 In late January and early February, the effects of the 2009 southeastern Australia heat wave increased temperatures across south-eastern Australia, particularly in Victoria and South Australia, where several locations broke all time temperature records.Various days of high wind speed, combined with the hot dry conditions, created extreme bushfire conditions between 25 January and 7 February 2009.In October 2008, fire potential in Australia was assessed as being above average around the coast of the continent and below average inland.