Another day, another disaster zone. The hot windy conditions that passed through made their way to the far east of Victoria and south east of NSW yesterday. Thought we'd done ok to that point but then a series of coastal communities got smashed.

50 properties in Victoria have been destroyed since Sunday while a further 176 homes were lost on the NSW south coast - most of them in day of carnage yesterday.

In the Bateman's Bay area, a popular and picturesque seaside district, more than 1000 people were trapped on a beach at Malua Bay for "almost 24 hours" as a fire ravaged their small town. 40 houses went up as they watched.

“Everyone was on the beach, just covered in ash and smoke. The winds got stronger and stronger and then about 10am you could hear what sounded like a big waterfall. The smoke got very heavy and to the northwest we started seeing spot fires appearing.

“Suddenly we turned around and the headland to the south burst into flame... There were these hot, hot swirling winds, heavy ash, heavy smoke. This bizarre red-orange glow.”