Properties feared destroyed amid weather chaos

Feb 03, 2025, updated Feb 03, 2025
A bushfire burns in the Grampians National Park, west of Melbourne.
A bushfire burns in the Grampians National Park, west of Melbourne.

Properties are feared destroyed in bushfires raging across regional Victoria as the state battles a slew of erratic weather.

Temperatures will hover in the high 30s and low 40s for north-west, west, north, north-east and central parts of Victoria on Monday after a sweltering and stormy end to the weekend.

A blaze in the Little Desert National Park, about 375 kilometres west of Melbourne, was declared contained but broke away on Sunday afternoon.

Victorian authorities confirmed they received reports of property losses from a fire near Ouyen, north of the region’s national park, on Sunday night.

Premier Jacinta Allan confirmed two properties were believed lost, as the inferno heads west towards Kaniva-Edenhope Road.

“Our thoughts are with the community around Hattah in the north-west of the state,” she said in Melbourne’s west on Monday.

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State Control Centre spokesman Luke Heagerty said wind blowing in contrasting directions caused the fire to break its containment lines.

“A couple of breakaways have been able to run freely through the national park itself but once it’s reached the private property, we’ve been able to slow it down,” he said.

The Little Desert fire covers 84,000 hectares, while dual fires burning in the Grampians total 46,000 hectares.

Additional watch and act orders have been issued for fires in Victoria’s south-west, including Apollo Bay, Cape Horn, Hordern Vale and Cape Otway.

“We’ve had thousands of lightning strikes with storms come through overnight,” Heagerty said.

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Severe thunderstorms swept across Geelong and Melbourne on Sunday night, bringing heavy rain, lightning, hail and damaging winds.

Power was cut to at least 38,000 homes but fewer than 10,000 were still off the grid as of 10am Monday.

Geelong and Lara to its north were hit particularly hard with flash flooding, downed trees causing property damage and reported hailstones of up to four centimetres, the Bureau of Meteorology said.

There were 63 millimetres of rain at Lara, 52 millimetres at Avalon Airport, 48 millimetres at Clunes and 47 millimetres at Geelong.

A lightning strike is believed to have caused a fire at Taylors Lakes in Melbourne’s north-west about 1am.

The lightning and thunder across Melbourne lasted from 8pm to 3am.

“We’re getting a break now, that’s all cleared,” Senior meteorologist Dean Narramore said on Monday.

“But we could see further thunderstorms develop through eastern SA and western and central Victoria as we move during the afternoon and evening hours.”

The storms are set to give way to blazing sunshine on Monday, with a forecast top of 39 degrees for Melbourne and Bendigo, 38 for Geelong and 36 for Ballarat.

A cool change is expected to move through South Australia on Tuesday afternoon before crossing into Victoria and Tasmania.

It will then be Western Australia’s turn for heatwave conditions later in the week.

On Monday, seven out of nine Victorian regions had high fire danger ratings.

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