If conditions are favourable, crews may burn out any unburnt areas along the edge of the national park either side of the Victoria Range to build containment lines.
Horsham Incident Control Centre deputy controller Glenn Rudolph said as much work as possible was being done before an expected wind change later today - expected to increase fire activity towards the south.
“Wallaby Rocks is looking very good, and we think we might have that done by the end of today, Saturday, but definitely over the next 24 hours,” he said.
“The Bullen Road fire, which is quite large and a lot of the Victoria Range will take longer, but we're working hard to secure those southern, eastern and western flanks, which is where the pressure will be when the change comes through.”
Mr Rudolph said extreme weather in coming days was going to affect fire fighting
“In between that from Sunday onwards we've also got potential thunderstorms,” he said.
“Thunderstorms mean new starts potentially with the lightning, so that's something we need to be really careful of.
“But we're really conscious of trying to make sure these fires are as safe as possible before that change comes through on Tuesday.”
Mr Rudolph said the dry bushland in the Grampians was causing issues for fire fighting personnel.
‘When we've had lightning come through, we've been getting fires and they're building very quickly - quicker than our initial attack has been able to get onto,” he said.
“We have had successes, so several of our fires we have been able to get out small, and that's what we're really trying to aim for.
“We got lots of resources here, aircraft and machinery and people to be able to do that.”
Community meetings at Brimpaen Hall and Mirranatwa Public Hall today informed residents of updates and plans to control the fires.
Watch and Act messages remain in place for the following communities Brimpaen, Wartook, and Zumsteins; Mirranatwa; and Cavendish, Mona Park, Mooralla and Victoria Point.
Brimpaen Fire Brigade captain Gerard Matthews said today’s wind changes could create some havoc for both fires.
“When it's just going one way, you can sort of have a bit of a plan and just sort of work on either side in the front, but when it's swinging around, it gets a bit more complicated,” he said.
“We're sort of bracing for the next few days.
“Hopefully there's no more dry lightning … if there’s a lightning strike in the Black Range, that would just start something somewhere else and we just can't afford that.
“But we can only do what we can do.
“The group has done a really good job and the volunteers have done an amazing job working with forest fire management, and they've done a great job working with us.”
Mr Matthews said it had been a hectic week for CFA volunteers and landowners in the northern Grampians.
“ We've been working pretty well with Forest Fire Management, just working with them and doing their backburns,” he said
“And then we're just organising ourselves out in the open, out in the private land, but working with FFM. It's been a long process.
“ We’ve had a lot of long days - just waiting mainly, a lot of the time.”
Little Desert fire
The Little Desert National Park fire is now contained.
Mr Rudolph said the edge of the fire was not moving.
“We've got control lines around all of it, but it does need constant patrol,” he said.
“There are little pockets of unburnt fuel in there, hot spots and those sorts of things that we're going to so there's a lot of work there just to keep it safe.”
Mr Rudolph said the impending weather conditions would test the Little Desert fire containment lines.
“We're hoping that we've got enough time now to make it quite safe,” he said.
“There’s no immediate threat to any of the local communities. Dimboola is safe.
“But obviously people need to keep an eye on the Vic Emergency App and updates from the Incident Control Centre.”
A smoke warning was also issued for the following communities: Bahgallah, Balmoral, Brimboal, Brit Brit, Brooksby, Cadden Flat, Carapook, Casterton, Charam, Chetwynd, Clear Lake, Clover Flat, Coleraine, Connewirricoo, Coojar, Culla, Douglas, Dunrobin, Edenhope, Englefield, Gatum, Gringegalgona, Harrow, Henty, Jilpanger, Kadnook, Kanagulk, Karnak, Konong Wootong North, Konongwootong, Melville Forest, Miga Lake, Mooree, Moredun, Muntham, Nareen, Ozenkadnook, Pigeon Ponds, Sandford, St Evins, Tarrayoukyan, Toolondo, Ullswater, Vasey, Wando Bridge, Wando Vale, Wombelano, and Wootong Vale.