Devastation is everywhere on the journey into the small Snowy Valleys town of Batlow, where a man died while trying to defend a friend's property and buildings including some homes were destroyed by bushfires on Saturday.
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The ground is charred black. Fallen trees cover parts of the road and masses of livestock lie dead. In one paddock, a lone sheep that survived the blaze wandered around continuously in a circle.
On the outskirts, some of the town's famous apple orchards appear to have fared reasonably well while others have sustained damage.
Once you reach the town itself, the sense of loss is greater. Some houses have been burnt to the ground. In the remains of one, beside a petrol station that was also destroyed by the fire, you can only make out a few items, including the television.
Less than 100 metres from the petrol station, the Batlow Hotel, which stayed open for its one remaining customer on Saturday night, has survived.
Most houses remain standing, which is remarkable given the Rural Fire Service had warned in the days before the fire arrived that Batlow was "not defendable".
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Other buildings, including the old hospital, could not be saved.
The town, which all but about 50 of the 1300 or so residents evacuated ahead of the fire hitting, was eerily quiet on Sunday morning.
Residents who remained were left to reflect on what they had seen the previous day.
They were saddened to hear of the death of a 47-year-old man, who died while helping defend a friend's rural property on Batlow Road.
NSW Premier Gladys Berejiklian told media the man had suffered a cardiac arrest.
Batlow resident Rod Peel sat outside his home on Sunday morning with fellow locals Tom Clark and Danny Matthews. They fought the fires on Saturday and managed only a few hours' sleep in the aftermath.
They were full of praise for everyone who tackled the fire.
"They were saying [Batlow] was undefendable," Mr Matthews said on Sunday morning.
"You couldn't be prouder of everyone who was in Batlow last night."
Mr Clark added: "The amount of people that banded together was unbelievable.
"It's a nice feeling to come back to your house and see that someone's saved it while you were off defending someone else's place."
Mr Peel said he had lived in Batlow his whole life and fought significant fires elsewhere, "but we've never seen anything like this here".
"This is the biggest thing we've ever had here," he said.
With no power in the town and the water supply also affected, Mr Peel headed for his backyard to cook some bacon and eggs on the barbecue, offering some to neighbour Steve Horsley as he went.
Mr Horsley's front yard was charred black in a small area, but flames had otherwise not reached his home.
The man who acted as incident controller during significant fires at Kosciuszko in 2003 said it had been "a pretty hectic afternoon" on Saturday as he worked with Rural Fire Service and National Parks and Wildlife firefighters.
"I was lucky," Mr Horsley said.
"I've got another property about 7km out of Batlow as well. The house is still there and the big machinery shed survived. I've got to go out there and feed my stock. I've also got two big sheds full of hay there, and they survived too."
Mr Horsley said he was worried, though, about another of his properties about 90 kilometres from Batlow on the other side of Tumbarumba. He was going to try and get there to survey the damage, but didn't think he'd be able to because of road closures.
"It's not a real good feeling, going to your property after the fires and not knowing what you're going to find," he said.
"For this area, I haven't seen anything like this with the fires and the intensity.
"It's just so dry. The drought's taken its toll."