Water-bombing helicopters have spent the night dousing a large bushfire in Victoria's east.
The Rosedale fire in Gippsland, which has burned through 11,000 hectares, flared on several southern fronts on Sunday.
Warnings were issued to residents in the Stradbroke and Willung areas but cooler conditions eventually helped partly subdue the blaze and the alert was downgraded.
However extensive back-burning continued throughout the night, while the suppression choppers assaulted the main firefront.
Victoria is trialling their night-time use and staged the first such operation on Friday night.
The fire has burned a significant amount of pine plantation.
So far fencing has been the only private property destroyed but there are concerns for native fauna.
At one stage on Friday, the blaze turned on about 40 firefighters in a predicted wind change and destroyed a fire truck, trailer and bulldozer belonging to Forest Fire Management.
A review will be conducted into how the group came to be in harm's way.
