KEY POINTS:
The end of the world reached the Victorian mountain town of Kinglake.
Burned out cars, many containing charred bodies, litter the road leading up to the town which now consists of a handful of still-standing shops and hundreds of blackened piles of ash which used to be home to Kinglake's 1500 residents.
As Victoria burned, a raging inferno raced through the state's central highlands, killing 33 people in the area, leaving the once-idyllic community a charred ghost town.
Among the tragic stories to emerge from Kinglake were of a young boy and a girl burned alive inside their home.
"The kids perished, their mother got out but she couldn't get the kids out," Kinglake resident Mary-Anne Mercuri said. She also told of sisters in their 20s whose bodies were found in the front of their rented house.
"Two young girls around the corner from me were found in the front of their house. There's no way they could have got out. They would have tried to escape but there was nowhere to go."
The mother-of-three said that when the fire arrived it felt like exploding red burning bullets were being shot horizontally at them.
"These big burning chunks started falling from the sky, there was a lot of power behind them. I guess they were exploding parts of trees," Mercuri said.
"We are lucky to be alive."
Her friend, Mandy Darkin, described the terrifying moment the fire arrived at Kinglake without warning.
"I was working at the local restaurant and we were all carrying on like nothing was going on but then word came that we should go home," the mother of five said.
"Soon after, I looked outside the window and said: 'Whoa we are out of here, this is going to be bad'.
"I could see it coming. I just remember the blackness and you could hear it, it sounded like a train.
"I raced home in my car, straight into the driveway, placed all the kids in the house and within two minutes it was here and it was as dark as midnight at 4.30pm."
The 25km journey by road from Whittlesea to Kinglake is a cross between a trip into a war zone and a natural disaster zone.
The typical sunburned landscape of southeast Australia gives way to a fire-burned one with black scorched trees and earth.
Property after property is destroyed, burned out cars line the side of the road, some sit stranded in the middle of the street, while a dead horse, carcass still smouldering, blocks the sporadic traffic.
The remains of two cars which collided head-on in their frantic bid to escape the blaze lie mangled on the road, and a five-car pile-up reveals the desperation of residents fleeing for their lives.
It is believed six bodies were found in one car.
A media convoy being escorted to Kinglake was delayed at one stage as emergency crews removed another body from one of the burned-out cars.
- AAP
New Zealand's Red Cross and Salvation Army are accepting donations for those affected by the fires in Victoria.
Red Cross: Donations can be made by visiting redcross.org.nz, calling 0900 33 200 to make an automatic $20 donation, sending a cheque to Australian Bushfire Appeal, Red Cross House, PO Box 12140, Thorndon, Wellington, 6144, or by visiting any Red Cross service centre.
Salvation Army: Donate online at salvationarmy.org.nz or post to The Salvation Army, PO Box 27001, Marion Square, Wellington, 6164.
