Bus crash injures 18 at Phillip Island

Police are investigating a collision between a car and a tourist bus in Victoria. Source: AAP

THE scene of a crash between a tourist bus and a car which has left 18 people injured on Victoria's Phillip Island was chaotic, emergency officials say.

As help arrived late on Saturday night, the group of scared and injured Chinese holidaymakers were huddled on the roadside, their bus had careered into the trees and two people were trapped inside the extensively damaged car.

Because of the number of casualties, a state emergency response plan was activated and a roadside triage tent set up to treat them.

The most seriously hurt, two teenagers, were flown by air ambulance to The Alfred hospital in Melbourne.

Police believe the sedan was travelling north on Pyramid Rock Road at Ventnor when it collided at an intersection with the bus which had been heading east on Back Beach Road just after 10pm (AEDT).

The bus, carrying 32 Chinese tourists, their guide and the driver, then veered off the road into a paddock.

It is understood the group was returning from visiting Phillip Island's famous penguin parade.

Fortunately three doctors, including an emergency physician and several nurses who were working with St John Ambulance at the nearby Tough Mudder event, were able to rush to the scene.

Ambulance Victoria said the driver of the car and his passenger were the most seriously injured and were flown to Melbourne.

The 19-year-old driver has neck and facial injuries and his 17-year-old female passenger has arm and abdominal injuries.

Phillip Island ambulance paramedic Mal McCann arrived to find a "chaotic" scene which was exacerbated by language difficulties, he said.

"It was a pretty full-on scene," Mr McCann told AAP.

"You had a bus through the trees, groups of obviously foreign tourists right on the side of the road, very scared, and an extensively damaged vehicle on the other side with people trapped in it."

Eight were taken by road ambulance to the Dandenong Hospital with minor injuries including cuts, abrasions, bruising and strains.

Another eight were treated at the scene.

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Mild NSW weather helps RFS fight bushfires

FIREFIGHTERS are taking advantage of milder conditions to carry out containment work on more than 80 blazes that continue to burn across NSW.

There are hopes that many of the hundreds of firefighters who have been working around the clock battling the state's bushfires will soon be able to return home to their families.

On Sunday evening 84 bushfires remained in NSW, of which eight were uncontained.

None were directly threatening properties. The fire danger has now been downgraded to low to moderate across the state.

The Rural Fire Service said the cooler conditions had given firefighters some respite.

"We are taking advantage of these cooler weather conditions to get some consolidation works done, constructing containment lines to ensure there's no flare up from winds forecast in the coming days," an RFS spokesman told AAP.

However, he warned that NSW would remain at risk of fire danger throughout the remainder of summer.

"It only has to have a few days of warm, dry, windy weather and those fire grounds will be susceptible to fire again."

More than 300 firefighters continue to battle an uncontained blaze in northwest NSW, where 53 homes were destroyed last week.

Light rain near Coonabarabran overnight has helped bring about a reduction in fire activity, in what has been the state's most destructive bushfire for more than a decade.

As well as the 53 homes, 113 outbuildings, livestock and farm machinery were lost in the fire, which has burnt through more than 54,000 hectares and has an 180km perimeter.

In the coming days, firefighters will scour the area in an attempt to eradicate any smouldering remnants that could reignite.

"They'll be looking at any tree logs or stumps in the area to extinguish and cut up to make sure they don't create any embers on a windy day, and cooling any hotspots near containment lines," the spokesman said.

"They'll be there for at least the coming days, if not the next week."

He said there were hopes that many firefighters would soon be able to return home to their families.

"Our main focus is to get these fire crews ... back to their normal lives, back to families, back to work."

A fire believed to have been started by lightning on Friday night is also continuing to burn behind containment lines in Ku-ring-gai National Park north of Sydney.

The RFS says walking access to the Basin, in Pittwater, is restricted and smoke can be seen as far away as the Central Coast.

All NSW fires were currently burning at an Advice level, the RFS spokesman said, which meant residents should remain vigilant.

