In 2019, the ABC went behind the scenes to follow Victorian firefighters as they cleaned up following destructive bushfires at Bunyip, in West Gippsland.

The footy oval at Nar Nar Goon just east of Melbourne is all lit up and abuzz with activity.

The stakes are high, but there's no game on tonight.

CFA crews grab some hot breakfast and coffee after working the night shift. ( ABC News: Danielle Bonica )

The ground has been transformed into an emergency staging area in the battle against the nearby Bunyip bushfire.

Exhausted firefighters are rolling in by the truckload, resting where they can, slumped against walls and sprawled on the grass.



A firie gets some shut-eye after returning from night shift. ( ABC News: Danielle Bonica )

The fire broke out at the tail end of another scorching Australian bushfire season.

It menaced communities on Melbourne's fringe, burning 15,400 hectares, 29 houses and 69 sheds.

Like all the fires before it, when the flames died down, so did the headlines.

CFA volunteers turn over and cool the scorched and still-burning earth. ( ABC News: Danielle Bonica )

When the flames die down but the danger doesn't

But bushfires don't just suddenly "go out". When they're brought under control, weeks of tireless mopping-up begins.

The backbreaking clean-up includes digging, turning over and cooling the hot earth. ( ABC News: Danielle Bonica )

It's early morning and Andy Beckett is meeting clean-up crews on the side of the road to triage the day's jobs.

Andy Beckett uses maps of the area to prepare for the morning briefing. ( ABC News: Danielle Bonica )

He's with the Forest Fire Management division of the Department of Environment, Land, Water and Planning.

"Houses don't burn down just during the fire, they burn down after," he says.

Andy says while the fire is no longer actively threatening homes, critical work remains to keep people safe.

As if to prove his point, a thick plume of smoke suddenly erupts on a property behind him.

Fires can still start after the main bushfire threat has passed. ( ABC News: Danielle Bonica )

Within seconds CFA trucks are on their way up the small track and a water-bombing helicopter is sent in.

"I'm surmising but possibly a shed might have been already damaged," he says.

"Something has been burning in the corner of it and it has just taken off."

Firefighting helicopters are used to battle blazes in difficult terrain. ( ABC News: Danielle Bonica )

Andy knows from experience that fresh fires igniting days after the blaze are part of the clean-up process.

"And this is a classic [case] of that now." he says.

Burning embers in tree bases can spark fresh blazes in the aftermath of a bushfire. ( ABC News: Danielle Bonica )

Trees can be killers

Rattled locals are desperate to get back to their homes.

"[We're] just opening up the priority roads so that we can open it up to the essential services and the residents again," Andy says.

Burnt trees are the most immediate and dangerous challenge. They can be unstable and unpredictable. And they can be killers.

Foresters determine whether burnt trees need to be felled for safety. ( ABC News: Danielle Bonica )

Not only can they suddenly come down, but if a tree is smouldering it can spark another bushfire.

Dry weather and wind will ignite the sleepiest of embers.

The spider making short work of burnt trees

In an Australian first, this crew is using a new model of machinery to help remove those dangerous trees.

It's a giant machine perched on wheeled legs with a grapple and a chainsaw.

Forest Fire Management teams guide the spider operator to trees which need to be felled. ( ABC News: Danielle Bonica )

"It's a spider excavator. You can tell by its legs that's what it gets its name from," Andy says.

It is operated by remote control, moving into tricky spots without putting the crew in harm's way.

The spider's mighty claw can open roads to residents faster than ever before. ( ABC News: Danielle Bonica )

"It's a pretty cool machine," he said.

"[It] can reach and grab dangerous trees, cut them off and put them on the ground, all very safely."

The spider helps firefighters to clear debris from bushfire-affected roads. ( ABC News: Danielle Bonica )

Limb by limb it clambers up the dirt road. Within a few moments it clears what would have taken humans hours to do.

With the spider's help a 115-kilometre stretch of road has been cleared on both sides.

CFA crews spray the tree with a mix of water and foam. Foam helps the water molecules stick to the tree. ( ABC News: Danielle Bonica )

Saving precious habitat trees

Big bushfires can take out critically important habitat trees, making it even harder for surviving wildlife to shelter and survive.

While most risky trees are cut down, crews try their best to save environmentally significant trees wherever they can.

A mix of water and foam is sprayed from the base of the tree upwards to where the heat is stored. ( ABC News: Danielle Bonica )

A call comes through on the two-way radio about a grand old tree smouldering up the road.

Mick Anzin is the chainsaw operator for the day.

He gives it the critical once-over.

Mick Anzin cuts a crevice in to the tree to allow the water to get right in to the core of the burning embers. ( ABC News: Danielle Bonica )

"It seems pretty healthy, so we try to save as many trees as we can," he said.

