach 39C on Boxing Day.
“As we look toward Boxing Day, firefighters are currently conducting back-burning operations to protect nearby towns and establish fire breaks,” Cook said.
Authorities said it could take weeks to fully contain the fire ignited by a lightning strike. Aaron Kennedy, an incident controller, said the blaze was in very steep, difficult and dry terrain.
“Our ability to fight this fire directly is quite challenging,” he said.
Kennedy said two years of dry conditions in western Victoria, particularly in the Grampians national park, meant fires spread quickly.
Regional areas of South Australia are expecting similar threatening conditions on Thursday.
Meanwhile, firefighters were mopping up a blaze on Sunday that had threatened life and property on Perth’s northern outskirts.
The fast-moving fire at Two Rocks forced evacuation warnings on Sunday afternoon but was later brought under control.
High fire danger is again forecast for the region on Monday while extreme risk is predicted in inland parts of Western Australia’s midwest and south-west.
Australia’s land surface has warmed by 1.5C since 1910, according to the Bureau of Meteorology, with the climate crisis fuelling more more dangerous bushfire conditions through increased temperatures and more frequent dry conditions.
