Fire-fighting authorities began scaling back their operations after cooling rains fell almost a month after a savage firestorm swept through Australia's southeast, killing 210 people.

"We see a very bright light at the end of the tunnel now," said Victoria state's emergency services commissioner Bruce Esplin.

"There's an opportunity for the communities of Victoria to start their process of grieving, start their process of rebuilding, without the ever-present threat of fire," he said.

The search for bodies would continue for another three weeks, but the rain had greatly reduced the fire threat and Esplin said it was time for firefighters from overseas and other states to return home.

An estimated 10,000 people were displaced by the fires, which razed more than 2,000 homes.

The death toll has remained at 210 for a week, but is expected to climb once forensic tests and searches are finalised.

With an end in sight to the immediate relief operation, the human services department said a new phase of "deeper-set recovery activity" could begin.

The government announced it would provide temporary accommodation for those left homeless by the fires for up to 18 months, with the first three months to be rent-free.

It will also begin to divide up and distribute a 200-million-dollar recovery fund, with every affected person to receive a share, said John Brumby, Victoria's premier.

"Clearly people who haven't got any support, who've lost everything, who have been uninsured, maybe they will get a bigger hand along," he said.

Authorities had been on high alert around four remaining major blazes Tuesday, with heat and wind conditions predicted to intensify.

"Mother Nature threw just about everything at Victoria yesterday. We had wind, we had dust storms, we had rain, we had fires," said the fire authority's Steve Warrington.

"It will take some weeks to mop it all up, but as long as there are no new (fire) starts it should be okay."

The wildfires followed a 13-year drought in southeastern Australia, which has seen less than four millimetres (one sixth of an inch) of rain in the state capital Melbourne during the first two months of this year.

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