Bushfires disaster: Beach of last resort as gates of hell open

They flocked to the sand to escape the inferno in an eerie half-light tinged orange from flames which blocked out the sun.

People escape the fires at Mallacoota on Tuesday. Picture: Instagram

They flocked to the sand to escape the inferno in an eerie half-light tinged orange from flames which blocked out the sun, holiday plans in tatters and hearts in their mouths.

Some likened it to the apocalypse, the End of Days.

“It went darker than a night with no moon,” Mallacoota man Martin Ascher said as gas bottles in nearby houses exploded and up to 4000 people waited at the town’s boat ramp.

Across southern NSW and eastern Victorian coastal towns that normally bustle with tourists in the Christmas-New Year ­period, the beach became a refuge from one of the worst bushfire ­seasons to grip the regions.

In Malua Bay, a township near Batemans Bay on the NSW south coast, locals packed the beach in an eerie orange half-light as flames flared nearby.

In the coastal Victorian town of Mallacoota, about 4000 people who had gone to the beach for shelter were warned to take to the water if the fire trucks activated their sirens.

Some of those who fled their homes climbed into boats and kayaks, donning goggles, masks and wet towels that provided little assistance in breathing amid dense smoke throughout Monday night and much of Tuesday.

Others lined the shore and gathered at boat ramps, listening as gas cylinders exploded and then watched as the flames took houses on the outskirts of town.

In near total darkness, except for the red glow of fire on the shore, Mallacoota man Grant Shorland Jr wore goggles and had a handkerchief covering his nose and mouth as he recorded a video from his boat shortly after fleeing his home at 10.20am.

“Now the fire front’s come through,” he said in the Facebook video. “Everyone’s safe and sound. We’ve got the girls and the dogs up the front, we’ve got supplies.

“F. k the houses, get into the water, it’s chaos.” Not all did.

At Mogo Zoo, just outside Batemans Bay, zoo director Chad Staples said it felt apocalyptic. “It felt like Armageddon here,” Mr Staples said. “It was as black as midnight with tinges of red.”

Smoke hangs over Batemans Bay, NSW, on A mother and her sons seek safety on the lake at Mallacoota.

Martin and Mariska Ascher remained at their home, overlooking the water, and were in sleepless fear as the flames got closer. “It was so dark. It felt like we were back at night time again. “The birds came out. They were all flying around, while I was watering the deck. The birds were landing on me. They were completely confused.”

They, and their home, survived the blaze. Further south, Country Fire Authority volunteer Mark Sykes wasn’t so lucky.

The 42-year-old was fighting the Clifton Creek bushfire only hours before his own Sarsfield home burnt down. “It has totally destroyed my house,” he said.

“I tried to defend it, but you can’t do it by yourself. We were hoping something would be left, even a shed, but there’s nothing.”

“My kids have lost their Christmas presents. We’re upset, disappointed.”

Over the course of a day when the bushfires raged, there were similar scenes across the border in Lake Conjala, in the Shoalhaven region.

Hundreds of East Gippsland residents and their pets sought refuge at an evacuation centre at the Bairnsdale football pavilion on Monday night and many remained there on Tuesday, with more than 200 horses being sheltered at the sale yards next door.

Many residents still did not know when they would be able to return to their homes late on Tuesday, with homes lost in towns including Sarsfield, Clifton Creek, Buchan and Wairewa, and Orbost and Mallacoota further east.

Emergency Management Commissioner Andrew Crisp confirmed on Tuesday afternoon 19 structures had been destroyed in Sarsfield and 24 in Buchan with work ongoing to determine the level of damage in other towns.

Retiree Barry Wear, 72, evacuated from Sarsfield in his caravan with his pet beagle Snowpea and dalmatian Domino.

“The Sarsfield fire chief lives in the next road to us,” Mr Wear said. “He said it’s going to be bad, and what he said happened. Last night was horrific. It was 45 degrees, the wind was unbelievable, and then the wind changed direction.

“Even from here in Bairnsdale you could see plumes of smoke like atomic bombs, and they were in (the direction of my house).”

Homes have also been lost in Cudgewa, in Victoria’s northeast, after a fire burning in NSW jumped the Murray River on Monday night. Cudgewa resident Tracey Fair and her mother managed to flee the town at about 11.30pm Monday. Her father refused to abandon the town’s pub that the family runs, but managed to save the building.

“We’ve lost phone reception to him, but the last I heard was that he was trying to catch up on some sleep because he was up all night,” Ms Fair said.

She said she saw the flames approaching the town and fled before they reached the town. “We’ve heard that there’s 10 to 15 houses lost, but we have not seen it.”

In the NSW South Coast town of Bermagui, Melbourne woman Caitlin Nobes said she had never seen it so “dark and eerie’’ in all of her years returning to the town.

“It was pretty much pitch black at 10am, and it's gone pretty dark and eerie again now (at 4pm),’’ she told The Australian.

By midafternoon, the town had lost power and people were either setting up tents on the local footy field or evacuating to nearby Narooma.

Cobargo Hotel owner David Allen said: “This is what hell looks like, and we saw it last night.’’

“It's just so fast, and that's what caught people unawares.’’

additional reporting: Emily Ritchie