Firefighter dead as hot and dry weather spells danger

The 59-year-old NSW National Parks firefighter was struck by a falling tree about 10.45pm on Sunday while patrolling a fireground and is believed to have suffered a cardiac arrest.

Colleagues performed CPR until paramedics arrived, but he died at the scene of the Bulahdelah bushfire on the NSW Mid North coast.

He is the third person to be killed in fire-related incidents in recent weeks.

A 59-year-old farmer from Western Australian died earlier in December battling a fire on his property and a 65-year-old firefighter from South Australia's National Parks and Wildlife Service died trying to extinguish a fire in a remote location.

Some 40 fires were still burning across NSW on Monday evening.

The Bureau of Meteorology warned dry and hot conditions were going to drive high fire dangers for the state on Tuesday with the mercury reaching 40C in Bourke. 

Low to severe intensity heatwaves were also building across much of the country, in particular Northern Territory, South Australia and Western Australia.

The NSW firefighter who died was a divisional commander in the National Parks and Wildlife Service who joined the organisation in 1996.

"The work that our parks firefighters do is inherently dangerous," said Naomi Stephens from the NSW National Parks and Wildlife Service.

"It's a huge loss and sadness to us."

The man had "paid the ultimate sacrifice in trying to protect the community", NSW Emergency Services Minister Jihab Dib said.

Prime Minister Anthony Albanese also offered his condolences to the firefighter's family and colleagues.

"This terrible news is a sombre reminder of the dangers that our emergency services personnel face to keep our homes and communities safe," he said in a statement.

The NSW Rural Fire Service confirmed 20 homes were destroyed between the Bulahdelah fire and another fire at Koolewong on the NSW Central Coast.

RFS commissioner Trent Curtin said there was a real risk of bushfire complacency across the community after several seasons of reduced activity.

"We know that after a few years of elevated rain and wet conditions, people aren't thinking about bushfires sufficiently," Mr Curtin said.

"Embers can travel long distances - as we saw in Koolewong this week - where an ember moved a kilometre from one peninsula to another."

Federal and state disaster assistance funding has been activated across the Central Coast, Mid Coast, Upper Hunter, Muswellbrook, Warrumbungle and Dubbo.

More than 250 firefighters, 50 trucks and nine aircraft battled the Koolewong blaze at its peak where 16 homes were destroyed in an hour.

Meanwhile in Tasmania, authorities confirmed a 700-hectare blaze at Dolphin Sands, near Freycinet National Park on the state's east coast, was contained after overnight rain.

Nineteen homes were destroyed and 14 others sustained some damage in the fire sparked in the seaside community on Thursday.

More than 120 smaller structures and electricity lines were also damaged with roads to the area remaining closed.

Australian Associated Press