Max Gordon-Hall lost his three-bedroom home in Batlow, NSW, when fire swept through the town in early January.

Key points: Coronavirus has slowed down the bushfire clean-up

Coronavirus has slowed down the bushfire clean-up People affected by the bushfires worry coronavirus means they will be forgotten

People affected by the bushfires worry coronavirus means they will be forgotten Authorities promise no-one will be left behind and money is starting to flow to those who need it

Three months on, he has still been unable to start to rebuild because a promised clean-up has not even started.

He is frustrated by the delays, which are now being exacerbated as coronavirus sweeps through Australia.

"It's just been waiting for this government clean-up," he told 7.30.

"They said they'll do it, but with this whole virus thing going on, there's now a little bit of a delay.

"They reckon this week, they'll get it cleaned up. But other than that, I've just got rubble sitting on the ground."

Mr Gordon-Hall is one of thousands of Australians who lost loved ones, their home or their businesses during the bushfires last summer and are now also dealing with coronavirus.

They are frightened they will be forgotten by federal and state authorities who have had to shift priorities towards this pandemic.

"It is a bit scary, going from one huge disaster that was every headline in the media, to something that hasn't even been mentioned in who knows how long," he told 7.30.

"It feels like it has been forgotten.

"There are government recovery teams that were in town, they've now been stood down because of this coronavirus.

"It needs to be done — we need to be socially isolated and socially distanced — but on the same hand, there's 3,000 odd homes destroyed and 3,000 lives that have been upended."

'There's no doubt that those communities are hurting.'

RFS Commissioner Shane Fitzsimmons will become the NSW resilience commissioner in May. ( AAP: James Gourley )

Newly appointed NSW resilience commissioner Shane Fitzsimmons wants to assure bushfire victims they have not been forgotten.

Mr Fitzsimmons has been NSW Rural Fire Service Commissioner for over 12 years and oversaw the response to this year's bushfires.

He said when he starts his new role next month it would be his priority to make sure victims of the recent bushfire season have been looked after as the nation reels from yet another national crisis.

"We've had the profound effect of the drought, we've then seen the worst-ever bushfire season on record, here in New South Wales. And now breaking that bushfire event, we saw a number of areas getting hit with storms and floods. Across the top of all of that, you've got literally everybody that can't escape this awful COVID-19 pandemic," he told 7.30.

"So we've got communities that are being compounded by disasters, emergencies, disruptions for quite a long period of time and there's no doubt that those communities are hurting, whether they've experienced one of those events or many of those events.

"It's really tough."

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Commissioner Fitzsimmons said state and federal authorities were doing what they could to keep helping people like Mr Gordon-Hall, but were being overwhelmed by the sheer scale of both the bushfire and coronavirus disasters.

"The feedback I've got is, yes, it's hampered some of the activity," he said.

"But that doesn't mean the focus is lost.

"Naturally, there are some impediments as a result of the COVID restrictions and the COVID implications, but the work is still going on right around New South Wales in the recovery effort."

$500 million already distributed to small businesses and communities

National Bushfire Recovery Agency coordinator Andrew Colvin says money is now flowing more quickly to fire victims. ( ABC News: Shaun Kingma )

Andrew Colvin, the head of the Federal Government's National Bushfire Recovery Agency, said that even without coronavirus, getting help to all the people who needed it after the fires was always going to be a mammoth task.

"That clean-up work is really just starting to gain momentum," he said.

"There's over 3,000 residences that have been destroyed in these fires. Plus a variety of other commercial premises and other buildings in New South Wales, Victoria and South Australia.

"Over 400 properties have now been cleaned, so over 10 per cent of the residential properties have been cleaned up.

"But we still have a long way to go and I'm very hopeful in the next few weeks, now that we've got the conditions in place, that we can do it safely and in a systematic way.

"I think we're going to start to see a real upturn in the number of properties [that] have been cleaned up."

The bushfire recovery taskforce was heavily criticised earlier this year for not distributing the $2 billion of allocated Federal Government funds quickly enough to individuals and businesses applying for loans and grants.

Mr Colvin conceded that most of the criticism at the time was fair and warranted but that government money was now flowing much faster.

"Nearly three-quarters of that $2 billion is actually committed to a variety of measures and more half a billion dollars has now rolled out into the pockets of businesses and communities," he said.

"Over $12 million in small business grants alone has now made its way to businesses affected by fires.

"Of course, I've got a two-year horizon, I need to start planning for what the national recovery looks like. So, we need to make sure that we've got funds available to continue this recovery much beyond the next few weeks and months."

Mr Colvin said businesses should not get too hung up on which losses were connected to bushfires and which could be linked to coronavirus.

"The message we want to give people is, if you're eligible for loans or grants for both, please apply for both," Mr Colvin said.

"Our attitude is we don't want businesses to have to struggle to try and make distinctions between what was a coronavirus impact and what was a bushfire impact.

"We are making sure that we are very flexible and we default to making sure that money gets into pockets."

'Reach out and say, we haven't forgotten you'

Batlow has not had time to recover from the bushfires which threatened the town just three months ago. ( ABC News: Matt Roberts )

While trying to clean up and rebuild his fire-ravaged home, Mr Gordon-Hall has been working as a paramedic and trying to prepare for life on the frontline of coronavirus.

"We're just bracing to see if this does hit like what has happened in other parts of the world," he said.

"But locally, you know, [we're] just taking it day by day and waiting to see what happens."

Mr Gordon-Hall said he and the local Batlow community were grateful for the government and charity assistance they had already received.

While they wait for the clean-up to start in town, he is keen to make sure victims of the summer's fires aren't overlooked.

"Three months ago people were displaced, people lost their houses and the goodwill of society came out," he said.

"I guess I'd just urge Australia to reach out, maybe make a phone call and say, look, I know what you went through, we haven't forgotten you.

"We're still here even though we're all locked in our houses."