MELBOURNE - POLICE believe they have found the bodies of almost everyone killed in Australia's wildfire disaster and the current death toll of 201 is not likely to rise dramatically, a senior commander said on Wednesday.

Police Deputy Commissioner Kieran Walshe said the tally from the fires that swept Victoria state on Feb 7 may still grow as investigators examine the remains already found and possibly find more bodies of people not reported as missing to authorities.

'We believe that we're at a point now where we have located remains of the people that we knew or believed were unaccounted for,' he told The Associated Press. 'While we still believe that the toll may continue to rise, we do not believe we will have the significant rise that we thought.'

Police planned to continue searching the rubble in the devastated village of Marysville for at least another week, Mr Walshe said. Less extensive searches were still under way in other areas as well, he said.

Identifying the remains of the victims from blazes that destroyed more than 1,800 homes and scorched more than 3,900 square kilometres of Victoria is a complex process, State Coroner Jennifer Coate said, adding that it would likely be several months before the bodies could be released for burial.

'Each individual life that has been lost, is, and will continue to be, treated with the utmost respect,' she said.

On Tuesday, authorities said they had found the remains of 11 more people near the razed town of Kinglake and surrounding areas, bringing the official death toll to 200. On Tuesday night, that number rose to 201 after firefighter David Balfour was killed when a large tree branch fell on him as he connected a hose to his fire truck in the Yarra Ranges National Park, a region hit hard by the fires.

The current death toll already makes the disaster one of the world's deadliest involving wildfires in modern times.

Jon Stanhope, chief minister of the Australian Capital Territory, where Balfour lived, praised the firefighter for his efforts, saying his decision to fight fires in another part of Australia was 'a mark of genuine bravery and selflessness.'

Preparations for a national day of mourning on Sunday for the victims continued, with a memorial service planned for a large arena in Melbourne. Smaller events were also scheduled throughout the devastated region.

Fire crews continued to fight to protect Melbourne's water supply, with water officials expressing relief that the worst danger to reservoirs serving Australia's largest city appeared to be over.

Two of the city's largest water catchment areas were untouched by the flames, with damage limited to just 20 percent of the areas that capture water for Melbourne's nine reservoirs, said John Woodland, manager of water supply operations at Melbourne Water.

'As it stands, we're confident Melburnians won't experience any impact on water supply as a result of fires in catchments,' he said in an e-mail.

Still, Melbourne Water continued to transfer water away from wildfire-affected areas to other reservoirs in the city's network as a precaution, Woodland said.

Less clear is the long-term impact the fires will have on the city's water supply. Forests in some catchments were scorched in the deadly blazes, and new trees that spring up in their place will suck more water from the earth, which reduces the amount of runoff into the reservoirs, Mr Woodland said.

'We will know more what this impact might be once it's safe to re-enter the affected catchments and see what condition they are in,' he said. -- AP