00:00We know dozens of homes have been lost here in the central Victorian town of Harcourt and we're at one of them right now.
00:09You can see over my shoulder there's a burnt out car and a shed structure.
00:14A smaller structure over my other shoulder here has been completely burnt out as well,
00:20but we can see the extent of the devastation when we come further here
00:25and look at the state of what was once a house.
00:30This is obviously someone's home.
00:32Residents haven't been given the green light to return yet.
00:36It's still too unsafe to do so, authorities say.
00:40Residents are camped in Castlemaine, Bendigo and Kyneton awaiting further information.
00:46It's hoped that residents will be able to return to Harcourt over the next couple of days.
00:53What I can say and what I can see from my time here is that there are many properties damaged.
01:00Official estimates is that there are dozens of damaged properties or lost properties
01:06and certainly the extent of the damage is quite apparent when you walk through Harcourt.
01:12We've only just arrived now.
01:14We've been told that our house is safe, which is wonderful.
01:18John's been out helping them at the shop with the cool stores.
01:21We've got a portable cool store to take back into Harcourt to save as much stock for them as we can.
01:28So we haven't really seen the devastation.
01:31I know several people I've contacted that have lost their houses and our hearts just go out to them.
01:37We're lucky.
01:38You know, we've got our friends and family and our house is okay but those people have lost so much that this community will come back together again.
01:47No.
01:48We're there when they're ready.
01:50It's still pretty raw at the moment and pretty surreal to a lot of people.
01:53But when they're ready we're all band together and help them.
01:57It's going to be a long haul though I think for a lot of people.
02:00We've just come closer into the centre of town of Harcourt and you can see the indiscriminate path this fire has taken.
02:08Behind me another home that has been completely destroyed.
02:13All that remains here is a letterbox and a chimney.
02:16But if we go across the road we can see the cricket oval in this central Victorian town.
02:22It's almost completely unscathed.
