So far 17 walking tracks have been reopened and ranger David Roberts said another 12 months of flood recovery work remained.

“A lot of the work to go is engineering work in terms of roads and bridges,” he said.

“It’s a $20 million program. We haven’t seen an event like this before.”

The 3.3km Mount Abrupt walking track was the subject of severe flood damage in 2010-11 when three landslips left deep gouges 800 metres long and 40 metres wide.

Mr Roberts encouraged bush walkers to enjoy a day outdoors to inspect the efforts of crews involved in the flood recovery effort at Mount Abrupt.

He said crews lugged tonnes of materials to the site by hand, working with only limited machinery.

“It was fairly back-breaking work,” Mr Roberts said.

“The crews split 20 tonnes of stone into steps using small winches and assisted by small machinery.

“They collected five tonnes of stone for resurfacing, winching these loads to the track by hand and powered carriers.

“Our crews have worked incredibly hard to reopen the Mount Abrupt walking track.

“Now it’s open, we’d love for people to come and take a walk to see the remnants of the devastation and the work our crews did to reinstate the track.”

Mr Roberts said the track had sections of steep incline and was graded as medium difficulty, requiring an above average level of fitness.

It is located about 6km north of Dunkeld in the Southern Grampians.