Ella Tregale has been seeing the country from the basket of a hot air balloon since she was a toddler.

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"My parents were doing it before I was born," she said. "And I've been doing it ever since I was really small."

"I had my first event when I was three, in Mildura — I don't remember much about it, but it was a world event — so I actually don't know any different to doing balloons."

Ms Tregale joined dozens of other balloonists last month for a training camp just outside Mildura, the Mallee's famed sunrises forming a breathtaking backdrop for a week of critical importance for the industry.

"I'm not really sure where it'll take me," said Ms Tregale, who is aiming to get her commercial pilot's licence.

"Our ballooning community is really, really small. There are not many people in Australia who fly balloons."

If the 16-year-old succeeds, she will be a rarity in Australia, a nation with so much sky, so many balloons, and so few people who can fly them.

Ella Tregale is determined to become a commercial balloon pilot despite there not being any formal training schools in Australia. ( ABC Mildura Swan Hill: Jennifer Douglas )

"We only have 200 pilots in Australia and they are scattered across the whole country, so there's not that many of us," commercial balloon pilot, Kiff Saunders said.

Despite being afraid of heights, Ella Tregale is keen to become a commercial pilot. ( ABC's Jennifer Douglas )

"There're no flying schools in this country to support the industry, so most of the training is just done by enthusiasts."

It is a situation out of step with the popularity of the sport, which continues to increase with the public's perception of ballooning as a safe, spectacular and environmentally acceptable way to see the world from above.

In order to cope with demand in recent years, commercial operators have needed to look internationally — flying in pilots from as far away as Poland and Russia.

But changes to the 457 skilled working visa scheme have made doing so an increasingly difficult prospect.

Student pilots practise their flying skills over paddocks. ( ABC Mildura Swan Hill: Jennifer Douglas )

"The category through which you would bring the skilled pilot in, the commercial pilot in, has been rescinded," Mr Saunders said.

"So this has created a bit of an industry problem for us."

It is a problem that was brought into sharp relief in March, when police arrived at a ballooning accident site in the Hunter valley to find the balloon, the pilot, and the nine injured passengers gone, raising the suspicion that the pilot may have been unqualified.

Western Victorian agronomist and private pilot Sarah Ellis said training was important because ballooning was far from the simple solo discipline many perceive it to be.

"Ballooning is a great team sport, so a pilot without crew is just a wannabe with aspirations," she said.

"I just find the whole collectiveness of that and understanding the science of the lift of a balloon so interesting … how brilliant they are to fly but with such complexity.

"They're such a simple aircraft, but so beautiful."

Student pilots check balloons thoroughly as part of pre-flight requirements. ( ABC Mildura Swan Hill: Jennifer Douglas )

Ms Ellis believed women may be the answer to the piloting crisis in hot air ballooning.

"A lot of aviation is very male-dominated, but ballooning is really inclusive," she said.

"You don't need to be particularly strong because it's that team environment.

"It's an inclusive kind of family sport, and there are lots of families here today."

Which was why experience, Ms Ellis said, was so essential to the balloon pilot.

Wide open spaces over fields in Victoria's north-west are good training grounds for student balloon pilots. ( ABC Mildura Swan Hill: Jennifer Douglas )

"The first flight I ever took my mum for, 14 years ago when my mum was in her 60s, I had about 15 hours as a pilot, so I was really relatively inexperienced," Ms Ellis said.

"We did an amazing shallow approach into a paddock, touched down and did a 50 or 60-metre drag — bulldozed up a heap of dirt.

"Mum crawls out of the basket over the pile of dirt we've pulled up, and says: 'Oh, that wasn't so bad'."