Man From Snowy River Bush Festival challenge cross-country course back on track

The trees and other jumps made from timber were destroyed in the first wave of bushfires in the Upper Murray in late December.

The paddock forms part of the Corryong Recreation Reserve and has been the venue for the cross-country section of the MFSRBF challenge since 1999.

Forest Fire Management Victoria and recreation reserve committee of management volunteers have spent recent weeks resurrecting the jumps for this year's event early next month.

"Unfortunately there was quite a bit of fire damage," FFMV works co-ordinator Jim Cleven said.

"The course is slightly changed each year, but most of the jumps were permanent and given they were timber they have either been damaged or completely destroyed.

"After we did all the assessments anything we had to fall to make it safe for the public, we have tried to utilise, especially the bigger timber, to rebuild jumps."

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Smaller branches have also been cut up and sent to Corryong Health to distribute to people in need.

Rotary also helped with re-establishing fencing at the reserve which was also burnt in the fires.

The cross-country event, which is about 2km long and consists of 20 jumps, was previously held at Nariel before being moved into town 21 years ago.

The festival committee had a storage shed on the recreation reserve grounds housing portable jumps for the cross-country course, signage, bunting and archival material go up in flames.

"We are in throes of putting everything back together," festival events co-ordinator Jane Saxton said.

"We've had some very generous donations from people both outside the challenge area and also competitors who have volunteered to make jumps for us.

"The generosity of people has been overwhelming really.

"We always thought people would come forward, but it has been pretty amazing by how much they have come forward with not only money, but time and effort."

The 2020 event will be the 25^th year of the festival with the men's and women's challenge requiring competitors to complete stock-handling, packhorse, whip-cracking, bareback riding, horse shoeing, buckjumping and brumby catch events among the program highlights.

This year's event will be held between April 2-5.

The Sunday campdraft event has had to be cancelled this year due to the large number of stock losses in the fires.