Roads chief tells of difficulties in fixing up landslide which stopped travel between Mount Beauty and Falls Creek

It is hoped single-lane traffic may return by February or March, a public meeting at Mount Beauty heard on Wednesday night.

Regional Roads Victorian North East director Steve Bowmaker said the disturbance, which first closed the Bogong High Plains Road last month, was "a landslide that just won't slide".

"The vast majority of other landslips they let go, all the material falls down and you go in there and clean it up and it's usually pretty obvious what the cause of the landslip is," Mr Bowmaker said.

"The problem with this one is there is 50,000 tonnes of material still up there on the hill that has to come down and we don't know what the root cause is."

Mr Bowmaker said three bore holes would be drilled at the site in the next week and filled with movement sensors to assess the geology to aid a long-term solution.

In the short term it's planned to "tickle" the debris and return the slope to a bare mountain and then build a retaining wall and allow single-lane travel to occur with Mr Bowmaker saying February-March was the best estimate to reach that point.

He added a full traffic restoration may be built "partly in this construction season and then completed in the next construction season after the ski season".

Mr Bowmaker said safety concerns were governing the timeframe and blasting away the material had been deemed too risky.

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"Advice that we've been getting from independent geotechs and our own geotechs is that a controlled explosion environment there, it is not suited to that," he said.

The cost of reaching single-lane access is estimated to be $2.8 million to $4 million and a final solution ranges from $2 million to $15 million, Mr Bowmaker said.

Weekly newsletters will be provided to update residents on progress.

Residents and business operators raised concerns about the timeframe, mental health, access measures and compensation.

SES officer Matt Taranto, who is overseeing the incident from a Shepparton control centre, told the meeting flood aid was not applicable for those affected by the landslide and conversations were occurring in relation to support from the Victorian government, subject to caretaker provisions

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