If you haven't checked out the map of the bushfires lately, here is one map:

Weather hazards in Australia

If you scroll in about 4 times around the NSW coast the little fire notification tags take up less room and you can see the black areas which have been burned so far. You will notice that the black areas are starting to join up with each other at the edges or some of the edges are getting very close.

For some reason which I can't fathom there are no fires marked in the state of Victoria but there are definitely fires down there in what is affectionately known as "Mexico".

What you may not realise, if you are not an Aussie, is that the coastal areas of Oz are the best agricultural or forest lands and the majority of Oz is desert.

Take a look at a satellite image of Australia, e.g. in Google maps and look at the greener edges compared with the redder interior of the continent.

If a significantly large proportion of the coastal fringe of Oz is affected by major bushfires then this also significantly affects the capability of farmers to produce food. This is on top of years of drought, so the farms were already struggling prior to the bushfires taking hold. Then, the dryness of the agricultural and forested lands makes the bushfires catch hold even quicker and more catastrophically.