An emergency warning was issued to visitors in the Royal National Park south of Sydney as a bushfire threatened the main access road on Saturday.

The park was crowded with visitors and had closed shortly before noon because the carparks were full to capacity, local media outlet news.com reported.

"Beaches may offer safety," the NSW Rural Fire Service said in a Facebook post as aircraft water-bombers attempted to slow the fire and emergency warnings were sent to the mobile phones of all people in the area.

Temperatures in New South Wales on Saturday soared above 39C in some areas as a heatwave advanced across the eastern states where the Bureau of Meteorology issued fire weather warnings.

 

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