Heatwave to sweep across large parts of Australia as bushfire threatens Queensland border town

Forecasters have warned of heatwave conditions across much of Australia as a bushfire threatens a Queensland border town that was evacuated overnight.

Early Wednesday morning, the Queensland Fire Department said a bushfire near Dirranbandi in south-west Queensland was still burning and travelling towards the township.

"If you left the area, it is not safe to return," the warning said. It was already 23C in the town at 7am, forecast to reach a top of 42C on Wednesday.

On Tuesday, the rural town's roughly 600 residents were advised to seek shelter immediately, before being told to leave the town a few hours later because "it will soon be too dangerous to drive".

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Queensland police also declared an emergency declaration under the Public Safety Preservation Act, assisting with the evacuation on Tuesday night.

Senior meteorologist Miriam Bradbury from the Bureau of Meteorology said a wind change was expected on Thursday, which is when fire behaviour can become erratic.

"It's definitely going to be hot and potentially a bit breezy today," she said. "Those conditions are not changing too much until we see that wind change coming through tomorrow."

Around 422 residents in the Balonne Shire Council have lost their power supply due to damage to power lines. Ergon Energy Network said it also cut supply to the area on Tuesday night to minimise electrical dangers.

On Wednesday morning the company said it was gaining clearance for its helicopter to begin assessing damage along the main power line feeding into Dirranbandi, which is more than six hours south west of Brisbane.

"Due to the distances being covered, it will be mid-morning until we know the extent of the damage, and we can then start repairing the network," it wrote on Facebook.

On Wednesday there was an extreme fire danger rating for the Channel Country region in far west Queensland, with gusty north-westerly winds combining with hot and dry temperatures.

The heatwave warning, covering much of the state, is forecast to be severe around north-west and inland areas – including Mount Isa, Richmond and Longreach – as well as to the west of Brisbane, and pushing towards the Sunshine Coast.

Brisbane was forecast to reach a top of 32C on Wednesday. Mount Isa and Longreach could hit 42C, and Richmond 43C. Bradbury said Queenslanders shouldn't treat the conditions as "just another hot day".

"Even though Queenslanders are used to a bit of hot weather, this is unusually hot for an unusual amount of time," she said.

There was also an extreme fire danger rating and total fire ban in place for the Mallee district in Victoria . VicEmergency said fires could "spread quickly and be extremely dangerous" in these conditions, with maximum temperatures between 33C and 38C forecast.

Heatwave warnings were covering large swathes of the country across multiple states on Wednesday, with conditions expected to persist in the coming days. As well as Queensland and Victoria, Bradbury said there was elevated fire danger in parts of Western Australia, South Australia, New South Wales, Victoria and Tasmania.

"It is worth noting how widespread those high fire dangers [are] that may not be triggering warnings, but are still sort of flagging an elevated risk," Bradbury said.

Melbourne and Canberra both had a forecast maximum of 33C on Wednesday, while Darwin could reach 35C, according to the Bureau of Meteorology. Meanwhile, Hobart was set to reach 28C and Sydney 27C, while Adelaide and Perth were slightly cooler with forecasts of 23C and 21C respectively.

Bradbury said many capital cities would see their hottest day since March on Wednesday, but "that's not unusual for the 6th of November".

"This is the time of year when we would start to expect to see some of these really hot temperatures starting to come through," she said.