I live in the Sydney area too more to the south but. I live on the Georges River which is near a place named Helensburugh where some of the fires have started as well.
Where i live it is constantly smelling of smoke, there are alot of ashed leaves floating around, and a strange coloured sunlight.
A few years ago a place even closer to me was under fire and it was very frightening to be so close to such a thing. Its also scaryier that i live in a place surrounded with trees, bushes etc. Our place could go up in flames at any time.
Also note that some of the fires were from assonists setting something ablaze. Its sad to think that people could actually bring themselves do such a thing