Mush fun at the Northern Victorian Sled Dog Club Classic

The participants set up camp, enjoying a warm bonfire or kicking back in their respective tents, caravans or other accommodation.

But as the sun rose each morning, it was game time.

There was a multitude of categories competitors could race in.

“You can do running with a dog, biking with a dog, you can do a scooting class, we have veterans, touring classes, juniors and novices, and then we do one-dog, two-dog, three-dog and six-dog races,” Northern Victorian Sled Dog Club president E’vette Burrows said.

“Our participants are from all over — we’ve got Queenslanders, South Australians, people from Canberra, it’s a successful turnout.”

She said they were lucky to have Christian Turner as the race marshal for the weekend, and crowned him the most successful Australian musher in long-distance mushing, having just returned from a 1000-mile race in Alaska.

Mushing is a sport or transport method powered by dogs.

“So this is dry-land mushing, it’s the Australian or warmer climate’s version of snow mushing,” Mr Turner said.

“We use carts, we run, scooters, whatever, and we’ll go around a track between two to eight kilometres, and it’s good fun but there is a competitive side to it, you want to see how fast you and your dogs can get around the track.

“They invited me down to marshal at this awesome event, it’s the biggest sledding event in Australia, and people will travel from all over to this one because it’s renowned for being such a well-run and well-organised race.”

All event organisers said the sledding had been a roaring success, but were wary of the temperatures and conditions, hoping to avoid being flooded out.

On Sunday, June 11, News photographer Megan Fisher headed to Moira Park to capture the mushing action.