Between 30 and 50 per cent of bushfires are lit either deliberately or recklessly, according to research by Monash Sustainability Institute and the Australian Institute of Criminology.

With 85 per cent of Victoria declared 'bushfire prone', Crime Stoppers director Peter Sprock said Moorabool "gets more than its fair share of fire".

And plenty of those fires were bound to be deliberate.

Launching a new arson awareness campaign, Mr Sprock told the Weekly that research indicated bushfire damage cost the country about $1.6 billion every year.

"There's a degree of popular belief that [arsonists] are not a local. The likelihood is that it will be a local. He or she knows the topography.

''They're pretty hard to catch as they tend to go to isolated areas."

Mr Sprock said that was where people needed to pick up hints or suspicions.

"People are wary of dobbing someone in incorrectly and the ramifications. That's why Crime Stoppers is crucial to this campaign. It's anonymous.

"Police have a handful of suspects who they are closely watching in the vicinity of Bacchus Marsh, so it's a cold hard reality."

Senior Detective Brian Malloch of Bacchus Marsh police

said it was imperative that people contact police with a car registration number if they noticed anything suspicious.

"That's key because that car might be seen in the vicinity of another fire."

Bacchus Marsh CFA group officer Gerry Lavery said the brigade's chief concern was fires caused recklessly.