More than 50 bushfires are burning with the most dangerous in the Gold Coast hinterland destroying the Binna Burra Lodge

This article is more than 1 year old

This article is more than 1 year old

Queensland is in uncharted territory as firefighting crews battle to get the upper hand in the worst start to the fire season on record.

More than 50 fires were burning across Queensland on Sunday afternoon, the most dangerous in the Gold Coast hinterland where it had destroyed homes and the heritage-listed Binna Burra Lodge.

One of the oldest nature-based resorts in Australia, which dates back to the 1930s, now lies in ruins.

ABC Brisbane (@abcbrisbane) The owners of the heritage-listed Binna Burra Lodge celebrated the site's 85th birthday last year. Today it was extensively damaged by a bushfire in the Gold Coast hinterland. https://t.co/qSFUC9neQC pic.twitter.com/QN0JoD8sFm

Its smouldering ruins are surrounded by the blackened remnants of what used to be lush rainforest in the Lamington National Park, west of the Gold Coast.

The fire remained out of control, and was burning towards the community of Numinbah Valley, north-east of Binna Burra.

Water bombers were being used to subdue the blaze as ground crews desperately tried to get on top of the fire, which has so far consumed 11 homes.

Locals were warned more properties could go, and livestock losses were expected to be significant.

But there has been some good news for residents further inland, in the Queensland border towns of Stanthorpe and Applethorpe where another major fire destroyed three homes and other property.

That blaze was finally burning within containment lines, with crews to work through the night in a desperate push to strengthen them so the fire doesn’t get away again.

‘Dead things everywhere’: is Australia facing the summer from hell? Read more

Crews also managed to contain a fire that broke out at Linville, in the Somerset region inland from the Sunshine Coast, on Sunday.

Residents had earlier been told to leave if they did not have a bushfire survival plan. Current advice is to stay informed in case the situation worsens.

Queensland Fire and Emergency Services’ predictive services inspector, Andrew Sturgess, said the state had never before seen such serious bushfire conditions, so early in spring.

“So this is an omen, if you will, a warning of the fire season that we are likely to see in south-eastern parts of the state where most of the population is,” he said.

The acting premier, Jackie Trad, said climate change meant the state was facing a new era of fire risks.

“There is no doubt that with an increasing temperature with climate change, then what the scientists tell us is that events such as these will be more frequent and they will be much more ferocious,” she told reporters.

Fire authorities have warned the danger posed by the Binna Burra fire will not be over for days, with strong winds expected to persist until Tuesday.

“We’re still very much in defensive mode,” Queensland Fire and Emergency Services’ assistant commissioner, Kevin Walsh, said on Sunday.

Facebook Twitter Pinterest A Canungra fire evacuee is comforted outside Moriarty Park Hall where they attended a community meeting about the fires in the region. Photograph: Glenn Hunt/AAP

It was not safe for some people to go home but one man who did said the landscape now looked otherworldly.

“We have bits of charred mountain all around us. It’s a bit surreal,” Jason Nelson said after going home to Witheron, south of Canungra.

The Stanthorpe woman Samantha Wantling says the tension in the town is palpable, despite the news that fire crews have contained the blaze near the town.

She says locals are used to bushfires, but the speed of the one that hit on Friday night and how close it came to the heart of the town was terrifying.

She is fearful about the months that lie ahead, given the severity of the drought on the Granite Belt.

Dams and water tanks on rural properties are empty. Stanthorpe itself is subject to emergency water restrictions of 100 litres per person per day, with the supply not expected to last until the end of the year. After that the council will have to truck water in.

“We need rain. That’s the only thing that’s going to save us,” Wantling said.

Residents warned to seek shelter as bushfires burn near towns in NSW and Queensland Read more

In New South Wales firefighters were battling several out-of-control bushfires with strong winds making for challenging conditions. Despite cooler weather, damaging winds of up to 70km/h were expected to ramp up fire activity with very high fire danger in the state’s far north coast, north coast and New England areas.

Firefighting efforts on Sunday were focused on two out-of-control blazes at Bees Nest in Armidale and Long Gully Road in Drake, east of Tenterfield, which were both at watch-and-act alert level. A large spot fire was also burning in Muldiva state forest with crews working to slow its spread. A third out-of-control blaze in Shark Creek on the north coast was raised to watch-and-act alert level about 11am on Sunday.

A number of homes have been lost or damaged by fires since Friday. A 66-year-old volunteer firefighter was hospitalised on Friday after his hands, arm, legs, back, face and airways were burned while he and a colleague fought a fire at Mount Mackenzie Road, south of Tenterfield. Neville Smith is in a critical but stable condition at Royal Brisbane hospital.