Why does it smell like smoke in Sydney, the Hunter Valley, Newcastle and the Central Coast?

Published: January 31, 2026

Daily London

Millions of NSW residents have woken up to the smell of smoke and ‘poor’ air quality after firefighters spent the night tackling two bushfires.

The NSW Rural Fire Service said smoke from bushfires has drifted across to the Hunter Valley, Newcastle, the Central Coast and Sydney overnight.

The fires are burning near Medowie in Port Stephens and Nerong on the NSW Mid Coast.

Thousands of NSW residents have woken up to the smell of smoke. (NSW Rural Fire Service)

“The smoke is expected to gradually clear through the morning,” NSW Rural Fire Service said.

“Please only call Triple Zero (000) if you see an unattended fire.”

The fire in Port Stephens is burning between Medowie and Oyster Cove, about 25 kilometres northeast of Newcastle.

The blaze is currently 432 hectares in size and is contained.

Firefighting crews worked to establish and strengthen containment lines yesterday on the north western edge of the fire to the east of Moffats Swamp Nature Reserve.

Residents in the area should still monitor the conditions and stay up to date in case the situation changes.

The fire at Nerong is currently 916 hectares in size and is not under control yet.

The NSW government’s air quality monitoring service ranked the air quality in the east of Sydney, Central Coast and Lake Macquarie regions as ‘poor’.

Meanwhile air quality is ‘fair’ in the central west Sydney, south-west Sydney, Illawarra, Lower Hunter, Upper Hunter and Riverina-Murray regions.

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