Emergency fire warning is issued in Victoria as dozens of out of control bushfires rage across Australia’s south-east: Gippsland residents told ‘leave immediately’, fire ban in Sydney

Thousands of residents have been told ‘leaving immediately is the safest option’ with an emergency bushfire warning is issued in Victoria’s Gippsland region.

The warning was issued for Stockdale, Iguana Creek and Glenaladale between the Princes Highway and Beverleys Road by Victoria Emergency at 5.59am on Tuesday. 

Three out of control fires are raging in the area, fanned by wild weather with at least one home destroyed. 

Bushfires warning have also been issued south of the border in NSW with total fire bans in place across the entire Greater Sydney and Hunter regions, Far South Coast, Northern Slopes, North Western, Upper Central West Plains, Lower Central West Plains and Central Ranges. 

‘Extreme and high fire danger is forecast across NSW,’ a NSW Rural Fire Service alert states.

It comes as dozens of fires rage across both states  with hot and windy conditions forecast for much of Australia’s south-east. 

Hot and windy conditions are forecast for Sydney on Tuesday with temperatures soaring to 33C in the city, along with gusts of up to 40km/h in the morning. 

Melbourne is predicted to be hit with similar wind conditions but is expected to be pummeled with up to 40mm of rain. It will be a cooler 22 degrees.   

Wild winds from a predicted cold front have made fire fighting efforts difficult in Victoria. 

The biggest fire front is 5000 hectares in difficult terrain north of Maffra in the Briagolong, Culloden, Moornapa and Stockdale regions.

Country Fire Authority Chief Officer Jason Heffernan said the next 24 hours would be interesting with wild winds associated with a cold front set to make conditions more difficult.

Heavy rain predicted for later in the week should provide much-needed relief but would only pause the fire risk in the Gippsland area after a very warm and dry start to the season.

‘At the moment we’ve got a fire situation affecting families in East Gippsland, and then not 24 hours later an emergency rain event affecting those same communities.’

Senior Meteorologist Christine Johnson said a cold front would bring damaging wind gusts to fire-affected areas from 4pm Monday to the early hours of Tuesday morning – the most damaging before 6am.

A different low-pressure system would dump heavy rainfall and spark flash flooding from Wednesday.

Victoria State Emergency Service Chief Officer Operations Tim Wiebusch said Bairnsdale to the NSW border would be the hardest hit by heavy rains, with moderate flooding expected for the Mitchell, Tambo, Snowy and Genoa rivers.