Australian firefighters are close to containing bushfires that killed at least 181 people, officials said yesterday, while police allowed one of the worst-hit communities a brief visit to their devastated town.

Around a dozen fires were still burning in the state of Victoria and it would be at least two weeks before authorities would be able to say the fires were out, said Stuart Ord of the state's emergency co-ordination centre.

"Throughout the day there has been a lot of work done on putting in containment lines and that has involved a reasonable amount of backburning," Ord told Reuters, referring to the lighting of controlled fires.

In Marysville, which was razed to the ground when the fires peaked last weekend, police escorted residents back for a glimpse of the town.

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