Firefighters battle the flames during bushfires near Taree, New South Wales, Australia, Nov. 11, 2019. A devastating start to the Australian bushfire season has prompted a state of emergency in the eastern state of New South Wales (NSW), with the country's largest city, Sydney bracing for "catastrophic" fire danger. On Monday, a state of emergency was declared for NSW, with exceptionally hot and windy conditions predicted for Tuesday, threatening to create an even bigger fire disaster than that which left three people dead last week. (Xinhua/Bai Xuefei)

A man's body has been found in burnt-out bushland in the Australian state of New South Wales, authorities said on Thursday, taking the death toll of an ongoing bushfire emergency to four.

Police believe the remains are that of a 58-year-old man who lived in a shed nearby and had been missing since blazes flared up last Friday.

Three other people were killed when a record number of emergency level fires struck the state's north coast region on Friday and Saturday, all of whom were over the age of 60.

Almost one week later, exhausted firefighters continued to battle roughly 56 blazes across the state, 24 of which were uncontained.

"After a challenging few days, there are still more than 800 firefighters in the field working on containing these fires," a New South Wales Rural Fire Service spokesperson said.

So far this bushfire season more than 1 million hectares in the country's east have been scorched and over 200 properties damaged or completely destroyed in NSW alone.

Further north, in the State of Queensland, where 14 properties have so far been lost, conditions are predicted to worsen throughout the weekend. As of Thursday morning there was around 80 fires burning across the state.