Stifling heat and strong winds have communities on edge as fire crews scramble to manage a series of ravaging blazes ahead of an imminent heatwave.
Country Fire Authority volunteers are backburning between the western Victorian towns of Dunkeld and Cavendish to create fire breaks in the southern Grampians on Thursday.
The fire threat is about 30km away but the volunteers are taking no chances, focusing on grass on either side of the main road that has grown up to one metre high.
Across the region aircraft, bulldozers and ground crews aim to get the fire breaks done by Friday before conditions heat up further at the weekend, State Control Centre spokeswoman Reegan Key said.
"The focus will be very strongly on trying to minimise the potential impacts of those warmer days coming over the weekend and into next week," she told AAP.
An emergency warning issued for southwest Grampians around Mooralla and Woohlpooer urges people to leave while those immediately north in Glenisla and Hynes have been told to take shelter as a blaze burns out of control.
The fire has grown significantly over the past few days burning almost 10,000ha after it was sparked by dry lightning.
"We are expecting it to impact private land on that western edge, or have been expecting that to happen all day," Ms Key said.
Two other fires are burning in the north encompassing Wartook and Zumsteins, and to the east of the Victoria Range blaze near Big Cord and Strachans, with people being told to monitor conditions.
The largest fire on the eastern flank of the park has been burning since before Christmas, but is under control.
The moment grazier Brett Monaghan realised an out-of-control bushfire was heading towards his sheep he went in search of a truck, with no time to ask for help moving 450 animals from his Brimpaen property in the northern Grampians.
"When I came back there were people everywhere. Word got around a truck was coming in to move them and they just turned up," he told AAP.
Locals helped him ready the flock for transport before they left to defend their own homes and properties from the blaze sparked by lightning strikes.
Evacuation orders were earlier issued in parts of the northern Grampians which prompted Wartook resident Andrew Jonas to leave.
"We're surrounded by bush that's not very defendable and we have no experience fighting fires," he said.
There is concern fires at either end of the park could meet, particularly when temperatures soar to 40C in the week ahead.
Local towns are still reeling from fires that started in December.
Cam McDonald runs the Grampians Horse Riding Centre near Mr Monaghan's land and thinks he could lose up to $15,000 in cancellations if there's a three-week shutdown.
"We can't evacuate. We can't just stick 20 horses in a truck and get out, that's not possible," Mr McDonald said.
If he had his time over again, the Horsham Rural City councillor would never have set up his business next to a national park after one pub he owned burned down and the other shuttered.
"We've seen people leaving the district. The tourism industry has been decimated, not anybody's fault necessarily," he said.
A separate fire in the state's northwest at Little Desert National Park near Dimboola is not yet controlled but many there are counting themselves lucky.
Flames came within metres of homes with much of the town under threat, with one CFA volunteer of 35 years describing it as the worst he'd ever seen.
The fire claimed one home near the town, a second home further west and an event centre.