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Witness appeal over massive Vic fire

The tiny town of Licola is in the path of a massive fire that continues to burn in Victoria's east. Source: AAP

A MASSIVE fire could continue burning for weeks in Victoria's east as police investigate whether campers noticed anything suspicious before it started.

Nine homes have been destroyed and one man has died in the 50,000-hectare fire, although benign weather has slowed the blaze and no communities are under immediate threat.

Police have appealed for people to come forward if they saw anything suspicious in the hours leading up to the fire starting in Aberfeldy in Gippsland on Thursday morning.

They particularly want to speak to anyone camping in the Donnelly Creek Road area on Thursday morning or local residents.

Police say the witness appeal is part of their ongoing investigation into the cause of the fire, which is believed to have started about 11.30am on Thursday.

It spread quickly on Friday, burning in mainly forest country, but was moving slowly on Saturday.

Authorities are preparing for a protracted fight, given the size and remote location of the blaze.

Fire Services Commissioner Craig Lapsley has said he expects fighting the fire to be a two-week campaign, warning that if it buries itself in deep-seated bush it could again come out near the communities of Heyfield and Maffra.

Authorities had been concerned the tiny town of Licola, which has been cut off and where about 10 residents and 30 firefighters remain, may be in the path of the fire as it travels northeast.

A State Control Centre spokeswoman said late on Saturday morning the edge of the slow-moving fire was about 15km from the town but it was not under immediate threat.

A watch and act message for Licola has been downgraded to an advice alert.

Mr Lapsley said additional air resources had been placed on standby to help fight the Gippsland fires, with the Elvis aircrane out of action due to a mechanical fault.

"The slightly cooler conditions across the state, and short flight times, have allowed us to place additional resources on standby for the Gippsland fires," Mr Lapsley said in a statement on Saturday.

"We will monitor the situation, including lightning strikes that occurred in the northeast overnight, before determining where and when the additional resources will be deployed."

There are 14 aircraft, 70 trucks and more than 270 personnel working on the Gippsland fires.

Police say nine properties have been lost in the Gippsland area.

Most are in or near Seaton, where five homes are believed to have been destroyed.

The body of a man was found in a burnt-out car in the Seaton area on Friday afternoon. No further details about his identity have been released.

The fire also destroyed four holiday homes or holiday shacks within a national park and a number of permanent and non-permanent dwellings at the Glenmaggie caravan park, authorities say.

Residents are not yet allowed back into the Seaton area.

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WA enviro groups launch election campaign

ENVIRONMENTAL groups have begun a campaign of door-knocking and advertisements in Western Australia as the state prepares for an election in March.

In an effort they say is unprecedented in WA, the Wilderness Society and Conservation Council of Western Australia (CCWA) have joined forces to lobby political parties on environmental policies.

On Saturday they began door-knocking in Premier Colin Barnett's Cottesloe electorate and say ads will soon appear on television and in print.

"This is a very important time during an election period when all Western Australians have a unique opportunity to influence the policies that the next term of government will put in place," CCWA director Piers Verstegen said.

"I think people will resonate with that when we contact them and get involved in the campaign."

Mr Verstegen says the focus is to push for policies to protect the Kimberley, increase recycling and prevent uranium mining.

He warned the political parties that Western Australians had a history of voting for environmental protection.

"Western Australians have an important connection with the natural environment and certainly they think about it when they go and cast their vote," he said.

Peter Robertson from the Wilderness Society said the rapid growth of mines across the state would cause irreversible damage to the environment.

"Our state's iconic areas - the Kimberley, Great Western Woodlands, marine environments and south west forests - may be lost or damaged forever if our next state government does not take strong steps to protect them," he said.

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Man dies in Victorian bushfire

A MAN has died in the large fire burning in Victoria's east.

His body was found in a burnt-out car in the Seaton area late on Friday afternoon, police said.

The body, found at about 5pm (AEDT) on Friday, has yet to be formally identified, police said.

At least five houses have been confirmed lost to the bushfire, which is expected to continue threatening communities for at least two weeks.

The fire began in the Baw Baw National Park on Thursday afternoon but spread to an area of about 45,000 hectares on Friday.

