Dozens die in Australia's inferno hell

"Hell and its fury" have been unleashed on Victoria as the death toll from the Australian state's devastating bushfires climbs steadily.

Late last night the official toll was 84, making it the biggest fire tragedy in the country's history.

The number of dead has surpassed that of the Ash Wednesday fires of 1983, in which 75 people died as fires ravaged Victoria and South Australia.

The death toll is likely to rise further as blazes continue to ravage the region, with almost 312,000 hectares affected. At least 700 homes have also been destroyed.

"Hell and all its fury has visited the good people of Victoria," Prime Minister Kevin Rudd said in the fire-ravaged Yarra Valley.

"Many good people now lie dead. Many others lie injured.

"This is an appalling tragedy for Victoria but because of that it's an appalling tragedy for the nation."

A shattered state last night was in the midst of its worst fire disaster in three decades, as heat and strong winds sent sheets of flame racing through towns and farmland near Melbourne.

Police expected the death toll to rise further as they searched the ruins of wildfires that flared on Saturday and continued to burn north of the city yesterday.

"We are just picking them up (bodies) as we go through," a police spokesman said.

The Australian Government placed the army on standby and set up emergency relief funds, but also faced pressure from Greens lawmakers who had been urging it to stiffen climate-change policies to reduce the risk of such summer disasters.

Thousands of firefighters battled for a second straight day on Sunday to contain the blazes, which witnesses said reached four-storeys high, raced across the land like speeding trains and spewed hot embers as far as the horizon.

Survivors of fires in the small rural town of the Kinglake told of fleeing for their lives and losing neighbours, friends and homes in the blaze that destroyed their community.

Friends and family of fire victims broke down sobbing on learning of the fates of 18 Kinglake residents who had perished in the blaze.

"It went through like a bullet," resident Darren Webb-Johnson said.

Many of the dead were trapped in cars trying to flee one of the infernos.

The small town of Marysville was razed to the ground. Wildfires are a natural annual event in Australia, but a combination of scorching weather, drought and tinder-dry bush have created prime conditions for blazes to take hold and also put pressure on the Government's climate-change policy.

"It's a sobering reminder of the need for this nation and the whole world to act and put at a priority our need to tackle climate change," Greens leader Bob Brown said.

The fires, about 80km north of Melbourne, had hit both semi-urban and rural areas.

More than 20 people were being treated for serious burns, local officials said.

"These fires won't be out for some days," said tearful Premier John Brumby, as he appealed for blood donors to help medical teams who were treating the burns victims.

"It's about as horrific as it could get," he added.

In the town of Wandong, about 50km north of Melbourne, one survivor said he had found the body of a friend in the laundry of a burnt-out house.

Another survivor, 65-year-old Rosaleen Dove, said she had fought successfully for seven hours with her husband to defend her home on Saturday.

"We made it," she said.

"I never thought I could jump fences so quickly."

All of the deaths, police believed, occurred on Saturday.

The main bushfire had burnt 3000 hectares of mainly national park on Saturday when temperatures soared close to 50 degrees Celcius. Within hours, the fire had burnt 30,000 hectares after the wind changed direction.

Fires were still burning across about 2000 square kilometres north of Melbourne yesterday, with a few towns still under threat and 26 fires still out of control.

- Reuters