The danger is tipped to remain elevated in patches between Perth and Carnarvon in Western Australia, and along much of the country’s southern coast to Gippsland in Victoria, according to a seasonal outlook from the National Council for Fire and Emergency Services.
Hundreds of thousands of hectares have been scorched since November by fires in WA and Victoria alone.
“The same dry conditions that have seen recent fires in Victoria and in WA look set to continue across much of the southern coastline of mainland Australia,” the council's chief executive Rob Webb said.
“It means that the fire season in these areas may go a little longer this year.”
The outlook is developed by organisations including the national council and Bureau of Meteorology in tandem with state emergency services.
Blazes in Victoria’s Grampians and Little Desert national parks over December and January razed more than 181,000 hectares of bush, forest and farmland, equivalent to more than two-and-a-half times the entire area of Singapore.
The state's Acting Emergency Management Commissioner Tim Wiebusch urged the community to remain vigilant and maintain bushfire survival plans.
“While summer [has come] to an end, we are heading into a period of autumn where the state is still very dry,” he said at a briefing in Melbourne’s State Control Centre.
Rainfall over the past eight weeks had been as low as 10mm in western Victoria, where both major national park fires took place.
“What that means is we can expect, particularly for the Wimmera, the south-west, the central and west South Gippsland districts, that we could see an increased risk of fire as we head into these autumn months compared to perhaps what we’ve seen in more recent years,” Mr Wiebusch said.
“Our key message today is, no matter where you live, it's not the time to be complacent.”
– with AAP.
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