Gusts of up to 150 kilometres (93 miles) an hour forecast for Tuesday may send fires racing beyond containment lines, Victoria state's Emergency Services Commissioner Bruce Esplin said.

He also warned the winds could bring down trees and powerlines already damaged by the blazes and advised residents to leave early unless they were committed to staying in their homes and fighting the flames.

Asplin said conditions had the potential spark firestorms as devastating as "Black Saturday" on February 7 this year, Australia's worst fire disaster, or "Ash Wednesday" in 1983, when 75 people died.

"The weather forecast is for conditions that could approximate Black Saturday or Ash Wednesday," Esplin said.

"There is no room for complacency and there is a very strong need for everybody to be prepared to play their part."

The winds are expected to begin on Monday night then peak on Tuesday.

Authorities said schools may be closed on Tuesday and police said officers still sifting ashes in the disaster zone for more bodies would suspend their activities on the day because conditions would be too dangerous.

More than 3,000 firefighters are battling four major blazes in Victoria state, carving out containment lines up to 60 metres (200 feet) wide to create a fuel-free buffer zone around the flames.

Country Fire Authority chief Russell Rees said additional resources would be on the ground from Monday night.

"History shows that fires that start in the night cause the most confusion and the most difficulty," he said.

"To wake up in the morning to have fire around and on your doorstep is a terrifying thing."

The warning comes as official figures show the Victorian capital Melbourne experienced its driest start to the year since records began in the 1850s, the Australian Broadcasting Corporation reported.

It said the weather bureau reported Australia's second largest city had just one millimetre (0.04 inches) of rain in January and three millimetres in February.

Authorities warn wildfires will remain a threat until April unless rain falls in the parched region.

The death toll has remained at 210 since last Wednesday, but is expected to climb further once formal identification procedures are completed, with the army saying on Saturday that 37 people were still missing.

earlier related report
Australian schoolchildren struggle with wildfire ordeal
Dixons Creek, Australia (AFP) March 1 - "That's where my daddy got burned," says five-year-old Tom, his finger resting on the face of a firefighter he drew with his classmates.

The Australian child's picture shows a Country Fire Authority (CFA) volunteer with a distinctive mark on his cheek wearing orange overalls as he is surrounded by flames and billowing smoke.

It is one of about a dozen images created by the 46 children at Dixons Creek Primary School, about 60 kilometres (37 miles) northwest of Melbourne, to thank firefighters for their efforts during Australia's worst wildfire disaster.

The messages the toddlers have penned to accompany the images are no less confronting, including: "Dear CFA, I hope you don't die in the fires, you saved as much lives as you can, from Jonah, Indika and Chris."

School principal Sharon Walker said helping children overcome the trauma of the wildfires that claimed at least 210 lives last month was the most difficult challenge she had faced in more than 30 years as a teacher.

Walker's pupils come from some of the townships hit hardest by the fires, meaning she and her staff have become de facto counsellors, not just for students but also for parents.

Most of the children experienced raging fires bearing down on their homes, with four losing their houses and one girl hunkering down in a shelter from flames that her mother later admitted she did not expect to survive.

Walker said the thank-you pictures for the CFA gave children a positive outlet to express their emotions after disaster, showing that people were trying to help save them from the firestorms and they were not alone.

Close to tears, she recounted a message left by one little girl whose home was destroyed.

"It's heart-wrenching, (the girl) said 'I know you tried'," Walker said. "I read that and thought 'you poor little soul'. But for her to say that shows she feels supported."

Mental health specialist at the University of Western Sydney Beverley Raphael said all disaster survivors had to deal with shock, disbelief and grief, but the wildfires had presented a special set of circumstances.

"Bushfires bring devastation on a grand scale -- loss of life, loss of homes, loss of personal possessions and loss of whole communities, all the things that are most meaningful in people's lives," she said.

Walker said children were particularly impressionable and dealing with the vivid experiences in which some of them almost died had to be handled carefully to avoid "re-traumatising" them.

"We've got to try to understand what's going on in that child's mind and be sensitive to it," she said, adding that counsellors were regularly working with the children.

Some of her young charges had been withdrawn, "clingy" towards their parents and lacking concentration since the fires, she said, with one example of bullying, previously unheard of at the small school.

"The child who pushed the other one was horrified by his behaviour and just didn't understand why he'd done it," she said.

Walker said the students responded to honest but sensitive treatment of their ordeal.

She has gently prodded parents into frankly telling children about the reality of the situation, such as saying pets killed in the fires are dead, rather than they have become lost and may return some day.

However, she said it was difficult because some parents were so traumatised by events that they were shielding themselves, as much as their children, from the reality of what had happened.

"I'm OK, but mum's not," one child whose beloved dogs died in the fires told Walker.

"Kids can pick dishonesty, they're not silly, even the five-year-olds," she said.

"You've got to appear resilient and you're bouncing back and you're coping," the principal said.

"If not it's far, far worse for the kids because that's how they think you cope with disaster -- you fall in a heap.

"Because of that, we got the counsellors in very early for the parents."

Staff at the school are also on the lookout for long-term impacts from the disaster.

"These kids will have to be watched for a long time," she said. "It's an ongoing issue. Who knows what will happen when they hit puberty."

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