Australia's east coast will likely have a drier and warmer than average spring that will increase the bushfire risk this season.

The Bureau of Meteorology (BoM) released its long-range forecast on Thursday, confirming drier and hotter conditions are "very likely".

"We are looking at an above average bushfire risk this season… for large areas of NSW and South-East Queensland," BoM meteorologist Hugh McDowell said.

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"With three wet years we have seen some significant vegetation growth for large areas of NSW and Queensland."

He said the country was still on El Niño alert, meaning there was a 70 per cent chance of it developing.

"Sea surface temperatures are currently there, so sea surface temperatures are warm enough to drive an El Niño but the atmosphere hasn't responded yet," McDowell said.

"The link isn't there between the oceans and the atmosphere yet but it is moving there."

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He said Australia was likely to see a closer-to-average storm risk as it is not linked to the warmer temperature forecast.

"Severe storms are not just linked to rainfall… they are linked to hail damage and wind gusts as well."

About 10,000 lightning strikes hit Sydney on Wednesday, with one striking a man's house.

Storms with the potential for large hail and damaging winds also swept across parts of NSW and Queensland.

At least 64 people have died in a fire that ripped through a rundown five-storey building that was used by homeless people in Johannesburg, emergency services say.

Some of the people living in the building in South Africa's biggest city threw themselves out of windows to escape the blaze and might have died because of that, a local government official said.

Another 43 people were injured in the blaze, which broke out about 1am (9am AEST) on Thursday in the heart of the central business district, Johannesburg Emergency Services Management spokesman Robert Mulaudzi said.

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Abandoned and broken-down buildings in the area are common and often taken over by people desperately seeking some form of accommodation.

City authorities refer to them as "hijacked buildings".

Mulaudzi said the death toll was likely to increase and more bodies were likely trapped inside the building.

The fire took three hours to contain, he said, and firefighters had only worked their way through three of the building's five floors by mid-morning.

"Over 20 years in the service, I've never come across something like this," Mulaudzi said.

The building's interior was effectively "an informal settlement" where shacks and other structures had been thrown up and people were crammed into rooms, he said.

There were "obstructions" everywhere that would have made it very difficult for residents to escape the deadly blaze and which hindered emergency crews trying to work through the site, according to Mulaudzi.

Search teams found 64 bodies, and the chance of anyone being found alive hours after the fire broke out was "very slim", he said.

As many as 200 people may have been living in the building, witnesses said.

A witness who didn't give his name told television news channel eNCA that he lived in a building next door and heard people screaming for help and shouting, "We're dying in here", when the fire started.

Mgcini Tshwaku, a local government official, said there were indications that people lit fires inside the building to keep warm in the winter cold.

Officials are looking into the cause of the blaze.

After the fire was extinguished, smoke seeped out of windows of the blackened building as daylight broke.

Strings of sheets and other material hung out of some of the broken windows.

It was not clear if people had used those items to try and escape the fire or if they were trying to save their possessions.

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Benjamin Sorensen targeted a badly damaged house and tertiary campus.

Exclusive: Baby killer Keli Lane has been seen for the first time in years, pictured working at a milk processing plant on the outskirts of western Sydney as she nears the end of her sentence.

The images of Lane come nine months before the former champion water polo player is eligible for parole.

9News can reveal the 48-year-old is living in a halfway house and working full-time producing dairy products for the state's prison population as she readies herself for potential release.

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The one-time Olympic hopeful secretly gave birth to a daughter named Tegan at Auburn Hospital in 1996.

Just hours after being discharged, the mother celebrated at a friend's wedding, the same day she claims to have handed the baby to its father.

Lane has always maintained her daughter was being looked after by a man named Andrew Morris or Norris, who has never come forward or ever been found.

The former golden girl was found guilty of murdering her newborn daughter by a NSW Supreme Court jury in 2010 and sentenced to a maximum of 18 years in jail with a non-parole period of 13 years and five months.

