While some have been able to bounce back with just lingering bad memories of when they were told their town would not survive an oncoming fire front, others are still struggling to get back to where they were before January 2020.

The Dunns Road bushfire took 36 days to contain after it burned more than 330,000 hectares and destroyed nearly 100 homes after a suspected lightning strike on December 28 between Tarcutta and Adelong.

Steve and Vicky Bellchambers lost their home at Batlow and their farm suffered significant damage when the fire reached them on January 4, and they are still trying to navigate the challenges of rebuilding their property.

Batlow and Wondalga residents had been told to leave their homes as the areas "will not be defendable" when the Dunns Road fire hit.

"We lost the house, business, livestock, fences, vehicles - everything," Mr Bellchambers said.

"We had the worst of the firestorm that came through, we lost some cattle and 12 horses.

"We didn't evacuate; a group of farmers formed an unofficial fire brigade and there were about 30 of us spread over three properties."

Mr Bellchambers was fighting to save a neighbour's property when his own was engulfed in fire.

"We're still cleaning up, we still haven't rebuilt and we're trying to get enough money together to rebuild," he said.

Mr Bellchambers said he had received recovery aid and was grateful for the help.

"We were able to access a government loan to start rebuilding the business, but unfortunately we could not use that loan to do any home building," he said.

"We were underinsured, not expecting to lose everything in one hit, and we're still trying to get our finances together. House prices in the past 18 months have nearly doubled and that makes things harder.

"We're living a few kilometres up the road on another person's place, we're just renting there. Some people are rebuilding, some were fortunate to have their houses saved; there's a bit of variation."

The Bellchambers family, including six children, grandchildren and foster children, is spread over living in a house, caravans and emergency temporary living pods.

Batlow orchard hand Michael Booby said for many town residents "thing seem to be getting back to normal".

"Batlow has suffered a bit tourism-wise. I don't know if it has left a big impact on how people think about bushfires," he said.

"Maybe more houses could have been saved if more people stayed, but the fire did reach Tumbarumba from the hills in just a few days, so that gives you an idea of how fast it was moving.

"We went to a town meeting and they told us that Batlow was gone and we were expecting the same thing that happened in Canberra [during the 2003 bushfire that destroyed 470 homes]. I guess it's better to be over-prepared than under."

The NSW government says it has made progress towards meeting the 76 recommendations from the NSW Bushfire Inquiry, including purchasing 118 new fire tankers last year, increasing firefighter training and changing the hazard reduction rule for rural landowners.

The government's Bushfire Local Economic Recovery Package is currently taking applications for a $250 million round two of grants for recovery and disaster resilience projects that can be completed by June 2023.

Snowy Valleys councillor-elect Julia Ham, who served on the council during the bushfire, said the region was still feeling the effects.

"People are amazing and they are very resilient and bouncing back incredibly well, but it's still not very far below the surface and people are still reliving what happened," she said.

"Snowy Valleys has been incredibly supported by surrounding communities such as Wagga and also by government.

"Some people were well-insured and have rebuilt, others have not rebuilt and may never rebuild; you scratch the surface and there's a lot of pain and angst there."

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