Mallacoota burns: 'panic' on the ground as Australian navy called in

The town, now only accessible by air and sea, has become a symbol of the unprecedented nature of Australia's bushfire crisis

As they set out on a small landing craft, Nick Ritar could hardly see the mammoth, 180-metre-long HMAS Choules. The smoke was too thick.

Days after Ritar, his partner, Kirsten Bradley, and their son, Ashar, hunkered down in a home as fires raged on the Victorian coastal town of Mallacoota, the Tasmanian family were among those rescued by the Australian navy.