Eyre Highway on the Nullarbor Plain between WA and SA closed due to fires

Bushfires on the Nullarbor Plain have cut WA’s only sealed road to South Australia, stranding hundreds of truckies and travellers.

In Western Australia, a series of out-of-control bushfires on Nullarbor Plain have cut off the state’s only sealed road to South Australia, causing shortages in some Perth supermarkets and stranding hundreds of truckies and travellers at a remote roadhouse on the Eyre Highway.

On Monday a convoy of cars was led through the fire zone in Western Australia where the Eyre Highway has been closed for days.

The Eyre Highway is the only road that links Western Australia and South Australia via the Nullarbor Plain and hundreds were stranded in Caiguna after the road was closed.

But authorities managed to guide about 300 people in a convoy through the dangerous fire ground where a watch and act warning remains in place.

Video and photos from our last two weeks in Norseman. Thankyou for the support whether you live here and are passing through. We are working hard for you. #fb #pd08867 pic.twitter.com/e9FBfCAiPM

— Norseman Police. (@NorsemanPol) January 2, 2020

They were led west from Caiguna, to Norseman and Esperance. Previously people been told their best option was to return east from Caiguna.

The fires have been burning since December 20 and is expected to be there for some days.

The blaze is still considered out of control and unpredictable and is impacting the Eyre Highway on both sides at a number of locations.

Across Australia, 25 people have died and more than 1500 homes have been destroyed in bushfires this season.

Thousands of people have fled Australia’s bushfire-ravaged southeast as the death toll rises and catastrophic fire conditions approach.

The worst fires are burning in Victoria’s east and on the NSW south coast, where eight people have died in the past week.

A state of disaster was declared in Victoria and the Navy is evacuating about 1200 trapped tourists and residents from fire-ringed Mallacoota, in East Gippsland.

The town was hit by a massive blaze on Tuesday as 4000 people sheltered on a beach amid apocalyptic scenes that were broadcast across the globe.

Meanwhile an eighth person was confirmed dead in NSW on Friday after police found a missing 72-year-old man’s body in the town of Belowra, in the state’s south.

It brings the death toll for the fire season to 20 in NSW after police confirmed the death of a 59-year-old man, who was burned while sheltering from a bushfire in a water tank in November.

In South Australia, where three people have died and dozens of homes have been destroyed this summer, a bushfire on Kangaroo Island became “virtually unstoppable” after it jumped containment lines.