The fire season for most of Australia’s east coast extends from spring to mid-summer. The greatest danger occurs after the dry winter/spring period, before the onset of the rainy weather common in summer. The worst conditions occur when deep low-pressure systems near Tasmania bring strong, dry, westerly winds to the coast, as occurred in the major New South Wales fires in January 1994
Historic Chart Analysis at 11am EDT on 7 January 1994, showing areas with extreme fire weather that resulted in serious bushfires in NSW and southern Queensland