Before and after: One year since horrific Black Summer bushfires

It's been one year since horror bushfires devastated Australia, leaving landscape scorched, houses burnt and communities devastated.

Dubbed "Black Summer", the 2019-2020 season saw 24 million hectares of land burnt, 3000 homes destroyed and three billion animals killed or displaced.

Thirty-three people died, including six Australian firefighters and three US aerial firefighters killed when their aircraft crashed.

But in the last 12 months, green shoots have started to replace the charred earth as nature revives following the devastation.

The blackened stumps of trees that survived the wall of flames are a shadow of their former lush selves, but green vines can be seen snaking around them.

Green grass covers the soil and first shoots of growth peek through boiled black bark, but recovery remains slow.

READ MORE: How Black Summer of death and destruction erupted

NSW and Queensland issued their first warnings as early as June, following a dry winter and years of drought which resulted in conditions akin to a ticking time bomb.

And they were right. The first bush and grass fires started last September.

Bushfire warnings were issued as fires erupted across regional NSW on the North and South coasts, the Riverina and Snowy Mountains.

Batemans Bay and surrounding areas, on the NSW South Coast, were hit by the terrifying Currowan fire, described as a "500,000-hectare inferno".

The fire burnt for 74 days, after starting from a lightning strike on November 26, 2019.

It consumed 499,621 hectares, spanning from each end of the Shoalhaven, destroyed 312 homes and damaged a further 173.

The Currowan fire cut access to the Kings Highway, the main artery between Canberra and the South Coast, leaving many family members and holiday-makers stranded.

The dead timber that still stands reminds locals of last year's horror bushfire season, as hints of green show promise of new life.

READ MORE: Why Indigenous expertise is crucial to avoiding another Black Summer

Mogo, a small village nestled in the South Coast region near Batemans Bay was ravished by the fires.

Homes, businesses and trees were reduced to nothing but rubble and ash.

Locals say the town is still far from recovered.

But lucky for the animals at Mogo Wildlife Park, none were lost to the blaze and the zoo remained in tact.

This was thanks to dozens of zookeepers and volunteers who worked through the danger to protect the zoo animals, including holding some in their homes.

Braidwood, a small rural town in NSW's Southern Tablelands, located on the Kings Highway linking Canberra with Batemans Bay, was sandwiched between fires and clouded with smoke.

Locals say that the community was a "ghost town" when the North Black Range fire to the west of Braidwood first posed a threat in November last year, followed by the Currowan blaze.

Braidwood was closed off for seven weeks.

All roads in and out were unable to be accessed.

Farm stock and pets found themselves in the danger zone.

Their carers all desperate to provide them food and keep them safe from the impending threat.

The landscape is healing, but not recovered.

Woodland can take 150 to 200 years before it reaches a stable system.

In a rainforest it can be 500 to 1000 years.

On November 12, Sydneysiders received their first warning of catastrophic fire conditions.

The next month residents were living under a smoke haze that was 11 times the hazardous level on some days.

Other fires raged through the Blue Mountains and Hawkesbury - the Gospers Hill fire burned about 500,000 hectares.

In Victoria, lightning strikes ignited a series of fires in East Gippsland.

Firefighters in South Australia and Western Australia were also kept busy when the first wave of blazes erupted.