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Three people have been killed and there were fears for another seven still missing after uncontrolled bushfires destroyed more than 150 homes over thousands of hectares of eastern Australia.
At a fire in the Kangawalla area, near Glen Innes on the New South Wales north coast, a body was found in a burnt-out car by a volunteer firefighter.
There have been a few questions to the PM, including one about the ferocity of these early fires and links to climate change.
“My only thoughts today are those who lost their lives and their families, the firefighters fighting the fires, the response effort that has to be delivered, and how the the Commonwealth can support those efforts,” he replied.
“We always have to listen carefully to the warnings, and undertake the preparations that are advised in every single season. I think that Australians increasingly understand that and I would be encouraging them to revisit their fire preparation plans. The fire might be on your doorstep today, but as we go into every fire season and every summer season, the risk is ever present, and it’s important that families understand what the evacuation procedures are. What numbers to call. What things to ready themselves with, and how they can best prepare their properties in the event of a firestorm.”
Prime minister Scott Morrison is speaking now – and he’s flagged a “contingency option” of further involvement of the defence forces.
He said the deployment of ADF – beyond the airlifts they’re already doing – hadn’t been requested yet, but he and relevant ministers were discussing having them ready.
There are fears that some people are trapped in their homes in an unprecedented bushfire emergency
Ok, we’re going to leave it there for this evening. Thanks for joining us and we’ll be back in the morning with more reporting on the bushfire situation.
Stranded by the fires today. Disconcerting when you watch dozens of fire trucks laden with firies rush past under lights and sirens. As a journo I know how hard the firefighters work, but on days like today, thank god for the @NSWRFS and @FRNSW#nswfirespic.twitter.com/SCGPfdmtv9
Hot and windy weather has created volatile conditions along parts of Australia’s east coast
Parts of Australia faced an unprecedented bushfire threat on Friday evening as more than 100 blazes burned across coastal New South Wales and Queensland.
Communities on NSW’s mid-north coast and the far north coast were battling the worst of the conditions, which were described by authorities as “uncharted territory” and that led to a dramatic, orange-red glow descending on the fire-threatened city of Port Macquarie.
Blaze around Lake Innes and Lake Cathie in northern NSW has destroyed more than 2,000 hectares and spread smoke haze to Sydney
Hundreds of koalas are feared to have died in an out-of-control bushfire in northern New South Wales which has raged unchecked for days in the heartland of their prime habitat.
The blaze, reportedly caused by a lightning strike near Port Macquarie, has burned more than 2,000 hectares, including an important koala breeding ground.
About 40 fires have been burning across NSW, destroying homes and killing an elderly couple
At least 52 homes have been destroyed in bushfires which swept across northern New South Wales, killing an elderly couple and leaving locals devastated.
There was much-needed rainfall overnight, with about 16mm falling in some fire-affected areas, but the wet conditions mean the use of heavy machinery by crews has had to be suspended for the day.
Authorities believe the fire that ripped through the Rappville this week may have been deliberately lit, in what the NSW emergency services minister, David Elliott, has described as a truly “bastard act”.
David Littleproud’s comments to parliament entirely at odds with earlier statement to Guardian Australia
Australia’s minister responsible for drought and natural disasters, David Littleproud, now says he accepts the science on manmade climate change, and “[I] always have”.
Littleproud’s comments to the House of Representatives on Thursday were entirely at odds with a written statement he made to Guardian Australia on Tuesday. In response to questions, Littleproud said: “I don’t know if climate change is man-made.”
Hundreds of people are holed up in evacuation centres on Queensland’s Sunshine Coast as crews wait to see how many homes have been lost to a ferocious fire, while firefighters in New South Wales are still battling out-of-control fires near the border.
There are fears of significant property losses, with a destructive blaze still burning out of control at Peregian Beach and Peregian Breeze Estate, south of Noosa.
About 50 fires still burning around Queensland and 60 across NSW, 21 of them uncontained
Queensland and New South Wales fire crews are still battling difficult conditions.
There are 57 fires burning around Queensland on Sunday but one at the border towns of Applethorpe and Stanthorpe and another in the Gold Coast hinterland are causing the most concern.
Fire crews rush to build containment lines ahead of cold change expected to bring gusty winds and dry lightning
Firefighters in Victoria are rushing to build containment lines around fires burning east of Melbourne before “gusty and erratic” winds reach the area on Wednesday.
At least nine buildings, including homes, were destroyed in two out of control bushfires at Bunyip and Yinnar South in West Gippsland on Sunday, and an emergency warning was issued for a third near Dargo in the high country in east Gippsland.
About 400 firefighters are battling blaze 65km east of Melbourne with hazardous conditions expected to continue on Sunday
At least three homes have been lost to a large fire sparked by lightning in a state forest in Victoria’s east.
Aircraft will be sent up on Sunday morning to work out what types of properties were destroyed by the fires at Bunyip State Park about 65km east of Melbourne.
“Half the town is on medication, and the other half should be.”
That’s bushfire survivor Anne Dixon’s dark-humoured attempt to describe how people from the mountain-top hamlets around Kinglake are coping 10 years on from Black Saturday.
Victorian state memorial service hears how those who lost loved ones have tried to rebuild their lives
At the Royal Exhibition Building in Melbourne, 100km from Marysville where her husband and 39 others died in the swirling winds of the Black Saturday bushfires, Dr Kathy Rowe is documenting birds.
The holiday house she shared with her husband Ken, and which he had been trying to make bushfire-ready when the front went through the town on 7 February, 2009, had been teeming with birds. Then the fire came, and everything went away.
Blazes whipped up by a strong, dry wind have sent black smoke across the city and forced residents to evacuate
A wild fire that swept across Cape Town’s famous Lion’s Head mountain moved towards residential neighbourhoods on Sunday, prompting several people to evacuate their homes.
A Cape Town fire service spokesman told News 24 that 70 firefighters and 20 trucks were fighting the blaze. Local media reported that the firefighting effort was expected to last all night.
With high temperatures also forecast for Victoria and NSW, there are warnings about potential power outages and blackouts, as well as total fire bans amid worsening weather. Follow developments live
Just on the issue of heatwaves and climate change, the ABC Melbourne presenter Rafael Epstein has pointed to recent statements from Victoria’s Bureau of Meteorology (Bom).
Just in case someone says hot weather has nothing to do with climate change
"Australia's climate is increasingly influenced by global warming... has warmed by just over one degree since 1910, with most of the warming occurring since 1950."
Fire in world heritage area threatens six towns as Victoria experiences dramatic temperature swings
An out of control bushfire burning in the Tasmanian world heritage area has threatened six towns and sent thick smoke across Hobart and Port Arthur, as Victoria experienced a day of wild temperature changes that brought a dangerous bushfire close to east Gippsland towns.
The sky over Hobart turned a dramatic red on Friday morning as the smoke plume stretched for hundreds of kilometres across the state.