How big are the fires burning in Australia? Graphic compares to North Island area

The scale of the bushfires can be hard to grasp. Photo / Supplied

Australia is being ravaged by fires and it can be hard to picture just how big an area the fires are engulfing.

The graphic below shows what the area of the fires in eastern Australia covers on the map of New Zealand and puts it into perspective for Kiwis.

Title Here

Overlaid over the North Island, the area of the fires in Australia would cover well north of Auckland and spread south beyond Hamilton.

It also spreads over a vast area of the Tasman Sea and the Pacific Ocean.

The bushfires have killed nine people in eastern Australia and continue to threaten many lives.

More than 900 homes in New South Wales, the worst affected state so far, have been lost.

There are at least 3.6 million hectares of land burning in New South Wales alone at the moment.

Towns in Victoria's East Gippsland have been hit by out-of-control bushfires and homes are expected to be lost, while 4000 people are sheltering on a beach.

Thousands of people, including tourists and locals, are trapped on a beach in East Gippsland as fires rage around them.