Weather relief in Qld as NSW braces

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WILD winds have eased in South Australia and milder weather is tipped to help weary firefighters in Queensland, but severe weather is expected to blast Victoria and NSW on Wednesday.

A total fire ban continues in southeast and southwest regions of Queensland until midnight (AEST) on Wednesday, where more than 100 bushfires are blazing.

But fire bans have been lifted for Brisbane and the Sunshine Coast, as temperatures drop to the high 20s and winds ease.

A fire near Gin Gin is expected to continue burning for several days, but no homes are threatened.

Fires at Fernvale, west of Brisbane, are thought to have been deliberately lit but were contained after water-bombing helicopters were called in for the first time this bushfire season.

The helicopters were also deployed to the Tallebudgera Valley, in the Gold Coast hinterland on Tuesday afternoon.

Southern and mountain districts of Victoria will get another serve of damaging winds that have already felled trees, damaged buildings and left 20,000 homes without power across the state.

Another strong cold front will clip the state's coast on Wednesday afternoon, bringing wind gusts up to 110km/h to coastal and elevated areas, the Bureau of Meteorology (BoM) says.

But for now conditions in Victoria have eased, as the State Emergency Service (SES) catches up with a backlog of distress calls.

More than 1,500 calls for assistance came to the SES from across Victoria on Tuesday.

In NSW, a severe weather warning remains for damaging winds in the Riverina, southwest slopes, southern tablelands, the ACT, Illawarra, south coast metropolitan, central tablelands and Alpine areas.

More than 7,000 Sydney homes lost power on Tuesday as winds damaged powerlines.

The SES received more than 450 calls for assistance by Tuesday evening and is bracing for more on Wednesday as squally winds develop over the southeast, an SES statement says.

The extreme weather also caused flight delays of up to an hour at Sydney Airport and led to widespread delays at Melbourne, Adelaide and Canberra airports.

The worst is over in South Australia, where it's expected the only remaining severe weather warning, affecting the lower southeast, will be lifted some time early on Wednesday.

Up to 35,000 homes were left without power by Tuesday morning after a vigorous cold front swept across the state, bringing wind gusts up to 110km/h that flattened trees, damaged buildings and knocked out powerlines.

Gale force winds are expected for waters south of Kangaroo Island on Wednesday but should not affect land, BoM senior forecaster Simon Timcke said.