Maps show the sheer size and scale of the Australian bushfires

Since bushfire season began in August 2019 in Australia, nearly 6 million hectares of land has been destroyed.

Blazes sparked by hot, dry weather and assisted by strong winds have torn through nearly every state in the country.

The death toll is at 19 people and dozens are still missing.

LIVE UPDATES: Australian bushfires: 'State of Disaster' declared for Victoria

READ MORE: 'I don't take it personally' says Morrison on angry Cobargo visit

Thousands of homes and buildings have been lost, cars gutted, and farms and livelihoods destroyed.

Collectively, an estimated area of 5.9 million hectares - which takes in bushland, national parks, as well as towns and cities - has been ravaged by the fires.

This figure includes the fires currently burning, plus the regions already burned.

If the total area of land destroyed is added together, the size of the affected area is larger than the whole of Belgium.

When compared to London, the total area hit by the bushfires covers from Birmingham in the north-west all the way to Hastings on the south-east coast.

The damage zone dwarfs Singapore in a comparison.

One single fire, the Gospers Mountain mega-blaze which hit NSW, was approximately seven times the size of Singapore.

In New South Wales alone, more than 4 million hectares of land is on fire or has been burnt. This is more than four times the size of the fires which ripped through Brazil's Amazon rainforest last year.

It is estimated 500 million animals have died in the fires. This includes many species native to Australia such as koalas and kangaroos, and there are fears entire species have been wiped out.

Hundreds of thousands of people have been evacuated from cities and towns in New South Wales and Victoria ahead of worsening conditions this weekend.

Australia is just one month in to summer.

The season ahead is expected to bring more devastation.