The town of Seaton, about 200km east of Melbourne, is home to about 215 people.

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Heat to recede after day of blazes

Temperatures are expected to plunge across Australia's bushfire-ravaged southeast this weekend. Source: AAP

TEMPERATURES should plunge across Australia's bushfire-ravaged southeast this weekend, bringing rain and relief after another day of destructive blazes destroyed homes and and left hundreds of people displaced.

Rural Victoria became the leading trouble spot for emergency services on Friday, with the Gippsland region, 270km east of Melbourne, affected by a 45,000-hectare fire.

It torched land and property in Seaton, Heyfield, Lake Glenmaggie, Dawson and Glenmaggie.

The blaze started at Aberfeldy on Friday morning and quickly grew three times larger than the size initially predicted by Victoria's Country Fire Service, fanned by gusty winds and heatwave conditions.

Hundreds of residents were evacuated and at least five homes were destroyed.

The fire is expected to burn for a fortnight.

Sixty children and 15 adults were whisked away from a holiday park at Licola, a small village at the southern gateway to the Alpine National Park, before Licola was surrounded by fire.

Four firefighters had to shelter in their truck at Glenmaggie, north of Heyfield, as fire passed over them.

"They are all okay," a State Control Centre spokeswoman told AAP.

"They would have been working around the fire front and just in the wrong place at the wrong time."

In NSW, the picture was just as grim.

There were 95 fires burning, including 14 that were uncontrolled.

Older blazes continued to flare and several major new fires sparked safety concerns as temperatures soared well into the 40s.

There have been no reported fatalities from any of the recent bushfires.

A large grass fire about five kilometres southwest of Boorowa, east of Young, was moving rapidly northeast on Friday evening.

The Rural Fire Service said it may reach the outskirts of Boorowa, population about 1000, unless it was contained.

New fires were burning out of control at Campbelltown, southwest of Sydney, Millingandi, on the south coast, and near Watershed Farm, a thoroughbred horse breeding business at Young.

The Milligandi fire in the Bega Valley reached properties on a number of roads on Friday afternoon, and residents were advised to flee north to Bega or south to Merimbula.

A week-old bushfire at Yarrabin, in the Cooma-Monaro area, was upgraded to a watch-and-act status, putting residents on high alert to evacuate.

Residents near the 45,000-hectare blaze in the Warrumbungle National Park, west of Coonabarabran, were also warned they might have to leave.

The blaze, said to be the most destructive in NSW in a decade, has destroyed 51 properties and after breaking containment lines was bearing down on several rural homes at the southern end of its reaches.

At least 51 people have been made homeless by the Coonabarabran fire, and on Friday more than 60 people visited a recovery centre to access aid and care.

A fire, sparked by a torched car at Aberdare, in NSW's Hunter Valley, threatened several homes before being contained.

Part of the problem for NSW emergency services was the higher-than-expected temperatures.

Sydney recorded its hottest day in history, with the mercury hitting 45.8C, exceeding the previous record of 45.3C set on January 14, 1939.

Areas from the Hunter Valley down to the Victorian border and from the NSW south coast inland to the Riverina were all given extreme fire danger ratings as temperatures rose well into the 40s.

But the heat is set to recede in many parts of south and east Australia over the weekend.

The Bureau of Meteorology (BoM) said a cold front moved up through Victoria on Friday, would reach NSW late on Friday night before fizzling out around the state's mid-north coast.

The southern two-thirds of the state should be "quite cool" on Saturday, and Sydney should record a temperature of about 25C.

Victoria and South Australia should also experience cooler temperatures, the BoM said.

Rain is forecast across most of NSW and northeast parts of Victoria between Friday and Monday.

Relatively heavy rain is forecast for northeast NSW.

Monsoonal rains are forecast for Australia's north, which may help cool other parts of the continent depending on wind directions.

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Feds blame Qld for jobless increase

THE federal government has blamed Queensland for the jump in Australia's jobless rate, while the state's treasurer blamed global factors for a spike in unemployment.

