As the Sunday daylight starts to dwindle in Australia, 60 fires continue to burn across the state of New South Wales.

On Sunday, evacuated residents of the town of Koolewong on the NSW Central Coast made the journey home to see what had been left standing of their town.

In total, the Nimbin Road fire in Koolewong destroyed a titak if 16 houses, with a further nine damaged. Seven non-residence buildings were also razed in the blaze.

Locals returned today to ash, metal deformed by flame, and other remains of their burned and broken posessions. Overhead, helicopters continued their waterbombing campaigns nearby. Firefighters hosed down smouldering remains of houses and several locals dug through the remains of where they once called home.

NSW RFS Building Impact Assessment teams were on the ground to assess the aftermath of the massive blaze, which burned more than h more than 129h hectares and is now under control.

An NSW RFS spokesperson said: “The fire continues to burn in the Koolewong Reserve and in the Woy Woy Bay Road and Phegans Bay areas. Today, firefighters assisted by aircraft, continued to work on containing the fire, protecting property and mopping up and blacking out hot spots,” they said in a summary of events.

“Helicopters using thermal imaging cameras continue to work to identify hot spots, which are being mopped up and blacked out by firefighters.

“East to south easterly winds are forecast into this evening before shifting to the north east tomorrow, December 8. An exclusion zone is in place until further notice.”