‘It’s going to be a bad year': Victoria's bushfire threat looms large

Parts of Victoria face their worst bushfire threat since Black Saturday left 173 people dead a decade ago, with years of low rainfall turning swaths of the state into a tinderbox.

“All indications are it’s going to be a bad year," says Dr Thornton.

Australia's year of record-breaking heat has set the scene for a monster fire season, experts warn, with forecasters tipping a hot, dry summer.

“This is potentially one of the worst droughts we have seen,” says Dr Richard Thornton, chief executive of the Bushfire and Natural Hazards Research Centre.

“It means that coming into the start of the fire season, the vegetation is already very dry – probably the driest we have seen since the federation drought, if not longer.”

Read the story from The Age by Liam Mannix - “‘It’s going to be a bad year': Victoria's bushfire threat looms large.”