Overnight bushfires blanket NSW in smoke, triggering poor air quality across Sydney and regional centres

Millions across New South Wales woke to smoke-filled skies and poor air quality after firefighters battled two bushfires overnight, with drifting smoke blanketing Sydney, the Central Coast, Newcastle, and the Hunter Valley as crews worked to contain one blaze and bring another under control.

According to the NSW Rural Fire Service, smoke from the bushfires drifted overnight into the Hunter Valley, Newcastle, the Central Coast, and Sydney.

According to the 9News website, the blazes are burning near Medowie in the Port Stephens area and near Nerong on the NSW Mid Coast.


"The smoke is expected to gradually clear through the morning," said NSW Rural Fire Service. "Please only call Triple Zero (000) if you see an unattended fire."

The blaze in Port Stephens is located between Medowie and Oyster Cove, approximately 25 kilometres to the northeast of Newcastle.

The fire has burned about 432 hectares and is now contained. Crews strengthened containment lines along the fire’s north-western edge east of Moffats Swamp Nature Reserve, with residents urged to keep monitoring conditions in case the situation changes.

The blaze at Nerong has burned about 916 hectares and remains out of control.

Firefighting crews from the NSW National Parks and Wildlife Service are continuing efforts to extinguish the blaze.

The NSW government’s air quality monitoring service rated air quality as “poor” across eastern Sydney, the Central Coast and Lake Macquarie, while conditions were assessed as “fair” in central west and south-west Sydney, Illawarra, the Lower and Upper Hunter, and the Riverina-Murray regions.