An injured climber in Victoria has been carried to safety after getting stuck on a mountain for for hours.
The man injured his back and ankle after falling while climbing Mt Arapiles, near Horsham on Wednesday afternoon.
A multi-agency rescue team had to deal with damaging winds, heat and tough terrain to get to the climber.
"It's taken a while for the crews to get up there," SES spokesman Marc Dorey told AAP.
Rescue crews on foot were able to start making their way to the climber by 7.30pm.
He was later flown to the Royal Melbourne Hospital in a stable condition.
Wild winds up to 100km/h in populated areas made it a busy day for SES crews.
Ballarat was one of the worst hit areas with most of the SES's 360 calls for assistance coming from those residents.
The weather also felled powerlines, with around 5500 homes and business in Ballarat struggling without power.
Most of the homes had power restored, Powercor said, but by 9pm crews were again trying to reconnect about 4500 homes in Melbourne's outer west.
A spokeswoman for Powercor told AAP the more recent outage was most likely not storm related and customers would be reconnected before midnight.
The winds also fanned bushfires, one in Carrum Downs getting close to homes.
It took 25 fire trucks about an hour to extinguish the blaze, which could be seen on the Penisula Link highway.
The Bureau of Meteorology says the low pressure system causing the strong winds is set to weaken and move away by the evening.
But hot and humid conditions will continue on Thursday which brings with it the threat of thunderstorms.
