For the last few years, crews from Canada and their flying machines have set-up in Ballarat, ready for the fire season.
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They're used to dropping water and foam on raging bushfires, supporting ground crews and "making sure small fires stay small".
Last summer, for the first time, they began night missions - using high-tech night vision goggles, infrared cameras, and lasers, the teams were able to continue to fight fires as the temperature cooled overnight.
In another first, helicopters were able to pick up more water at night as well from open water sources.
On Tuesday afternoon, Emergency Management Victoria announced the night missions would return this summer, this time with additional monitoring.
Right now, the helicopters can only operate on fires they've checked out in the daytime, to assess any hazards or obstacles, but the aim is to create a "first attack" capacity.
That means hitting the fire without the daytime reconnaissance flight.
Operating in teams of two, an aerial tanker and a supervisor, there'll be night bomber crews based in Mangalore and Ballarat.
Here, there's a Sikorsky S-61 skycrane, and a Sikorsky S-76 supervising helicopter.
Jim Thomasson has been flying night missions for years - it's his job to use the infrared camera to guide the waterbombers and provide up-to-date information to ground crews and command posts.
Standing in front of the S-76, the supervising aircraft - the waterbomber was operating over a fire in the Grampians that afternoon - he said night operations were a good time to get a handle on a fire.
"We're selecting the targets, but also with the camera, I'm filming the pickups and the drops at all times so we always know exactly where they are," he said.
"The big thing is, all fires, for the most part, if the fire is rolling at 5pm, at 5am, it's moving the slowest.
"When it's actively moving, what you're doing when trying to direct your resources is work on the flanks of the fire to try and get up to the head, and try to protect any infrastructure."
His colleague, pilot Toni Lindschinger, was in Ballarat last year, and California after that.
"This aircraft was then deployed in California over their fire season where we had some good success with the initial attack operations - if we can build on that experience this year, I think it'll go quite well," he said.
"It's very similar (to California), it's hot, dry, the conditions are comparable."
The first attack trials will involve designated areas across the state - if a fire breaks out there, the trial will take place.
There's been a large amount of training and assessment done before the fire danger period began - this year, additional data will be taken during night operations to help better understand the strain on pilots and crew.
Kestrel pilot Richard Butterworth, who will be based at Mangalore, said night waterbombing was very different to daytime operations.
"Night vision allows us to see at night to a degree," he said.
"It's a misconception that they turn night into day, they don't actually see heat, they amplify light that's already available, such as starlight, moonlight, cultural light, and fire.
"That allows us to interpret terrain and obstacles, to a degree, to safely access water, and then deliver that water."
He said the best way to describe it was "looking through two toilet rolls".
"You don't get a magnified image in terms of zoom, but you lose your peripheral vision, which is the biggest adjustment for someone operating from day to night, because as helicopter pilots, and human beings, we gauge so much of our everyday perception of what's up and what's down through our peripheral vision.
"We have a smaller image projected just in front of the eyes, so we just have different techniques that allow us to fly safely at night."
It's hoped a university or other researcher will be able to use the data to help develop night waterbombing capabilities.
"Night vision is physically quite demanding, and not just the equipment, it's increased weight on your head physically, but there's also a lot of eye strain and a lot more focused," Mr Butterworth said.
"It's also concentration for a longer period - during daytime operations there is that time where you can relax between water drops and water dips, but on night vision, you're essentially 100 per cent committed to the task at all times, so that comes with a different level of fatigue, and that's something we're aiming to measure during this trial."
Victoria's Emergency Management Commissioner, Andrew Crisp, said night waterbombers flew on 13 fires over 20 nights last summer.
"Aviation is such a useful tool for us, but we've got to understand and appreciate we cannot necessarily fly, depending on what the conditions are, so it always comes back to being one big team," he said.
"It's about firefighters on the ground and how they work with helicopters and aeroplanes."
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