Summer grass fires can pose risks to property and people, but some native wildlife are particularly vulnerable - both during and after a blaze.
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La Trobe University life sciences academic Professor Michael Clarke has worked a lot in the Mallee and Box-Ironbark region, and said fires could be hugely damaging for native animals.
"What's striking is even moderate fires can remove components of the habitat that can take over 100 years to recover," he said.
"So if you've got a small mammal that needs a hollow log to breed in, that hollow log can be burned in an afternoon.
"But to replace it, because the timbers are so hard and so slow to rot and to become hollows, it can take up over 100 years for some of these homes to be generated naturally."
Green recovery can be misleading
Professor Clarke said the apparent recovery of certain environments can be misleading with green vegetation bursting back but hiding some deeper damage.
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"We see the bush bouncing back after fires and we think isn't that wonderful?" he said.
"Australian bush is really resilient and it can come back after fires but some key components for some fauna take decades and decades up to centuries to recover, so that they're suitable to be useful to the animals again
"We need to appreciate just how long lasting the impacts of some of these fires can be."
Special animals suffer from habitat loss
Animals like the brush-tailed phascogale and the yellow-footed antechinus in the Bendigo region are particularly vulnerable.
Professor Clarke said the "extraordinary little animals" are very reliant on old trees for nesting and to raise their young.
Researchers have worked on reintroducing nest boxes following fires which can assist the animals post-fire, provided they survive.
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"By adding those afterwards, we can speed up the recolonisation of those places if we put in those artificial hollows, but that's a massively labor intensive process and we're talking about often fires on really large scale," he said.
The public are also urged to control their cats, particularly in the wake of grass fires, as felines and foxes pose a massive danger to native species.
"The increased vulnerability after fire of these animals to foxes and cats is quite astonishing," he said.
"They've got no cover, and if foxes and cats get into the burnt areas they can have a decimating effect, mopping up the lucky survivors."
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Lucy Williams
Journalist with an interest in telling regional and rural stories, and covering the diverse array of topics that matter to the people of Bendigo.
Journalist with an interest in telling regional and rural stories, and covering the diverse array of topics that matter to the people of Bendigo.
