Heat to recede after day of blazes

Temperatures are expected to plunge across Australia's bushfire-ravaged southeast this weekend. Source: AAP

TEMPERATURES should plunge across Australia's bushfire-ravaged southeast this weekend, bringing rain and relief after another day of destructive blazes destroyed homes and and left hundreds of people displaced.

Rural Victoria became the leading trouble spot for emergency services on Friday, with the Gippsland region, 270km east of Melbourne, affected by a 45,000-hectare fire.

It torched land and property in Seaton, Heyfield, Lake Glenmaggie, Dawson and Glenmaggie.

The blaze started at Aberfeldy on Friday morning and quickly grew three times larger than the size initially predicted by Victoria's Country Fire Service, fanned by gusty winds and heatwave conditions.

Hundreds of residents were evacuated and at least five homes were destroyed.

The fire is expected to burn for a fortnight.

Sixty children and 15 adults were whisked away from a holiday park at Licola, a small village at the southern gateway to the Alpine National Park, before Licola was surrounded by fire.

Four firefighters had to shelter in their truck at Glenmaggie, north of Heyfield, as fire passed over them.

"They are all okay," a State Control Centre spokeswoman told AAP.

"They would have been working around the fire front and just in the wrong place at the wrong time."

In NSW, the picture was just as grim.

There were 95 fires burning, including 14 that were uncontrolled.

Older blazes continued to flare and several major new fires sparked safety concerns as temperatures soared well into the 40s.

There have been no reported fatalities from any of the recent bushfires.

A large grass fire about five kilometres southwest of Boorowa, east of Young, was moving rapidly northeast on Friday evening.

The Rural Fire Service said it may reach the outskirts of Boorowa, population about 1000, unless it was contained.

New fires were burning out of control at Campbelltown, southwest of Sydney, Millingandi, on the south coast, and near Watershed Farm, a thoroughbred horse breeding business at Young.

The Milligandi fire in the Bega Valley reached properties on a number of roads on Friday afternoon, and residents were advised to flee north to Bega or south to Merimbula.

A week-old bushfire at Yarrabin, in the Cooma-Monaro area, was upgraded to a watch-and-act status, putting residents on high alert to evacuate.

Residents near the 45,000-hectare blaze in the Warrumbungle National Park, west of Coonabarabran, were also warned they might have to leave.

The blaze, said to be the most destructive in NSW in a decade, has destroyed 51 properties and after breaking containment lines was bearing down on several rural homes at the southern end of its reaches.

At least 51 people have been made homeless by the Coonabarabran fire, and on Friday more than 60 people visited a recovery centre to access aid and care.

A fire, sparked by a torched car at Aberdare, in NSW's Hunter Valley, threatened several homes before being contained.

Part of the problem for NSW emergency services was the higher-than-expected temperatures.

Sydney recorded its hottest day in history, with the mercury hitting 45.8C, exceeding the previous record of 45.3C set on January 14, 1939.

Areas from the Hunter Valley down to the Victorian border and from the NSW south coast inland to the Riverina were all given extreme fire danger ratings as temperatures rose well into the 40s.

But the heat is set to recede in many parts of south and east Australia over the weekend.

The Bureau of Meteorology (BoM) said a cold front moved up through Victoria on Friday, would reach NSW late on Friday night before fizzling out around the state's mid-north coast.

The southern two-thirds of the state should be "quite cool" on Saturday, and Sydney should record a temperature of about 25C.

Victoria and South Australia should also experience cooler temperatures, the BoM said.

Rain is forecast across most of NSW and northeast parts of Victoria between Friday and Monday.

Relatively heavy rain is forecast for northeast NSW.

Monsoonal rains are forecast for Australia's north, which may help cool other parts of the continent depending on wind directions.

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