The flight from the smoke has begun.
Parents with babies were queuing at Canberra Airport to get their children to safer air.
Some older people with asthma were also leaving. Some had come to Canberra under the impression it would ease their breathing difficulties but found the reverse - and now they're leaving.
Winnie Lai and her two-and-half-month-old daughter Chloe were getting a flight to Melbourne to stay with Mrs Lai's sister.
The father, Ten Lai, who was staying because he had work to do in Canberra, was seeing them off at the departure gate.
The parents felt their daughter was "unsettled" by the smoke and didn't want to take any chances.
"We are quite worried that this will cause permanent damage or temporary issues," Mr Lai said.
His wife is an intensive care nurse in Canberra and he is a student at the Australian National University. She didn't know how long she would stay with her sister in Melbourne, it depended on the smoke in Canberra. "I've just bought a one-way ticket," she said.
"It feels like Mad Max here," he said referring to the dystopian futuristic film.
Another mother in the terminal held her 15-month-old daughter before check-in and said of the smoke, "We just don't know how it's going to affect her".
The Kattera family from New Zealand were cutting their three-week holiday in Canberra short by a week.
"It's sad because we are here to see family," said Louise Kattera who was with her daughter, Amiya (5) and son, Lucas (3). "Some have flown over from America so it's very sad.
"We tried to get out yesterday everything was cancelled. Terrible."
Adeline Perrett was a refugee from the fires but was now a refugee from the Canberra smoke.
"We live in Pambula Beach and we decided with the fires that we would come to Canberra because I've got asthma," Mrs Perrett said in the departures terminal at Canberra Airport as she checked in with her husband, Clive.
They had decided to make a second move because of the smoke.
"We have a son in Melbourne and we are going to spend some time with him."