"I can feel and see how far the fire has actually gone up the trunk."

After spraying the tree, Andy Beckett digs out the burning embers to reach others further down. ( ABC News: Danielle Bonica )

Foam and water is sprayed on to the tree.

Then Mick Anzin cuts a crevice into the base, then Andy Beckett steps in with a shovel to dig the coals out.

Andy Beckett digs out the burning embers from the base of the tree trying to save it. ( ABC News: Danielle Bonica )

This process of spray-cut-dig continues until the heat is removed without damaging the tree structure.

It's time-consuming, but rewarding.

Andy puts the shovel down.

"With any luck that tree will stand for a long while yet," he says.

Unseen heat, the invisible threat

Falling trees are an obvious risk. Some of the other post-fire hazards are trickier to spot.

Unseen hotspots can turn into fresh fire breakouts in an instant.

CFA crews turn and cool the hot earth to ensure embers aren't carried by winds into adjoining paddocks and bushland. ( ABC News: Danielle Bonica )

New technology is now helping to locate these hotspots.

At night, thermal imaging cameras are used from the air to pinpoint where they are, and then they're hit with water-bombing helicopters.

During the day, temperature indicator cameras see what the naked eye cannot and read the ground temperature.

CFA volunteer Gavin Blair uses the thermal imaging camera to measure the heat in the earth. ( ABC News: Danielle Bonica )

Any reading over 50 degrees has the potential to spark a new flare-up.

Scorched earth

During today's operation, burnt, grey and benign-looking paddocks are being scanned for problematic patches.

Suddenly a reading of 500 degrees pops up on the camera.

The CFA crew double-check the incredible reading of 500 degrees. ( ABC News: Danielle Bonica )

It's the remains of a big haystack that has been smouldering for days.

CFA Strike team leader Peter Cattermole and his crew get to work to make sure the hidden embers here don't cause a flare-up.

Peter Cattermole says the best tool for fire clean-up is lots of rain. ( ABC News: Danielle Bonica )

"We bring the trucks in and they'll wet all of this area down here and cool it right down," he said.

"Then they'll put a cover of foam over it to try to seal it and stop it going in to the paddock there."

Only when there is a decent rainfall, will the fires be truly out.

The surrounding paddocks and bushland are vulnerable to super-heated earth after a bushfire. ( ABC News: Danielle Bonica )

CFA member Roy Wilding is working as deputy on this shift.

He's frustrated that it's such slow work and he's worried about farmers who are still stuck without power.

"We wanted to get all the main services in, the power back in, the water back in because a lot of the farmers around here require the power to power their pumps."

Without electricity, it can be hard to care for stock properly.

"We had farmers that hadn't milked cows for two days," he said.

"The poor girls, they're bursting at the seams dripping milk everywhere."

Forest Fire Management crews and machinery work their way up the roads towards the Bunyip State Park. ( ABC News: Danielle Bonica )

Volunteering after the blaze

The mop-up is far less glamorous than fighting the blaze when it's out of control, when lives are in danger and the cameras are rolling.

Assistant chief fire officer with the Department of Environment, Land, Water and Planning, Chris Eagle, says the work can continue for many weeks and can start to feel boring and relentless.

"It's one of the things … the job seems monotonous but it's actually important and it's a critical part of the fire."

"They will spend ten hours out in the fire ground and a lot of it might be driving up and down the road patrolling, and they will do nothing else but patrol."

Chris Eagle says keeping morale up is one of the biggest challenges during the mop-up. ( ABC News: Danielle Bonica )

While department staff are all paid, the CFA clean-up crews rely on a core of volunteers.

Chris Eagle says employers can more easily justify releasing staff to volunteer when the fire is making big news.

But he says, come clean-up time, it becomes harder to get volunteers because the work doesn't appear as urgent.

"So we actually make sure our staff and volunteers know whilst the job they are doing seems monotonous, it's actually important and it's a critical part of the fire."

One fire family

Keeping track of the team's work is Bec Johns. She is penciller for the day. Her job is to keep a record of everything the crew is doing.

Bec Johns was among the many firefighters who brought the blaze under control. ( ABC News: Danielle Bonica )

Bec joined the CFA juniors at the age of 11, and is a fourth-generation CFA volunteer.

Today is a nice break after a few intense days battling to bring the blaze under control.

Her father and grandfather were also fighting the fire.

Three generations of Bec Johns's family fought the Bunyip blaze. ( ABC News: Danielle Bonica )

"We always find each other, we have a family reunion out in the fire ground … I'm pretty proud," she said.

Bec is just one of the army of volunteers who work for weeks and months after the hundreds of bushfires each year in Australia.

Without them and the paid crews that work alongside them, the aftermath of Australia's bushfire season would be a lot worse.