Australian bushfire update

Record heat sparks fires across Australia

A bushfire that tore through the Tasmanian town of Dunalley has burned on to spread and take dozens more properties.

Stuff,

5 January, 2013

Despite easing weather, Australian firefighters were still battling the extensive blaze, which stretched 30 km through farmland and beach hamlets towards the Tasman Peninsula, east of Hobart.

"There is still substantial fire activity they are dealing with," Tasmanian Fire Service officer, John Holloway, said.

The fires have destroyed at least 85 properties in Tasmania, with more than 70 homes in the small town of Dunalley. The scene there has been described as a ghost town.

The Tasmanian Fire Service has one emergency warning on its website of a large bushfire on the Tasman Highway in Bicheno.

''Fire under these conditions can be uncontrollable and unpredictable,'' it said.

Police said about 30 per cent of the town had been destroyed, but there were no confirmed reports of deaths or major injuries.

Fears had been held for one Dunalley resident last seen by firefighters attempting to save his house, and police said. Another 15 properties went up at nearby Boomer Bay.

Last night the fire broke away from its starting point closer to Hobart to advance through forest and threaten waterside towns.

About 40 per cent of the structures at the small hamlet of Connellys Marsh were destroyed, and homes were reported lost at Copping and Primrose Sands, police said.

The volunteer Sea Rescue Tasmania took four boats out to communities whose roads were cut, including at Connollys Marsh.

"The boys said when they got back that they saw something they never wanted to see again," a Sea Rescue co-ordinator, Cheryl Piper, said. "At Connollys Marsh there was fire down to the water's edge."

Further down the peninsula at Murdunna, police said more than 20 houses were reported to have been destroyed.

Thousands of people evacuated from their homes and holiday houses to nearby beaches, and many were stranded on the peninsula when the fire cut the single highway.

About 400 people sheltered at the Port Arthur Historic Site, and commercial ferry operators said they evacuated around 800 people out of the peninsula overnight.

"We're refuelling and we're about to head off again," said Peppermint Bay Cruises operator Rob Peart.

Elsewhere around Tasmania, big fires were still burning west of the city in the Derwent Valley, and on the east coast at Bicheno, but without property damage.

The bureau said it was possible Australia could reach a new national average highest temperature at the weekend. The current national average high is 40.14 set in 1972.

''We think this record could easily fall on Sunday, Monday or Tuesday based on the current forecasts,'' a bureau forecaster Julie Evans said.

''That's the average for the entire country and taking in parts that are even cooler.''

Meanwhile in southern New Zealand...

Beaches popular as lower South Island swelters

People in Dunedin and surrounding areas flocked to the beach on Saturday as scorching heat baked the lower South Island.

People flock to Dunedin's St Clair Beach as temperatures pass 30 degrees Celsius

Radio NZ,

5 January, 2013

MetService forecasters say the highest temperatures in the southern heatwave were recorded in Dunedin and Alexandra, which both reached 33 degrees Celsius.

And a forecaster says most inland parts of Southland and Otago were above 30 degrees.

Surf livesavers say hundreds of people descended on Otago beaches, while The Warehouse says it sold dozens of inflatable pools and boogie boards.

A surf life saver at St Kilda Beach, Matt Corboy, says people are taking to the sea to escape the heat.

"She's pretty scorching ... upwards of 31 degrees and sunny-as .. and she's definitely feeling like its getting hotter," says Mr Corboy.

"Definitely a few more people than normal on the beach".

MetService forecaster Sarah Garlick says Dunedin was already at 29C by the early afternoon and the temperature rose through the afternoon.

Ms Garlick says a front moving in on Saturday night is expected to bring cool temperatures on Sunday, although the skies should remain clear.

People flock to Dunedin's St Clair Beach as temperatures pass 30 degrees Celsius