Adventure tourism and security of power and telecommunications are among key areas community leaders hope to pursue in bushfire-affected areas.
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The Upper Murray Community Recovery Committee has a region-wide focus and includes representatives of CRCs focusing on specific towns.
It has been meeting since June and chair Dominic Sandilands, who is the Corryong Health, said there were five areas of focus emerging.
"They are health and well-being, telecommunications - really focusing on the internet and mobile phone black-spots, and adventure tourism.
"We are looking at power security and specifically micro-grids and sustainable energy - that is quite advanced.
"The final area was agriculture diversification, supporting innovation in farming.
"It's looking at the short and long term - not just looking at recovering and getting back to where we were before, but also re-imagining the future of what we want the Upper Murray to be."
Mr Sandilands said COVID-19 restrictions had impacted the committee's work.
"Last Thursday we were able to come together in a hall and do a workshop," he said.
"In bushfire recovery, social interaction is the best medicine, so it's been a real hit not being able to interact.
"We're certainly working with the local area community recovery committees and also cross-border."
The committee has turned its attention to a $68.6 million Local Economic Recovery program, which is being jointly funded by the state and federal governments.
Sixty per cent of the fund will be dedicated to regional economic projects and 40 per cent will go to local community projects, with applications opening on October 29.
Under the $26 million local community stream, open to businesses, councils and CRCs like the Upper Murray group, grants of up to $2 million can be awarded.
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Towong Council has also established its own grants program and $240,000 is being awarded to 53 successful projects in the first round.
Mr Sandilands said supporting the community's mental health remained a key priority, particularly with bushfire preparations underway for 2020-2021. "I think people are finding it difficult, it does trigger people," he said.
"There's more work to be done in preparation and resourcing.
"It is very hard with restrictions with limits on numbers of people gathering, so they've probably had to look a bit more innovatively about how to get the message out."
