The "catastrophic" Wambelong bushfire that destroyed dozens of homes in central western NSW may have been deliberately lit, a coroner has concluded.
Deputy State Coroner Hugh Dillon has begun handing down his findings into the blaze near Coonabarabran, which broke out at the Wambelong campground in the Warrumbungle National Park on January 12, 2013.
The fire burned more than 56,000 hectares of national park and farmlands, destroying 53 homes and about 100 other buildings.
It also killed countless livestock and native animals, and burned others so severely they had to be put down.
Mr Dillon on Monday quoted an expert who said it was "miraculous" no human lives were lost.
The coroner said he was unable to find that the Wambelong bushfire was the work of an arsonist, but it was a possibility.
"In my view, there is insufficient evidence to identify the precise cause of the fire," Mr Dillon said.
"It is possible that an unobserved lightning strike or strikes caused the ignition ...
"If human intervention was involved, it may have been accidental, such as failing to extinguish a cigarette butt, or deliberate."
Mr Dillon said average temperatures in the week before the inferno topped 36 degrees and no rain fell.
The inquest has previously heard allegations that the National Parks and Wildlife Service did not involve the Rural Fire Service early enough once the fire ignited; that locals were not warned of the danger quickly enough; and that hazard reduction burning in the lead-up to the fire was badly managed.
If fuel loads had been reduced in 2012 "it seems likely that the rate of spread would have been much slower and the fire may even have extinguished itself on the ridge."
Mr Dillon said that in the climate change era, firefighters were grappling with some of the most ferocious blazes they had ever encountered.
This meant "history is not a reliable guide in predicting fire behaviour in the 21st century".
He said fire prediction science and methodology - still in their nascence in January 2013 - would only become more important to rural Australia.
Mr Dillon has also backed a much criticised backburning operation during the Wambelong blaze, despite finding that it "appears to have made little or no difference to the size or intensity of the fire".
He said decision-makers "faced an invidious choice between doing virtually nothing, or attempting what turned out to be the impossible".
But he criticised the failure to issue an emergency alert to warn locals of the danger as soon as the fire jumped the John Renshaw Parkway.
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