Little hope of keeping Australian bushfires contained

MELBOURNE - There is little hope of keeping Victoria's bushfires within containment lines today amid horrendous fire conditions.

The Country Fire Authority (CFA) has admitted that despite enormous efforts by firefighters, the state's four most serious blazes are likely breach containment lines.

"I cannot guarantee that they won't break out," CFA deputy duty officer Geoff Evans said.

"I think the nature of the weather that we're going to be confronted with will give us extreme fire weather again and the weather will, most likely, cause them to spot out of containment lines."

The weather will also wreak havoc in Tasmania, where firefighters are battling four out of control fires, while rain has eased the bushfire threat in Western Australia.

The CFA has declared a total fire ban across Victoria today with temperatures expected to nudge 40degC in most areas and northerly wind gusts of up to 65km/h forecast.

Bureau of Meteorology senior forecaster Richard Carlyon said while the weather would not be as extreme as Sunday, when three houses were destroyed in the Brisbane Ranges fire at Anakie, in western Victoria, conditions would be severe.

"The temperatures are about three or four degrees lower (than Sunday) and will not be as strong but having said that, at the weekend we were starting with little fires and now we've got big fires so it's much of a muchness," he said.

About 10,000 CFA, NSW and Department of Sustainability and Environment firefighters will spend Australia Day on the fire ground trying to hold the flames back and protect property.

The largest fire is in the rugged Grampians National Park which has now burned well over 120,000 hectares and is threatening the resort town of Halls Gap, 250km west of Melbourne.

Fanned by stiff southerly breezes, the fire burned within 500m of Halls Gap late Monday and killed a motorist and his teenage son at nearby Moyston.

Bushfires at Kinglake, 65km north of Melbourne, the Grampians, Moondarra State Park in Gippsland and at Anakie remain out of control.

Tasmania is also on high alert with four fires burning out of control around the state.

At the mining township of Zeehan in the state's west fire crews are battling to gain control of a fire that has burned more than 3000 hectares.

In southern Tasmania bushwalkers were evacuated from the Southwest National Park when a separate fire drew near.

Meanwhile in WA heavy rains and winds have brought a reprieve to residents and firefighters battling a massive bushfire which had threatened three towns in the state's south-west.

Although the flames, which have destroyed 10,000 hectares since being deliberately lit on Sunday, still pose a threat, authorities now say the immediate danger to the towns of Waroona, Hamel and Yarloop, south of Perth, is over.

- AAP