Australia's charred landscape — in pictures

The burnt landscape is seen from an Australian Defence Force (ADF) C-130 Hercules aircraft over Kangaroo Island. While bushfires are common in Australia, authorities say the current scale of destruction is unprecedented, fuelled by a prolonged drought and record high temperatures that have left eastern regions tinder-dry.

Humane Society International Crisis Response Specialist, Kelly Donithan (C) looks for injured wildlife in a burnt out forest on Kangaroo Island. The unprecedented blazes that have swept through an area the size of Portugal have claimed 31 lives but also tested Australia's rich and often unique wildlife, with experts warning up to one billion creatures may have perished in the inferno.

Environmentalist Ken Stewart walking down the street from his burnt house following the bushfire in Budgong area of New South Wales. Australia is reeling from bushfires that since September 2019 having claimed 31 lives, and razed 100,000 square kilometres of land - an area larger than South Korea or Portugal.

The peloton is seen in a bushfire-damaged area in the Adelaide Hills during stage two of the Tour Down Under from Woodside to Stirling in South Australia.

A charred hillside, burnt during the recent bushfires, is pictured behind beachgoers in Malua Bay, New South Wales.

Alisha Stoneham returns to her property, where she and her partner were nearly caught in the flames before narrowly escaping, following the recent bushfires in Conjola Park, New South Wales.

Charred trees are pictured on a hill, burnt during the recent bushfires, near Kangaroo Valley, New South Wales.

A goanna looking for food among the charred trees after a bushfire in Budgong area of New South Wales.

A burnt tree is seen outside of Mallacoota, Victoria.

A destroyed bus is seen next to burnt bushland in the village of Mogo, Australia.

The remains of a car, burnt by a bushfire, stands in front of a destroyed structure, in the town of Cobargo, New South Wales.

Charred trees are pictured in a patch of forest burnt during the recent bushfires near Batemans Bay, New South Wales.

Tim Salway, a fifth-generation dairy farmer who lost both his father and brother in the bushfires, stands in his farm in Wandella, near the town of Cobargo, New South Wales.

The body of a dead koala rests near the charred eucalyptus forest on Kangaroo Island.

An aerial photo shows a fire damaged landscape on Kangaroo after bushfires ravaged the island off of the south coast of Australia.

Alisha Stoneham returns to her property, where she and her partner were nearly caught in the flames before narrowly escaping, following the recent bushfires in Conjola Park, New South Wales.

The Abbot of Sunnataram Forest Monastery, Phra Mana, 56, prays in front of a Buddhist statue near a burnt forest in Bundanoon.

Local farmer Rick Morris walking through a burnt out part of his 2,300-acre property on Kangaroo Island after bushfires ravaged the island off of the south coast of Australia.

Australian surfer David Ford, 62, stands next to a burnt shed where he kept his vintage surfboard collection that was destroyed in the recent bushfires in Lake Conjola, Australia.

John Creighton, the founder of Wombat Care Bundanoon, looks for traces of wombats in a burrow in a burned-out forest after wildfires outside the town of Bundanoon in New South Wales.

The remnants of a destroyed home, burnt in the recent bushfires, is pictured in Conjola Park, New South Wales.