Fire fighters armed with everything from helicopters to hoes continued to fight an explosion of bushfires across south eastern Australia while police arrested several alleged arsonists and hunted others.
The fires burn amid warnings from the CSIRO that Australia faces the prospect of many more days of significant bushfire risk in the decades ahead because of climate change.
Victoria
In the Latrobe Valley hundreds of fire fighters continue to battle a massive coalmine blaze as authorities maintain a high bushfire alert across the state.
The fire, at International Power's open cut brown coal mine at Hazelwood near Morwell, had stretched to more than two kilometres along the coalface and was expected to continue burning for several days, Country Fire Authority spokeswoman Adele Buhagiar said.
“We've got a lot of resources and personnel right now trying to get a hold on the fire but it will still be burning well into next week because it is so big," she said.
Elsewhere in Victoria fire fighters battled more than 40 bushfires, but have contained or controlled many of them after a weak cool change swept the state overnight.
Tasmania
A bushfire, which may have been deliberately lit, has ripped through a mushroom farm in north-west Tasmania, causing more than $700,000 damage.
Two thousand tonnes of straw and a barn at Tasmanian Mushrooms, at Dulverton, were destroyed after sparks from the fire ignited the bales, business owner Doug Schirripa said.
Elsewhere in Tasmania fire fighters were trying to capitalise on cooler weather to contain a fire at Mount Rumney, near Hobart.
"It's looking much better than things were yesterday afternoon," Mr Reid said.
NSW fires
Fire fighters are close to containing a blaze in Sydney's south-west, while two other fires continue to burn in NSW.
A NSW Rural Fire Service spokeswoman said fire fighters had put in containment ines around the 45 hectare fire in Kentlyn, near the Holsworthy Army Base.
The spokeswoman said high winds and temperatures of 36 degrees prevented the service from declaring the fire completely contained.
Meanwhile an 800 hectare fire in Kosciuszko National Park, near Khancoban in southern NSW, has yet to be contained a remote wilderness area.
The commissioner of the New South Wales Rural Fire Service, Phil Koperberg, says he is surprised to see so many bushfires raging in the country's south-east.
"It is virtually unheard of to have fires in the Kosciuzsko, in the Snowy Mountains at this time of year," he said.