North-east Victoria.

In a country that is generally wide, flat and brown, north-east Victoria and the southern NSW alpine region is an oasis for flyfishers. It has mountains high enough to collect metres of snow, and big enough to create their own climate. It is a place of legends and myths, from the aboriginal 'Dreamtime', through to the stories of the mountain cattleman who still call this place ‘God's country’.

From the heights of places like Mt Kosciusko and the Bogong High Plains, the annual snow melt makes its migration downwards - sometimes at great speed through narrow gorges, at others more sedately through snowgrass meanders. The headwater creeks have their own charms, but it is further down the mountains that the true freestone rivers are found, with their trout and the insects that feed them.

Even the huge fires that passed through this region in early 2003, are already fading to a small black line in the history of the mountains. To call this country diverse and resilient seems inadequate to those of us who have watched the regrowth and stream recovery in only 12 months. The mountain rivers are back, complete with trout, mayfly, platypus and clear water. It's like they never went away.