Between the Murray River to the north and the Snowy Mountains to the east is some of Australia's best agricultural country.

Just over 33 per cent of that land was burnt in the fires.

This meant Towong had the fourth-biggest hit to its economy from the 2019-2020 fire season, out of the many areas in Australia affected.

But the effort to recover economically and socially isn't just being led by farmers and business people; families, newcomers and youth are on board.

The median age of residents in Towong is 58, but half of their community recovery committee members are millennials.

They include vice-chair Cath Joyce.

"I've always lived here and so has my partner; we bought a house about three years ago," she said.

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"Joel is a builder and I normally work in forest fire management - I'm currently on maternity leave."

Ms Joyce was pregnant with their son Archie during the Upper Murray fires.

"That was pretty hectic. It's been a hectic year for everyone," she said.

"It's been a very, very busy year; we formed the committee fairly early on.

"We've got completely different ends of the spectrum - almost half of us are 30 or under, and we have one member over 80 who has lived here for a long time.

"We can keep referring back to him for knowledge.

"One of the committee members unfortunately lost his house in the fires."

The first of five priority projects identified by the 10-member-CRC, to improve access to the river, has already been completed.

"We had a really good turn-out to a working bee and Parks Victoria helped us to cut back willows so that more than one family can be there," she said.

"That was one of five priorities we identified, including the Soldier's Memorial Hall upgrade.

"Because we're all in walking distance to the river or the hall, it won't just affect one end of the valley or a handful of houses, it's going to benefit everyone.

"I'm applying for another grant to get a walking track that goes from the centre of Towong to the river.

"There's a lot of kids that catch the school bus that have to walk along a 100km/h road, so that track will hopefully get them off the road.

"Each CRC has been able to identify projects we've got in common, so we can work together on what is going to benefit the whole of the Upper Murray."

Towong Shire Council adopted a model which allowed each of the small towns and valleys to guide their own recovery priorities, with an over-arching Upper Murray CRC.

There are 11, from Biggara to 'The Peninsula' communities around Lake Hume.

Their plans range from upgraded skate parks to the Tintaldra CRC Avenue of Honour for residents who served in WWI and WWII.

Committee members have helped inform agency-led recovery, such as the Upper Murray Landcare Network's 30 landholder on-ground projects and 29 planned events.

CRCs have also explored the fire response; 30 hand-held radios were bought for Nariel Valley residents with a donation and the Towong group received a $5000 grant to buy a community quick-fill pump.

"When the fire hit, we had a few CFA and DELWP people, but most of the fire-fighting was done with local fellas with their own resources," Ms Joyce said.

"So if we can place some strategic standpipes around Towong, we can have more people filling up.

"If a power-line was to fall across the road, that would really divide one half of Towong from getting to the river, which was the water resource in the fires."

The CFA stepped up their preparedness activities this year, running a session with 110 people and visiting 70 properties.

Ms Joyce said there were heightened emotions around the upcoming season.

"Normally, you never curse a good year, but the anxiety levels are getting up, because everyone's looking at the flats with the head-high grass," she said.

"We had the 'Are you bogged mate?' lady [Mary O'Brien] come recently, and I know my partner and a good group from Towong all went.

"There's all these programs coming online now, with COVID restrictions easing."

The impact of COVID-19 restrictions on the recovery outlook was clear in a survey of 327 people done by the Alpine community recovery committee.

CRC chair Fiona Nicholls said four in 10 people impacted by the 2019-2020 bushfires reported they were progressing well, but just under four in 10 said they were making some to no progress.

"We had 227 people - or 70 per cent of our survey respondents - explain to us how COVID-19 restrictions affected their bushfire recovery - we heard a lot of stress, a lot of strain, a lot of emotion, in their responses," she said.

"We heard about the impact on mental health, people lamenting the loss of being able to gather and debrief and support one another to recover from the fires.

"We heard about the impact on people's lives - not being able to travel, having to homeschool, all these new issues we faced under restrictions, impacting people's recovery - the double whammy that so many people spoke about.

"And, we also heard about gratitude - people acknowledging that despite the hardships, they were grateful to be safe and well."

Ms Joyce said despite the strain of the pandemic, she didn't feel like the Upper Murray had been forgotten.

"We had a heap of help at the start from Melbourne, and everyone is naturally going to be focused on a massive pandemic and forget about the bushfires a little bit," she said.

"But I think everyone is coming back and realising we have had this humongous year and we need help.

"We have been very lucky.

"We'd love for people, now that they can, to get involved and start sharing ideas."