Scorched farmland shows the extent of the wildfires which destroyed houses and farms in the Bunyip regions of Gippsland, east of Melbourne, 12 Feb 2009. Photograph: Paul Crock / AFP / Getty Images

The bushfires that swept through Victoria In February 2009 killed almost 200 people as record temperatures turned the bush into a tinderbox. The events, described as Australia’s worst peacetime disaster, have left thousands homeless, destroyed entire communities and transformed forests into ash.

After the bushfires: Australia counts the cost