Mittagundi is a famous outdoor education centre located under the eastern edge of the Bogong High Plains. It provides young people with often transformative and life changing experiences on a working farm in an inspiring environment.
In the next installment from the 2026 Mountain Journal magazine, Lily Begg describes her experience of working at Mittagundi in 2025.
The MJ magazine is an annual print run of 1,000 copes that is circulated for free to mountain and valley towns between Melbourne and Canberra.
The 2026 edition is currently at the printers (thanks to Charley and Jenny, the wonderful crew at Black Rainbow in Gippsland) and we will start distribution in early March. In the meantime, you can find a pdf version of the magazine here.
You can find general information and previous editions here.
Thanks, as always to Tess Sellar for the lovely design, and Dylan Robinson and Mike Edmondson for the cover images.
If you like this self funded project and want to see it keep going, you would be welcome to sign on as a Friend of Mountain Journal.
The backcountry film festival is a pre winter institution in Melbourne. We have been screening the festival each year since 2011. The program is put together by Winter Wildlands Alliance, and celebrates the power and spirit of humans in winter.
Now in it’s 21st year, the festival will screen again in Naarm / Melbourne, Tuesday evening May 5 at RMIT in the city.
The event will run from 6pm, with films starting at 6.30pm.
We will have speakers from a range of backcountry groups, info and merchandise stalls, and the Winter Wildlands program (close to 2 hours of films).
Co-hosted by RMIT Outdoors Club and Friends of the Earth.
Continue reading “Backcountry film festival 2026. Melbourne, May 5”
When it’s blindingly hot outside, it must be time to think about winter and watch some backcountry films. That also means we are thinking about prep for the 2026 Backcountry Film Festival, which will happen in Naarm/ Melbourne this autumn.
The Backcountry Film Festival is presented by Winter Wildlands Alliance (WWA) and celebrates the power and spirit of humans in winter. More than 100 local groups host screenings, mostly in the USA, and the only Australian screening happens in Melbourne.
While we don’t have a date locked in as yet, it will be hosted again locally by RMIT Outdoors Club (ROC) and Friends of the Earth.
While we have a full program of films we will be screening in the program developed by WWA (which features 10 films), we do like to also show a local film. If you have a BC skiing/ riding / touring film that you have produced, we would love to hear from you.
Continue reading “Do you have a backcountry film for the 2026 BC film festival?”
The annual Mountain Journal magazine is in the final stages of editing and hopefully will be out in time for the snow gum summit, which will happen in March in Jindabyne. Then we will start distributing it across mountain and valley towns between Melbourne and Canberra.
We are stoked by the articles and images that have been contributed. The theme is ‘the mountains are changing, are we ready?’ (details here). We are covering the good and the bad, the environmental, cultural and political changes.
There are stories from many well known mountain folks, including Bridie Lawson, Caro Ryan, Darren Edwards, Dave Herring, Elyse Kochman, Grant Dixon, James McCormack, Jean-François Rupp, Kelly van den Berg, Lily Begg, Linda Groom, Mick Webster, Pauline Dowling, Peter Campbell, Rolf Schonfeld, Sam Beaver and Stephen Whiteside.
This is one last appeal to see if anyone is willing to assist us in printing the magazine.
We produce Mountain journal magazine once a year, and distribute 1,000 copies for free in breweries, cafes, gear shops, and info centres in valley towns and resorts between Melbourne and Canberra, plus in mountain huts across the high country. It is intended for outdoors people who love the mountains. The magazine is also produced as a PDF and freely available on the website (here).
We now have a theme for the 2026 edition: managing change in the mountains, which will aim to delve into the complex issues of new people and groups who are now visiting the mountains, and how we can welcome these groups while ensuring everyone has a good and safe time in the hills.
Now we need to find the funds to make it happen.
Continue reading “Can you help us to print and distribute mountain journal mag 2026?”
Mountain Journal magazine theme – 2026
The mountains are changing – are we ready?
Change is everywhere. As the snow line slowly but steadily climbs higher up the mountains, climate change is impacting on winter as we know it. Erratic weather, boom and bust snow cycles, the borderline rain that should be falling as snow. Businesses and mountain staff feel the brunt of these more unpredictable days. Winter ice skating and regular snow on the lower peaks is already fading into the distance as we move into an uncertain century of unprecedented warming. In summer we often face the challenges that come with longer and more intense fire seasons.
Continue reading “We have a theme for mountain journal 6 & would love your contributions”
Mountain Journal started as a website in the summer doldrums of 2010. In 2021, it finally emerged in print form as a covid lockdown inspired project. Since then there have been five annual editions produced. It is written each summer and distributed through mountain areas each autumn and winter.
As we get to the end of 2025, we are thinking about the 2026 edition and would welcome your ideas and contributions.
There are a number of environmental events being planned for mid November in north east Victoria.
In mid November Friends of the Earth will be hosting walks on the Buffalo plateau and the following day Protect Our Winters and Upper Ovens Landcare will co-host a planting day, followed by a film night in Bright.
Continue reading “Walks, forums, ecological restoration in north east VIC”
Now in it’s 8th year, the BC Fest returns to Mt Hotham, and this year we are blessed with incredible snow.
While the tours are all booked out, there is still a huge amount to do, including three great social events (tonight, saturday and sunday).
Head to the website to see the full schedule.
The festival is a 100% volunteer community event.
I will post some photos here as the weekend unfolds.
ABOVE: I will be leading a snow shoe tour into the Boiler Plain reference area on sat am. After massive burnoff of snow cover the current storm has delivered an incredible (albeit unconsolidated) base just in time for the festival.
Friday AUG 29
4pm. To make things interesting, the snow base is very unconsolidated – which will make for interesting touring conditions, there is a lightning storm on its way, and the Great Alpine rd between Harrietville and Hotham has been closed to all traffic.
Checking out the snow shoe tour route.
Saturday August 30
ABOVE: snow shoe tour to Boiler Plain.
ABOVE: backcountry brews workshop.
ABOVE: the party at the Hub at Wire Plain.
Almost all outdoor gear used to be made in Australia. That is now a rarity, although a couple of companies continue to produce things here (there is a probably outdated list of these companies available here). Outdoor gear advertising is largely synonymous with generic high impact lifestyles – fly here, go there, have the latest stuff, charge that line – rather than being connected to a place or community (sure there are exceptions, but the ‘global brands’ do dominate the market here in Australia).
That’s why small scale, locally owned gear companies are so important (as are, of course, locally owned shops – you can find a list of them here).
Some Australian brands like Snow Gum, One Planet or Mountain Designs, have been around for decades. There are also a growing number of micro brands starting up and one of these is Peak Oil Company, whose primary mission is ‘making durable clothing and equipment for the Australian outdoors, without using petrochemicals’.
Continue reading “Peak Oil Company: ‘durable clothing and equipment for the Australian outdoors’.”
For many years I organised an annual get together at Mt Hotham to celebrate World Telemark Day. We would have up to 35 people meet and spend the day on the mountain. Eventually in 2018, we moved the Tele Day to Falls Creek and it morphed into the first Victorian Backcountry Festival (which has now morphed into the Australian Backcountry Festival, and will happen over three days at Mt Hotham at the end of August.
But the Tele Meetup tradition continues!
Sophie Stud posts in the Australian Telemarks facebook group that there will be another Tele Take Over this winter. She says: ‘A few of you may have made it to last years Tele take over, this year I would love to make it bigger then ever’.
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