Queensland's unemployment rate jumped to 6.2 per cent in December as the national level rose to 5.4 per cent, giving the state Australia's second highest jobless rate after Tasmania.

Acting Employment Minister Kate Ellis blamed Queensland for the national unemployment increase, reflected in Australian Bureau of Statistics data.

"Regrettably, more than 22,000 Queenslanders found themselves out of a job this Christmas (while) across the rest of the country, jobs grew," she told reporters in Adelaide.

"Were it not for the Queensland job losses, the unemployment rate today would have actually fallen to 5.2 per cent rather than slightly rising."

But state Treasurer Tim Nicholls said global factors, and political deadlock in the US over debt, caused Queensland's jobless rate to increase.

"A weaker global outlook, including certainty about the US 'fiscal cliff' and a decline in commodity prices, has seen business remain cautious which has led to a weakening in labour market conditions in Queensland," he said in a statement.

"This is reflected right across Australia, with 5500 jobs lost nationwide in December."

The news comes just days after Queensland Premier Campbell Newman vowed not to sack any more public servants, beyond the 14,000 made redundant last year.

Ms Ellis said that since the election of the Newman government, 65 jobs losses have been lost each day.

The unemployment rate in Queensland stood at 5.5 per cent when the Liberal National Party came to power in March 2012.

But Ms Ellis acknowledged the national unemployment rate was expected to rise as the rest of the world grappled with the effects of the GFC.

State Opposition Leader Annastacia Palaszczuk said Queensland's jobless rate increase showed the Newman government was struggling to deliver on its promise of four per cent unemployment.

"The four per cent jobless commitment the premier made to Queenslanders at last year's election means he must create jobs at the rate of 200 a day, or 420,000 new jobs over six years," she said.

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Bushfire under control in WA's Rockingham

FIREFIGHTERS are winning the battle against a bushfire in the east of Rockingham, south of Perth, which was started by a car set on fire at the end of an urban crime spree.

WA's Department of Fire and Emergency Services (DFES) has downgraded a watch and act alert in the area bounded by Dixon Road, Darile Road and Lawson Road.

DFES say there is now no threat to lives or homes but there is a lot of smoke in the area.

Seventy firefighters from Hope Valley, Rockingham and Success Fire Rescue Service and volunteer firefighters from Baldivis, Kwinana South, Mandogalup Bushfire Brigades and Rockingham Volunteer Fire Rescue Service are on the scene strengthening containment lines.

Three Helitacs and one aerial intelligence helicopter which assisted firefighters have now been released.

Firefighters used a loader to build mineral earth breaks to contain the fire, and will continue to monitor the area overnight.

WA Police are also in attendance.

DFES confirmed the cause of the fire is believed to have involved a vehicle fire, which was begun by a teenager who was allegedly part of a crime spree overnight.

Detectives in Armadale are interviewing six juveniles following a 40-minute police chase, which followed an alleged robbery in East Victoria Park, an assault in Seville Grove, a bashing of a 67-year-old man in Champion Drive and the theft of a 2010 Toyota LandCruiser.

As police caught up with the gang, two of them allegedly attempted to escape in a stolen Toyota Camry used in the first robbery, which was then dumped and set on fire - starting the Rockingham blaze.

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Don't change national parks laws, Qld told

QUEENSLAND conservationists and tourism experts are urging the state government not to change national parks laws.

A proposal to allow ecotourism facilities to be built in parks is being examined by a parliamentary committee which heard from tourism advocates, analysts and conservation groups on Wednesday.

The Queensland Tourism Industry Council (QTIC) was the only supporter of the changes, which it says will generate jobs for Queenslanders and give it a platform to promote conservation.

QTIC's Daniel Gschwind claims national parks can't be visited in a meaningful way without accommodation options being available within park boundaries.

"People actually want to be inside a park to witness the action, to witness the experience," he told the committee.

Mr Gschwind said the industry had a symbiotic relationship with national parks and sustainable tourist facilities inside parks were possible.

"We see the natural environment as our key asset that we sell to our visitors," he said.

