Former Goulburn family caught up in the south coast bushfire crisis

Mr Bayliss was trapped along with thousands of others at Ulladulla on for two nights.

He said the family was holidaying at South Durras before New Year's Day when the conditions turned bad and they decided to leave.

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"We left Durras and drove to Ulladulla but could go no further, so we spent two nights parked in a car park near the main marina in town there," he said.

"We registered at the evacuation centre so they knew where we were. Luckily, we had sleeping bags and a boot full of food that we had packed up, so we had some food but no way to keep it fresh, so it started to go off.

"We had some food, but the bread rolls got a bit boring after a while. We had watermelon too but no cutlery so we had to cut it open using a CD case.

"There was a playground, so the kids could play and there was a toilet. There were heaps of others camping nearby."

He said most of their time was spent either parked there or in the Cole's car park while they were waiting for power to come on and to get any food that might be available.

"Only Woolies was open on the first day because they had a generator, but the line around the block was four-deep, it was insane so we waited until it abated," he said.

"All the bakery stuff and water had gone by the time we got in there and you had to pay for things with cash because the ATMs were all down.

"There was only one servo that had petrol - at one stage."

He said they were able to leave Ulladulla on Thursday morning at 4.45am.

"We were watching the live traffic and the Fires Near Me Apps as well as listening to ABC radio, but we had to turn the engine on to charge our phones and be conscious of our usage of these devices," he said.

"I reckon in future we will carry a battery-operated radio with us in case of emergencies.

"We were also trying to keep the children amused so they didn't freak out, so we had to ration any screen time, and also keep the communication lines open."

A first-hand account of the experience

Mr Bayliss penned an account of their experience on his Facebook Page. It is below.