on 29 December the roads to Melbourne were reopened but the emergency warnings continued to advise people in the township it was safest to stay. The official emergency warning advice remained that it was safest to remain in Mallacoota despite all exits being available as there was a reasonable estimate of roads, mainly the one towards Melbourne, being impacted if the predicted conditions developed suddenly. On 30 December at 11:00am, local authorities alerted residents and visitors of the fire-front and shelter plans during an announced makeshift township meeting, not everyone in town chose to attend the meeting despite it being widely announced. The general advice through the meeting was that those wanting to leave could do so, but only via the North to Eden and Canberra, this still deterred many of the residents and visitors that attended the meeting from evacuating. The roads were officially closed two hours after the meeting and the estimate was of 1,000 residents and 3,000 visitors still in the township for the remainder of the incident. Impact A southwest wind change pushed the fire through the Croajingolong National Park towards the town, roughly 60 km from the point of ignition within a few hours during the early hours of 31 December as a control line could not be established by Fire Management Victoria due to rough terrain and aircraft suppression was also unsuccessful the previous two days. An emergency warning was given at 4:40pm on 30 December for all to relocate to a safe evacuation location. This was the local hall or the wharf. Many boat owners launched their boats into the water and sheltered on the lake. It is reported that more than 50 boat owners with up to 300 people were on the lake on the evening of 30 December. The town was evacuated towards the main wharf, and into the hall, directly east of Mallacoota Airport and stayed there for over 24 hours. Aircraft suppression could not be committed on 31 December as the fire created its own weather system and thermal imaging of the fire could not be obtained accurately due to the thick layered smoke plume generated by the fire which turned day into night during the morning of that day at the location. At approximately 8:00am on 31 December a firestorm reached the industrial area of the township with the fire-front itself estimated to have been around 10 km