Telescopes at a global astronomy research hub appear to have survived a devastating Australian bushfire that destroyed nearby homes and damaged several buildings on the site, officials said on Monday.

The fire, which raged through the night fuelled by hot, strong winds, damaged parts of the $105 million Siding Spring Observatory some 500 kilometers northwest of Sydney, officials said.

But the New South Wales Rural Fire Service (RFS) said although some 33 homes had been destroyed, aerial surveillance had established that the main Anglo-Australian Telescope (AAT) "has survived, although it is not known if it has been damaged."

Eighteen staff working at the observatory, which houses 10 telescopes run by Australian, Polish, British, South Korean and US researchers, were safely evacuated before the fire struck.

Monitoring instruments at the main telescope showed temperatures surging above 100 C at the height of the danger, and the RFS said there had been "genuine fear for people's lives."

The inferno was one of 170 blazes raging on Monday across New South Wales, Australia's most populous state.

The Australian National University, which administers the remote observatory site, said five buildings had been "severely affected or damaged," including lodgings for visiting researchers and the visitors' center.

"An initial visual assessment indicated that no telescopes appear to have received major damage, but the impact of the fire on the instruments will not be known until a technical inspection of the telescopes can be done when the site is safe," the university said in a statement.

Acting Australian Astronomical Observatory director Andrew Hopkins said it was a great relief for researchers to see that the telescopes appeared intact, after bushfires destroyed a partner observatory in Canberra in 2003.

Five telescopes and surrounding buildings were razed when wildfires ripped through the Mount Stromlo facility, forcing the termination of a number of major projects in the area, including a digital survey of the Southern Hemisphere's skies.

AFP