"We have a fundamental and material interest in protecting that asset."

But conservationists and analysts roundly condemned the suggested changes.

Dr Aila Keto, from Australian Rainforest Conservation Society, told the committee that parks existed primarily to protect nature, not to entertain tourists.

She said it was important to keep "infrastructure outside and experience inside".

Dr Keto, who runs two ecotourism businesses herself, said about 85 per cent of public submissions opposed the changes and pushing ahead with them showed the government was pandering to private interests.

"The role of a parliamentary committee is to protect the public interest, not private interests," Dr Keto said.

"Changing the laws will sow the seeds of unsustainability."

Griffith University tourism analyst Professor Ralf Buckley can't understand why the laws need changing when tourists can already take part in many ecotourism activities inside parks.

"The issue is, do they need to stay inside parks to do these activities?" he said.

The professor doesn't believe demand is strong enough and warned that the changes could pave the way for large-scale developments.

"This legislation is extremely weakly drafted," Prof Buckley said.

Paul Donatiu, from the National Parks Association of Queensland, said the changes would allow private operators to cordon off sections of parks for the exclusive use of their customers.

"This directly contradicts the state government's goal of making national parks more accessible to the public," he said.

Mr Donatiu said parks took up only five per cent of Queensland's land area and many other areas were available for new resort-style developments.

"I urge you not to destroy the goose that laid Queensland's tourism golden egg," he said.

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Chinese revolutionary Yang Baibing dies

YANG Baibing, a veteran Chinese revolutionary and strong proponent of economic liberalisation, has died. He was 92.

Along with his more famous half-brother, former Chinese president Yang Shangkun, Yang had been among the most powerful leaders in China. However, he was forced into retirement in 1992 and his supporters were purged from the officer corps by former paramount leader Deng Xiaoping, who feared the Yang brothers were accumulating too much power.

Yang joined the Chinese Communist Party in 1938 and battled both Japanese invaders and Chiang Kai-shek's Nationalists before the communist seizure of power in 1949.

A powerful backer of the bloody military crackdown on 1989 pro-democracy protests centered on Beijing's Tiananmen Square, Yang later stood by Deng in his struggle against conservatives opposed to further economic reforms.

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Obama staff sell seats at inauguration

FOR $US100,000, donors will receive a package of tickets that include a candlelight reception at the posh National Building Museum.

For $US250,000, there's a star-studded children's concert.

And for $US1 million, there are reserved seats for a parade.

The gift list at Neiman Marcus? Hardly. It's the price list for some of the star-studded events of the 57th inauguration celebration, five days of brunches and balls, concerts and receptions that will kick off Thursday.

It's all built around the inauguration of President Barack Obama for a second term next Monday.

The taxpayers will pick up the tab - as they do every four years - for the official swearing-in ceremony on the steps of the Capitol, a luncheon with congress and extra security.

The rest comes from contributions. Obama supporters - individuals and corporations - are helping to raise the millions of dollars, sometimes in ways that alarm government-watchdog groups.

It's not all for and by the wealthy. Donations are being supplemented by sales of souvenirs: $US5 buttons, $US150 cufflinks. But they also include $US7500 medallion sets featuring the likenesses of Obama and Vice President Joe Biden.

And the nearly 1000 donors identified so far include well-connected companies and individuals who have done business with the Obama administration, attended White House functions or backed the president in his re-election bid last year, according to an incomplete list of contributors released by the Presidential Inaugural Committee.

Donors include Centene Corp, a health care company that will benefit from the Affordable Care Act; Financial Innovations, a company that sold promotional merchandise to the campaign; and Irwin Jacobs, a founder of tech giant Qualcomm, who gave millions of dollars to an independent group that supported Obama last year.

"The American people have a right to expect something other than an inauguration brought to them by AT&T," said Robert Weissman, the president of Public Citizen, which had called on Obama to refuse corporate funding for the inauguration.

"Every corporation's donations create a conflict of interest, because they all have business before the government in one way or the other."

