Queensland and New South Wales have been warned to prepare for severe storms bringing dust, 90km/h winds and hail, followed by three days of even worse bushfire conditions.

The Bureau of Meteorology said severe storms would blow across inland southern Queensland on Saturday night, bringing damaging wind, dust storms and the possibility of dry lightning. South-eastern Queensland can expect damaging winds and large hail on Sunday.

By Monday morning the storms will be replaced by dry, hot, westerly wind, which forecaster Jess Gardner said would bring increased fire risk.

The fire danger rating for Queensland’s central highlands and coalfields, Wide Bay and Burnett, the south-east coast and the Darling Downs and Granite Belt was forecast to be severe.

Firefighters from the Queensland Fire and Emergency Service were battling out-of-control bushfires at Woodgate and the Bulburin national park on Saturday, while dozens of other fires still burned around the state.

In NSW, some property owners who fled in the face of an uncontrolled fire in the Tallaganda national park on Friday returned home to find their homes destroyed.

Angela Hunter and Jake Annetts told the ABC their home at Bombay, on the edge of the state forest and about 40km east of Canberra on the NSW south coast, was now “tin and dust”. They had built the house out of recycled materials and were trying to restore the forest.

“To see our house, just literally a pile of tin and dust … but at the end of the day, it’s just stuff, and we’re alive and our animals are OK,” Hunter told the ABC.

A spokesman for the Rural Fire Service said firefighters had yet to assess the extent of the damage from the North Black Ridge fire, but believed some sheds had been lost. As of Saturday afternoon, the fire had burned through 16,500 hectares.

Almost 150 bushfires were burning in NSW on Saturday. The Interloop Trail fire in Port Stephens jumped containment lines near Salt Ash, prompting the RFS to issue a watch and act warning.

Residents in Medowie and nearby townships wee advised to monitor conditions.

Total fire bans are in place for greater Sydney, greater Hunter, central ranges and north western regions. That includes the Blue Mountains, Bathurst, Orange and Walgett.

A severe thunderstorm warning has been issued for the north-east corner of the state, with damaging winds and large hailstones forecast for areas east of Walgett and north of Gosford, as well as inland areas east of Canberra, from Cooma to Katoomba.

The RFS has warned of “worsening conditions” over the coming week with one regional command telling residents that “now” was the time to talk to family about what to do when bushfire hit.

“Know what you will do before the fire threatens rather than trying to wing it at the time,” the RFS’s Northern Tablelands team posted to Facebook.

Meanwhile, a portable radio repeater providing critical communications for fire crews in northern NSW has been so severely vandalised that it’s out of action.

Six tyres, two axles, two jerry cans and radio equipment were stolen from the marked trailer near Nymboida.

“This will potentially endanger fire crews working to protect life and property,” Northern Tablelands Team posted online on Saturday.

Grafton police are investigating.

Six people have died in bushfires in NSW so far this season, and more than 600 homes have been destroyed.