She has always maintained her innocence while being transferred between some of the toughest jails across NSW including Silverwater, Dillwynia and Clarence Correctional Centre on the state's Mid North Coast, where she was housed with another high-profile prisoner – convicted child killer and now pardoned Kathleen Folbigg.

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Dr Xanthe Mallett, a forensic anthropologist and criminologist, believes there was never enough evidence to convict Lane and has queried how the trial was run.

She remains in contact with the prisoner.

"Keli will certainly still want to clear her name, she will maintain her innocence upon release," Mallett said.

"(She) has really been a model prisoner since she has been incarcerated.

"She worked with other inmates on diet and exercise and really improving their lives."

The semi-rural transitional centre where she was pictured this week is likely to be Lane's last stop before possibly rejoining her family on the Northern Beaches.

Her return to work within the prison system is the first step towards getting out of custody but she is yet to be cleared for day release in the community.

Her expected parole hearing in May next year will be a test for the "no body, no parole" laws recently introduced in NSW.

Lane still denies murdering baby Tegan and her remains have never been found.

She would have turned 27 next month.

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Keen photographers have snapped pictures of a rare super blue moonrise over Aotearoa.

The highly anticipated supermoon caught the attention of many people.

The son of two of the victims who died after a suspected mushroom poisoning in regional Victoria has paid tribute to his parents at a public memorial service.

Don and Gail Patterson died after eating a beef Wellington cooked by daughter-in-law Erin Patterson at her Leongatha home in Victoria's south-east on July 29.

Hundreds of family, friends and community members packed into Korumburra Recreation Centre to say goodbye to the pair this afternoon.

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Simon Patterson, who is the former partner of Erin Patterson, reflected on the legacy of his parents, saying they were "very much a team working at life together".

"The fact they died in consecutive days reflects the togetherness that they always worked so hard (to achieve)," he said.

"We were one of the few families who also sat together at the tea table for the evening meal.

"Dad always loved chatting to strangers in his travels, particularly people of different faiths and cultures."

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An emotional Patterson broke down describing the final moments of his parents.

He revealed Don survived an emergency liver transplant after the poisoning but died after "the rest of his body was already too sick to go on past that point".

His mother Gail sent her last text to the family group chat while lying in hospital.

"It was no fluke that mum's final text message as she lay in Dandenong Hospital was: 'Lots of love to you all'," he said.

"As Mum and Dad lay in comas in the hospital in their final days and each day, we were unsure if they would recover or not.

"It was comforting to know that when we said, 'See you later', we knew it was true.

"The only thing we didn't know was when. In the meantime, we'll miss them."

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Patterson described his parents as proud, Bible-believing Christians, who had "humility to their faith".

They lived by the motto, "Preach the gospel at all times, use words if necessary", he said.

Don's brother Collin Patterson also spoke of how the couple met, who had been married for 50 years, met and how they tragically died just one day apart.

The pair were laid to rest at a private burial last week, but a public memorial service at their local Korumburra Recreation Centre was held today.

Gail Patterson's sister, and local teacher, Heather Wilkinson also died after eating the toxic wild mushrooms.

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A fourth person at the meal, Reverend Ian Wilkinson, a pastor at Korumburra Baptist Church and Wilkinson's husband, is fighting for life in hospital.

Police are continuing to investigate the deaths, with Erin Patterson remaining a person of interest.

"I would like to say that because the Homicide Squad is investigating this matter, it doesn't automatically mean that the deaths are suspicious," Detective Inspector Dean Thomas told media earlier this month.

"She is (a suspect) because she cooked those mushrooms."

Erin Patterson did not attend the memorial service, but was seen earlier this week meeting with lawyers in Melbourne.

She was flanked by a team of legal representatives as she left her lawyers' office, including prominent criminal lawyer Bill Doogue.

The 48-year-old has denied any wrongdoing and no charges have been laid.

The incident is the latest alleged anti-social behaviour at the Christchurch house.