Residents in Dimboola in Victoria's west have been warned to evacuate as a bushfire burns out-of-control in Little Desert National Park near the South Australian border.
An evacuation order was issued at 6:46pm on Monday night for the communities of Dimboola, Pimpinio and Wail, with the fire expected to impact Dimboola by 7:30pm.
Dry lightning started several fires in the national park in western Victoria during a day of extreme fire danger.
Visitors and campers have been urged to immediately leave the park.
A Watch and Act message has also been issued for the communities around the national park, including Kinimakatka, Winiam Wast, Duchembegarra, Cooack, Goroke, Minimay, Peronne and Nurcoung.
Luke Heagarty from the State Control Centre said conditions were worsening as the fire continued to burn.
"There's a lot of energy that this fire is creating, and what that means is it's effectively creating its own weather system," Mr Heagarty said.
"Even with the cool change, there will still be a lot of smoke around, a lot of potential for this fire to continue to behave in ways that it otherwise wouldn't, just because of the intensity of this fire."
Mr Heagerty said a wind change was expected to push the fire towards Dimboola, and urged people to evacuate if safe to do so.
"We're going to have this warning in place for Dimboola until 8am tomorrow," he said.
"The reason for that is that we want people to get out tonight whilst there's still some daylight, whilst they can get on the roads that are safe for them to travel on."
Meanwhile, another fire is burning in the northern part of the Grampians National Park, with campers at the Strachans campground told to leave immediately.
Watch and Act warnings have also been raised for Cranage and Zumsteins in the Grampians National Park.
