KEY POINTS:
CANBERRA - The east coast of Australia was ablaze yesterday as dozens of bushfires raced through drought-squeezed country facing a brutal summer without relief.
As many as nine towns in Victoria were preparing for the worst, fires raging through alpine forests may burn for months, and desperate state fire authorities have already called for help from New Zealand.
More than 20,000ha of New South Wales has been seared by major fires in the past few days, alarming authorities who warn that conditions normally not reached until January have already hit, just five days into summer.
Across Australia, crops and pasture are withering in a drought that is still deepening, worsened by the near-total failure of late winter and early spring rains.
The Bureau of Meteorology has warned that there will be little relief before next autumn in country that has still not recovered from the disastrous 2002 drought.
Yesterday the Australian Bureau of Agricultural and Resource Economics reported that the nation's winter crop production had fallen an estimated 62 per cent on last year's harvest.
Summer crops are forecast to decline by one-third.
Bureau chief executive Phillip Glyde said farms had been hit by the driest August-to-October period in more than a century, worsened by some of the highest mean maximum temperatures on record.
Supplies of water for irrigation have plummeted, forcing an 80 per cent reduction in the amount of land sown to rice this year. The area sown to cotton is the smallest in two decades.
Livestock feed is also becoming a critical issue.
Wildlife authorities have warned of devastating effects on Australia's unique species.
One of the nation's most important koala colonies is feared to have been hit hard by a fire burning in the Pilliga nature reserve near Coonabarabran, northwest of Sydney.
Wildlife experts are hoping to access the area today, but so far firefighters say they have only seen many displaced animals such as kangaroos and emus.
Further south, Wildlife Victoria yesterday launched an appeal to help save thousands of animals and birds injured by the dozens of fires burning throughout the state.
The organisation warned of massive damage to wildlife over the summer fire season caused by burns, smoke inhalation, radiant heat injuries, dehydration and loss of habitat.
For Victoria, the most critical battles were yesterday being fought in the northeast of the state, where as many as nine towns had been placed on high alert as fires continued to push firefighters back.
About 50 fires in the southeastern Gippsland region and in the northwest of the state were stretching resources to the limit, forcing the state Government to seek 100 firefighters from New Zealand.
"We are headed for probably the worst fire summer period we have ever had in Victoria. We don't expect these fires to go out," Premier Steve Bracks said.
"We can't call on NSW, we can't call on Queensland, because they're attacking fires in NSW as well, we can't call on South Australia because they have high fire alert and fires, and Tasmania is worried about its fire conditions," he told Southern Cross radio.
New Zealand National Rural Fire Officer Murray Dudfield told NZPA that the service probably would be able to meet the request in full, but not until after Christmas.
He said a first group of about 50 Kiwi firefighters would probably fly to Australia tomorrow and would remain there until December 23, when the situation would be reviewed.
Firefighters say strong winds and high temperatures over coming days could cause fires to join into major fire fronts and push blazes more than 20km from current positions.
Authorities were scrambling more heavy water-bombing helicopters.
As dense smoke grounded firefighting aircraft, Victorian officials warned that conditions were now as bad as in the big 2003 fires that also led to NZ firefighters flying over to help.
In New South Wales, thousands of firefighters were battling 45 outbreaks across the state, although cooler temperatures and light local rain helped contain major fires in the Blue Mountains and in the Hunter Valley and Hawkesbury north of Sydney.
But four fires continued to race through bush near Coonabarabran, and crews from NSW, Canberra and Queensland were battling outbreaks near the northwestern town of Narrabri that by late yesterday had burned through 14,000ha.
Others were working to contain a further four fires near Mudgee, in the central west of the state.
