Victorian bushfires LIVE: Emergency warning issued for Mount Buffalo

Thanks for joining us for today's fires blog - I'm going to wind it down for the day now.

Tomorrow morning there likely won't be a live blog at this stage - there are milder weather conditions expected over the next week or so, and the warning levels for most of the fires that are currently burning have been lowered.

But conditions might change and if the fire risk increases again, then we will certainly start up the live blog again tomorrow.

And as Premier Daniel Andrews has pointed out, the bushfire season isn't over yet, so if there are any serious fires in the coming weeks then we will surely get the blog started again, since it is such an effective way of relaying updates on fast-changing situations. 

Of course, we will keep reporting on the fires in the Alpine and East Gippsland areas over the coming days and weeks, and these articles will be be made freely available to readers of The Age website, regardless of whether or not you are a paid subscriber. 

Thunderstorms could hit fire-ravaged areas of the state later in the week, but more rain is also on the way.

Bureau of Meteorology senior meteorologist Dean Stewart said storms could potentially hit on Wednesday and Thursday.

“There will be a fair but more humidity later in the week and we will potentially see storms over the central and eastern areas of the state,” he said.

“The increased humidity will potentially produce rainfall, not just lightning strikes."

Milder conditions are expected over the next few days, which authorities hope will aid firefighting efforts. 

Light winds will remain over East Gippsland and the north east of the state overnight.

In East Gippsland a sea breeze with winds of up to 20km/h will come through in the early afternoon and temperatures will remain in the low 20s.

Temperatures in the northeast of the state will nudge 30 and are expected to gradually increase throughout the week.

Tourism operators across Gippsland say they are suffering the worst summer slump in memory as anxious holidaymakers cancel trips – even in locations far from bushfires – because of fears over safety and smoke.

The state government and tourism agency Visit Victoria will launch a campaign to encourage people to visit tourist destinations across Victoria that are safe from bushfires, state politics reporter Benjamin Preiss writes.

They are also urging holidaymakers to postpone travel to bushfire-affected areas rather than cancel their trips altogether. [Check out the full article]

Crime reporter and 'Naked City' columnist John Silvester has written an opinion piece saying much the same thing, in which he argues that while donations to bushfire-affected East Gippsland are welcome, supporting the region by visiting the area is just as important. [Check out the opinion piece] 

Recap: An emergency warning has is in place for Brookside, Buckland, Mount Buffalo and Buckland Junction. (This information is from a couple of hours ago but remains current) 

An out-of-control bushfire south of Goldie Spur that has been burning for a number of days has changed direction, and is now moving in a north-easterly direction downhill into the Buckland Valley.

The warning states: Leaving now is the safest option, before conditions become too dangerous. Emergency Services may not be able to help you if you decide to stay.

Anyone in the area should leave using Buckland Valley Road and head towards Porepunkah. The area that falls under the emergency warning shows up in red below:

This is the only emergency warning currently in place for Victoria.

Earlier today, Age photographer Joe Armao tweeted out a heartbreaking photo of a koala that perished in the East Gippsland bushfires. The photo shows its body still clinging on to a branch high up in a tree. 

Koalas tend to race to the top of a tree when they are scared or when they sense fire, which doesn't work against flames that are rising twice as high as the treetops. 

I decided against running the photo on the blog, but it can be seen here. 

Reporter Paul Sakkal spoke with some Zoos Victoria staff in Bairnsdale, where koalas that were injured in the bushfires are being treated. Unfortunately, five of the eight koalas that have been taken there over the past two days have died, but two of those that survived were a mother koala and her joey.

Ellen Richmond and Dr Meg Curnick of Zoos Victoria care for injured koalas Tippy and Jellybean in their mobile vet station.Credit: Joe Armao

[Read the full article]

Here is Channel Nine's wrap of today's bushfire activity in Victoria and the relief efforts.  

Getting more than 1500 people out of Mallacoota as the coastal town was threatened by bushfires was the biggest maritime evacuation within Australia in the country’s history, and a lot of it was planned out Melbourne. 

Simone Fox Koob has spoken to some of the key players at the State Control Centre who spent seven days holed up in one room, stealing a few hours' sleep and a shower where they could before they were back at their desks, consumed by the task ahead of getting people out safely.

Sergeant Ryan Hodgson from the Australian Army, Deputy Emergency Management Commissioner Deb Abbott, the Red Cross' Kate Siebert and Victoria Police Inspector Craig Shepherd.Credit: Chris Hopkins

“I don’t know if we’ve ever done [anything like it] before,” says Emergency Management Victoria’s director of operations Geoff Colsell, a former police superintendent and one of the key figures behind the operation, which was known as Genesis.

[Check out the full story here] 

The army has been airlifting people out of bushfire-affected areas of the state, but they have also been airlifting in fodder for livestock in isolated areas of East Gipplsand.

Check out the photos:

Four people have been interviewed by police so far this year for starting cooking fires or rubbish fires in Gippsland during days where a total fire ban was in place. 

The four people who were interviewed were: 

• A 70-year-old woman for lighting a fire in a paddock to burn rubbish in Longford, near Sale in Gippsland.
• A 37-year-old man for lighting a fire in a camp area to cook a meal in Clydebank, near Sale in Gippsland.
• A 50-year-old man for lighting a fire in a fire pit at Golden Beach, near Sale in Gippsland.
• A 21-year-old man for lighting a fire in a campsite to cook a meal at Paradise Beach, near Sale in Gippsland. 

All four were released and are expected to be charged at a later date.

The penalty for lighting a fire on a total fire ban day is a jail term of up to two years or a hefty fine.

An emergency warning has been issued for Brookside, Buckland, Mount Buffalo and Buckland Junction. 

An out-of-control bushfire south of Goldie Spur that has been burning for a number of days has changed direction, and is now moving in a north-easterly direction downhill into the Buckland Valley. 

The warning states: Leaving now is the safest option, before conditions become too dangerous. Emergency Services may not be able to help you if you decide to stay.

Anyone in the area should leave using Buckland Valley Road and head towards Porepunkah. The area that falls under the emergency warning shows up in red below: 

This is the only emergency warning currently in place for Victoria.