A huge water-bombing helicopter has been deployed to Australia to help fight the deadly bushfire crisis gripping the country.

"Mad Max", a Mil Mi-8 MTV helicopter, can carry up to five tonnes of water at a time, twice as much as any other aerial fire-fighting helicopter outside the military.

Private owners Aeropower and Hevilift have sent Max to Brisbane, and it is ready to travel south to help extinguish blazes burning up and down the east coast.

Max is one of the largest water-bombing helicopters in the world. (9News)

"This is one of the largest water-bombing helicopters in the world," Darren Carlile from Aeropower told 9News.

It has recently been operating in Indonesia and Papua New Guinea and will likely return there once its work in Australia is done.

"Max will be here for as long as the Australian government require it but once it's off task it'll probably head back to Papau New Guinea," James Bond from Hevilift told 9News.

Max in full flight. (9News)

The helicopter, second in size only to Elvis the water-bombing aircraft, could be in action as soon as tomorrow.

It has the capacity to drop 5,000 litres of water in a matter of seconds, and the crew has also offered to retrieve another helicopter that crashed into a dam fighting fires near Eden, NSW, yesterday, for free.

"It stands right now the aircraft is operationally ready to be deployed wherever it's required in Australia," Mr Carlile said.

Max can dump more than 5,000 litres of water in seconds. (9News)

Bushfire deployments are approved by the National Aerial Firefighting Centre.