Premier Daniel Andrews visits fire-affected areas at Terang and Cobden

Mr Andrews said it was  “absolutely heart-breaking” to see the devastation the “unprecedented fire event” had caused.

He said it was a tragedy that 18 homes had been destroyed.

“But, it could have been so much worse, if not for the asset protection, the dedication, the skill, and the guts of these local CFA members,” he said.

“The losses could have been much more significant, and ultimately there are no funerals to go to. That’s the most important thing when it comes to a fire like this. There’s no serious injuries, certainly no loss of life, so that’s something we can all be very, very pleased about.

“To sit with people who are CFA veterans of 40 years who know the challenges of the landscape and the job, and they turn around and tell you the have never seen anything like it, it gives you a sense of how significant it was, and how significanct an effort the CFA put in.” 

Mr Andrews said he had spoken with Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull about the fires. 

“We are confident that everything that can be done is being done,” he said.

“There will be issues that we will contend with in the coming days and weeks, whether it’s the waste and clean-up or the safe disposal of livestock, we will work closely with local government to manage all of those challenges. This will be a long road back to normal for these communities.” 

Mr Andrews was joined by Emergency Services minister James Merlino, who announced financial assistance packages for fire victims.

Mr Merlino said emergency re-establishment assistance was being made available in addition to personal hardship assistance payments to all eligible fire-affected community members.

“This assistance will help affected communities with any immediate needs and also help re-establish homes destroyed by the bushfires,” Mr Merlino said.

People from the Colac-Otway, Corangamite, Moyne and Southern Grampians can access the following emergency assistance to relieve personal hardship and distress:

Mr Merlino said 19 individuals had already accessed the personal hardship payments.

“They are available through the relief centers,” he said. “If you need additional help, please go there.”

He said power was of critical importance and speed of getting it returned was of the essence.

“There were 40,000 people without power yesterday, 1700 today, including 1300 in fire-affected areas,” he said.

He said about six container-sized generators would be distributed around the region to help supply power as an interim measure.

“The army will also supply intermediate-sized generators for our dairy farmers,” he said.

Information on disaster assistance can be found on the Australian Government’s Disaster Assist website at disasterassist.gov.au and the VicEmergency website at www.emergency.vic.gov.au/relief.