Australian tennis star Ashleigh Barty has announced she will donate all the prize money she earns at the upcoming Brisbane International to the country's bushfire relief fund.

Fires in Australia have killed 24 people since September, with thousands of homes destroyed and hundreds of animals perishing.

And Barty, who is world No 1 and French Open champion, has been vocal about how much the tragedy has affected her.

"There are a lot of bigger things going on in Australia right now that we need to take care of," she said.

"It's been really terrible, it really has. For me, this started two or three months ago. We have to remember, this has been going on for a long time across our whole country.

"The first I saw of it was actually flying home from the Fed Cup final [in November] from Perth back to the east coast of Australia and we could see some of the smoke and some of the fires from the plane. So that really hit home with me.

"Obviously the worst of it is still out there at the moment. Now it's not just wildlife have lost lives and lost homes, but it's also affected Australians with their lives and their homes."

Barty is the top seed for the singles event in Brisbane and will also take part in the doubles alongside Kiki Bertens.

The total prize fund for the event stands at 1,434,900 Australian dollars (£763,300).