The Presidential Inaugural Committee spent $US53 million for the 2009 festivities, when a record 1.8 million people filled the National Mall to see the nation's first black president take the oath of office. Fewer than half that are expected for a scaled-down celebration this year, which will bring down the cost, though organisers have released no estimate.

Four years ago, Obama refused to take money from corporations and he limited contributions to $US50,000, pledging to change business as usual in Washington.

This year, he scrapped the limits on companies and dollars, though he still is declining money from lobbyists, political action committees, foreign corporations and entities that benefited from government bailouts. There also won't be any sponsorships, so don't expect to see signs for the AT&T parade or Microsoft brunch.

Donations of $US10,000 to $US1 million are being rewarded with packages named after the founding fathers - Madison, Jefferson, Adams and Washington - that include access to exclusive events, some with the president and first lady Michelle Obama.

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Teen charged over $3.5m Target fire

A 14-YEAR-OLD boy has been charged with arson over a $3.5 million fire in the Target Country Store at Port Lincoln, on South Australia's Eyre Peninsula.

The blaze on Sunday was initially thought to have been caused by a faulty light fitting but that was discounted on Monday, police say.

On Tuesday, detectives arrested the Port Lincoln teenager and spoke to a nine-year-old boy who has not been charged.

The investigation into the fire continues, with detectives seeking a man in a red car who may have seen two youths while driving past the store on Sunday afternoon.

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Fallen Vic firefighter was 30-year veteran

HIGHLY experienced and passionate about firefighting, Victorian firefighter Peter Cramer died doing what he'd devoted half his life to.

The 61-year-old, from Tyers in Victoria's Gippsland region, was one of more than 70 Victorian emergency services workers sent to Tasmania on Thursday to help fight the state's devastating fires, which have destroyed more than 130 homes since January 4.

Mr Cramer died on Sunday at Taranna, east of Hobart, while working on foot to identify potential containment lines on the southern boundary of the Forcett fire, about 2-3 kilometres from the active fire edge.

He was to have returned home on Tuesday, but was found dead at 5pm (AEDT) on a bush track after he failed to make a scheduled call-in.

Victorian Department of Sustainability and Environment (DSE) chief fire officer Alan Goodwin said Mr Cramer had been a DSE firefighter for more than 30 years and a CFA volunteer for more than two decades.

A well respected firefighter, he was a DSE training co-ordinator who also volunteered his time to train CFA volunteers.

"As training co-ordinator he loved teaching and passing on his knowledge and had a passion for fire and land management," Mr Goodwin told reporters in Melbourne on Monday.

His wife Julie and family remembered him as a "tremendous husband, father, brother and mate" who loved helping people.

"We knew that firefighters were his second family," a family statement said.

"Peter truly believed his work made a difference to the community. He was a truly dedicated firefighter."

They also remembered a man with a great sense of humour and larrikin charm who was known for his cheeky smile and kind words.

Mr Goodwin first met Mr Cramer on a deployment to the US in 2003, which his family said was a career highlight.

"He was always fun, he greeted you with a smile and a solid handshake, and that's how I will remember him," Mr Goodwin said, echoing the family's sentiments.

Mr Goodwin said the cause of death was unknown and Mr Cramer had recently passed a fitness test.

"Certainly all our firefighters that we send away, all our firefighters go through our fit-for-fire program, through medical testing and so forth, and Peter was certainly part of that," he said.

David Hamilton, president of the United Firefighters Union Victorian branch, said Mr Cramer's death highlighted the strenuous conditions and mental and physical demands placed on firefighters.

"These things can always be done better, and if, unfortunately, these high dangers and situations are occurring, I think the agencies and government probably should look at managing it better or increasing firefighter numbers," Mr Hamilton said.

Fire Services Commissioner Craig Lapsley said losing a firefighter came as a shock.

"To lose someone in active duty is something you don't plan for," he said.

"We take our caps off to what Peter has done in three decades of service to Victoria through firefighting."

A CFA spokesman said Mr Cramer was well known and well regarded in the Gippsland region and his colleagues at Swifts Creek and Tyers, where he was a member, were devastated by the news.

