Bushfires rapidly approach Wallangarra homes. Photo: Screenshot / Queensland Fire and Emergency / ABC / Fair use
More than 80 bushfires have been burning across Queensland - destroying more than 50 homes - while NSW had been under threat from 10 emergency-level fires.
At least two people had already died from the fires this week - one man who was trying to defend his property from fire in Tara, and one woman who died of a suspected heart attack while trying to evacuate.
Emergency warnings were issued for Nymboida, Tabulam, Tenterfield, Cooks Gap and Stanthorpe in New South Wales - the number of emergency-level fires decreasing to nine later in the evening.
In Queensland warnings were issued for Wallangarra, Dalveen and south of Bundaberg in Queensland.
Queensland Fire and Emergency deputy commissioner Mike Wassing identified three of the more than 80 fires burning across the state as particularly troubling: The Goodwood fire near Bundaberg, which escaped containment lines because of hot, windy conditions; Wallangarra on the border with NSW, and the fire at Tara - inland and far to the west of Brisbane.
QFES chief superintendent Warren Buckley told a community meeting some 53 homes had been lost to the Tara fire, with that number expected to rise.
Firefighters told ABC the focus for the day was not on saving properties, but on saving lives.
Prime Minister Anthony Albanese, speaking from Bundaberg, said more than 42,000 claims were expected as a result of the fires.
Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese Photo: RNZ / Samuel Rillstone
Residents of Wallangarra were told it was not safe to return to their homes about 4pm (7pm NZ time), and concerns were high as the flames danced close to homes in the town on the border between the two states, but Queensland Premier Annastacia Palaszczuk later confirmed the fire had gone around the town.
"The town has been saved - this is tremendous work," she said. "I also want to thank the NSW government, because we utilised their large tanker, their large plane, and that has been of tremendous service."
Residents had earlier been told to immediately seek shelter in the town - in a brick building, a room with multiple escapes, or on the opposite side from the fire - rather that try to leave, as it had become too dangerous to leave.
Over 40 aircraft and 1000 were in operation across Queensland on Tuesday.
People in Kinkuna and Goodwood areas south of Bundaberg were told to leave immediately due to the fires, with Queensland Fire and Emergency saying it would soon be too dangerous to drive.
With gusts of up to 50km/h expected in southern Queensland, isolated thunderstorms could also bring lightning strikes that could make the situation worse - with some having sparked fires on either side of the border between the two Australian states.
However, showers could bring some relief across southeast Queensland overnight due to a cool southerly change and an increase in humidity.
Video from a QFES chopper shows the fire burning through bushland in Wallangarra. Photo: Screenshot / Queensland Fire and Emergency / ABC / Fair use
An emergency-level fire was burning close to explosives, stored for the mining industry, north of Mudgee at Ulan Road, Cook Gap.
Greg Allan from the NSW Rural Fire Service said a 1km exclusion zone had been established around the facility, but urged residents to leave immediately if the path was clear.
Four fires on the Sunshine Coast were being treated as suspicious.
Support from New Zealand is expected to reach later this week.
