Properties are feared destroyed in bushfires raging across regional Victoria as the state battles a slew of erratic weather.
Temperatures will hover in the high 30s and low 40s for northwest, west, north, northeast, and central parts of Victoria on Monday after a sweltering and stormy end to the weekend.
A blaze in the Little Desert National Park, about 375 kilometres west of Melbourne, was declared contained but broke away on Sunday afternoon.
Victorian authorities confirmed they received reports of property losses from a fire near Ouyen, north of the region’s national park, on Sunday night.
It is believed two properties have been lost, Premier Jacinta Allan confirmed, as the inferno heads west towards Kaniva-Edenhope Road.
“Our thoughts are with the community around Hattah in the northwest of the state,” she told reporters in Melbourne’s west on Monday.
State Control Centre spokesman Luke Heagerty said wind blowing in contrasting directions caused the fire to break its containment lines.
“A couple of breakaways have been able to run freely through the national park itself but once it’s reached the private property, we’ve been able to slow it down,” he told AAP.
The Little Desert fire covers 84,000 hectares, while dual fires burning in the Grampians total 46,000 hectares.
Additional watch and act orders have been issued for fires in Victoria’s southwest, including Apollo Bay, Cape Horn, Hordern Vale and Cape Otway.
“We’ve had thousands of lightning strikes with storms come through overnight,” Heagerty said.
Severe thunderstorms swept across Geelong and Melbourne on Sunday night, bringing heavy rain, lightning, hail and damaging winds.
Power was cut to at least 38,000 homes but fewer than 10,000 were still off the grid as of 10am Monday.
Geelong and Lara to its north were hit particularly hard with flash flooding, downed trees causing property damage and reported hail stones of 2cm to 4cm, according to the Bureau of Meteorology.
Some 63mm of rain was recorded at Lara, 52mm at Avalon Airport, 48mm at Clunes and 47mm at Geelong.
A lightning strike is believed to have caused a fire at Taylors Lakes in Melbourne’s northwest about 1 a.m.
The lightning and thunder across Melbourne lasted from 8 p.m. to 3 a.m.
“We’re getting a break now, that’s all cleared,” Senior meteorologist Dean Narramore said on Monday.
“But we could see further thunderstorms develop through eastern SA and western and central Victoria as we move during the afternoon and evening hours.”
It will then be Western Australia’s turn for heatwave conditions later in the week.
On Monday, seven out of nine Victorian regions had high fire danger ratings.
