Heatwaves are generally associated with prolonged hot conditions arising from persistent quasi-stationary high-pressure systems. The accumulation of heat is associated with increased subsidence leading to warming from adiabatic compression, horizontal advection of warm air and enhanced sensible heating from the land surface. Although these three mechanisms are known to all contribute to the intensity and persistence of heatwave conditions, the quantification of their respective contributions is limited. We aim to resolve this by combining the methodological approaches from the land-atmosphere research community and the atmospheric dynamics community to disentangle the role of each of these mechanisms on the onset and evolution of heatwaves. We present first results from a case study on the heatwave that occurred prior to the Black Saturday bushfires in February 2009 over southeast Australia. Using hourly outputs from a control simulation with the WRF-LIS-CABLE regional climate model we calculate the back trajectories using the Lagrangian Analysis Tool (LAGRANTO) to inform the passage of air over the week preceding Black Saturday. These trajectories are then used to inform where and when we perturb the land surface energy partitioning. We aim to quantify how much the contribution of land surface conditions influence the evolution of heatwave conditions through the modification of both local surface energy partitioning and the remote influences via horizontal heat advection. We also examine how these perturbations influence the boundary layer structure, entrainment of heat at the top of the boundary layer and potential to perturb local atmospheric circulation.