Mr Cramer would volunteer his time to work with "dozens and dozens and dozens" of new recruits, he said.

"He was a pretty remarkable person," the spokesman said.

The Tasmanian and Victorian premiers have sent their condolences to his family.

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Observatory fire threat a 'deja vu' moment

THE fire threat at Siding Spring Observatory in NSW was a case of deja vu for Australian National University (ANU) professor John Morris.

Nearly a decade ago Prof Morris was acting as director of the Australian National University's astronomy and astrophysics research school when the university's Mount Stromlo Observatory (MSO) fell victim to Canberra's firestorm.

He was acting in the same role on Sunday when he learned fires were heading for Siding Spring Observatory in NSW.

It was "deja vu", he told reporters in Canberra on Monday.

The Siding Spring Observatory was officially opened in 1964 because urban light pollution was making stargazing more difficult at the Mount Stromlo facility in Canberra.

It has since become Australia's premier facility for optical and infrared astrophysics observations, where observing international astronomers come to stay.

Dr Amanda Bauer, a Super Science Fellow at the Australian Astronomical Observatory (AAO), said it housed one of the world's most innovative and productive telescopes.

Sitting atop a 1164m hill, the four-metre telescope - maintained and operated by AAO - gives astronomers a look at the magnificent sights space has to offer, including the Southern Cross and the Milky Way.

"The view of the southern hemisphere night sky is the most spectacular anywhere that I have seen it," Dr Bauer told AAP on Monday.

Technology developed there included a robotic optical-fibre positioning system, which is now being used in Chile, she said.

According to ANU the observatory has witnessed a number of major discoveries.

In the early 2000s, the four-metre Anglo-Australian Telescope (AAT) completed a survey of more than 200,000 galaxies.

By measuring their distance the survey was able to confirm the existence of dark energy, which led ultimately to the 2011 Nobel Prize for Physics being awarded in part to ANU professor Brian Schmidt.

Prof Morris said the AAT was the site's major research instrument, but the Skymapper built after the 2003 Mount Stromlo fire was now providing important information to researchers.

There are also six or seven client telescopes at the site.

"We're interested obviously in the way in which the universe operates," Prof Morris told reporters.

"It's probably no exaggeration to say that the suite of telescopes at Siding Spring played a role in Brian Schmidt, our Nobel laureate, deciding to come and work in Australia.

"He spent a lot of time at Siding Spring and he's been watching what's been going on with great interest."

Schmidt was tweeting about the fire's movements and tweeting pictures of the devastation provided by the Rural Fire Service.

"The observatory seems to have largely survived, which is good news for a change, but many lost their homes," he tweeted on Monday.

Much been learnt from the telescopes at the site about individual galaxies, including the Milky Way and its stars.

Prof Morris said researchers tune their ideas using the Siding Spring telescopes, making hypotheses before using telescopes in Chile and Hawaii to test their theories.

In August 2007, during "routine observations" at the observatory, ANU astronomer Robert McNaught discovered a 10km-wide comet.

"It was the brightest comet in more than 40 years and was easily visible to the naked eye for observers in the southern hemisphere," ANU said in a statement.

Dr Bauer said work had been done at Siding Spring Observatory over the past decade to make it fire-ready, following the 2003 firestorm that engulfed Mt Stromlo in Canberra, completely destroying five of its historic optical telescopes.

The damage was so bad, authorities considered abandoning the Mount Stromlo site.

There are no longer working research telescopes at MSO - but it houses an advanced instrumentation technology centre.

ANU's acting director of facilities and services Wayne Ford said the Siding Spring Observatory was always going to be a bushfire risk.

"It borders a national park and it's heavily forested ... it's actually located on a mountain and fires like going up mountains," Ford said.

The devastation at Mount Stromlo provided many lessons.

A concerted effort had been made to improve fire trails near Siding Spring and to clear surrounding bush to protect it in the event of a bushfire.

"It's difficult land to do anything further than what we did, and we think our preparation was excellent," Ford said.

Prof Morris said it could take some time before the impact of the extreme heat and embers on the telescopes was assessed.

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