Unseasonable heatwave and bushfires strike eastern Australia

Residents have been put on high alert as an unseasonably hot start to spring gives way to blazes and increased fire risks in the nation’s east.

Queensland fire authorities issued local fire bans for Ipswich and the Lockyer Valley on Sunday as temperatures typically seen in summer gripped the state’s south-east in early September.

Firefighters in the afternoon told residents at Plainland, west of Ipswich, to prepare to leave in response to a dangerous and fast-moving bushfire near the Warrego Highway.

The New South Wales rural fire service issued an emergency warning, which was later downgraded, for a large grass fire burning near Tabulam, in the state’s north.

Brisbane reached a high of 34.4C on Sunday, making it the hottest September day in the city since 2019.

“If we get a run of westerlies, potentially we can see some late afternoon heat if those westerlies increase and brings some hotter air out towards Brisbane from inland,” the Bureau of Meteorology’s Steve Hadley said.

Coastal areas from Gladstone to the Gold Coast came a few degrees shy of breaking the record for the state’s highest recorded temperatures for the start of spring.

The state had experienced its third-warmest winter on record with temperatures 1.8C above the long-term average.

South-east Queensland’s fire bans came a day after a similar ban was issued for the greater Sydney region, with early spring temperatures climbing to 33C on Saturday in the NSW capital.

Maximum temperatures across the city during the first days of September matched the midsummer average of 26.4C, warmer than any other start to spring since observations began.

The Bureau of Meteorology (BoM) warned on Sunday of unseasonal heat in the low to mid-30s in north-eastern New South Wales and south-east Queensland.

Severe weather warnings were in place for south-eastern Australia over the weekend as damaging winds fuelled the hot conditions.

Jumping castles were picked up by strong winds in two separate incidents in NSW and Victoria on Saturday.

Two children were treated for head injuries at a scene in Banksia, in Sydney’s south, before being transported to hospital.

An infant with minor injuries was also hospitalised, while a woman was treated at the scene.

Two children in Mount Duneed, near Geelong in Victoria’s south-west, were hospitalised after the jumping castle they were using was lifted into the air.

Temperatures are expected to drop in the coming days across both NSW and Queensland.

BoM meteorologist Jonathan How said over the past 24 hours, a cold front swept across south-eastern Australia, bringing damaging winds, rain and storms.

“At the same time, parts of eastern NSW saw their warmest early spring day on record,” he said.

But a dry cool change was moving up the east coast, bringing milder temperatures from Monday. Western Australia is set to get more rain this week, while Tasmania and Victoria can expect some showers.