Noojee's website now lives on Noojee.town content now lives on the nnest portal, maintained by one of the town's community groups (NNEST) in collaboration with the people of Noojee and local community associations.
The inaugural Noojee Truffle Festival takes over the district for three weeks, the Historical Society earns a state DEECA volunteering award, and the snow season opens at Mount Baw Baw — alongside a Wurundjeri Woi-wurrung Native Title claim that includes Noojee, a $250,000 heritage-precinct grant, and the Governance Group's move to become the Noojee & District Community Development Association.
Memories of Noojee Primary School as it closes after more than a century, the town marks the centenary of the 1926 'Black Sunday' bushfires with a new permanent Heritage Centre exhibition, and the long-awaited Telstra tower nears switch-on — plus the Gippsland International Film Festival comes to the Heritage Centre and local fundraisers top $25,000.
A day in the life of the fire-spotter atop the Mount Toorongo tower, the $173,000 grant launching an annual Noojee Truffle Festival, and community pushback on the Heritage Precinct development plans — alongside snake-safety advice, an unusually early fire season, and the new Gladys Sanderson exhibition at the Heritage Centre.
The 'Angel of Noojee,' Gladys Sanderson, is honoured with a newly named reserve for her 1939 switchboard heroism, the Noojee Hotel marks its centenary, and the historic Trestle Bridge reopens after repairs — plus a First Nations stump carving in the Toorongo Valley, steady progress on the Telstra tower, and the CFA's early fire-season preparation.
The Noojee Hotel is crowned 'Best Country Pub in Victoria' in Wotif's Uniquely Aussie Awards, the Outpost Retreat and Toolshed Bistro reopen under new owners the Lines family, and heritage restoration continues on the historic Trestle Bridge as it stays closed into 2022. The issue also counts the cost of the year's storms and floods — the town's only river reserve shut and $200,000 in relief funding still being chased — alongside the CFA's new snow-capable Alpine Pumpers and a Baw Baw Shire council pop-up at the hall.
The Little Red Duck Café and Noojee Post Office pass to new local owners — Crystal Petschack, partner Troy Wawrzik and his father Michael — letting long-serving postmaster Narelle Telford retire after more than a decade, and the June flood that saw the Latrobe River break its banks and cut roads with landslides is surveyed across town. The NCBT group also moves on the forestry-transition grant, applying for $360,000 to fund a two-year Noojee Transition Officer — plus plans for a new Bush Market, the Hall Committee's AGM, and a farewell to popular resident Richard 'Woolley Dick' Woolley.
The revived Charity Duck Race and Family Fun Day at the Noojee Hotel draws the town together and raises almost $5,000 for the Variety Bash 'Bra Bus' team, and the community rallies as the 80-year-old St Andrews Church — built by volunteers after the 1939 Black Friday fires — is found structurally unsafe and its services move into the hall. Meanwhile the Noojee Community, Business and Tourism group begins pursuing a State Government forestry-transition grant, one of 11 Victorian towns earmarked to plan their economic future — alongside the CFA's first multi-brigade training exercise since 2019.
A public meeting at the Noojee Hotel presses MP Russell Broadbent and Cr Michael Leaney on the town's chronic telecommunications failures — faulty landlines, no mobile coverage and CFA radios dropping out mid-firefight — while the shire approves funding for a second public toilet block at the heritage-centre end of town. The community also mourns Shane Duck, the popular former head chef of the Little Red Duck Café, who died just short of his 39th birthday — plus the return of the Hotel's Annual Charity Duck Race and the cancellation of the Anzac Day dawn service.
CFA secretary Colin Booth walks residents through a three-phase fire plan for a wetter La Niña summer, and the Noojee Community, Business and Tourism group announces it will wind up and fold into the Noojee Hall Committee to keep the website, newsletter and market alive. The issue farewells three local identities — Ron Bilston, Sandra Bottrell and Wally Buckland — and warns, with photos, of wild goannas wandering in through residents' doggy doors.
A year of fires, a deadly virus and then snow in Noojee, as the CFA fits heavy snow chains in winter training and warns that a border-closed tourist influx could collide with a risky fire season. The Bush Market is cancelled for the rest of the year due to Covid-19 and the community farewells well-known horseman Ray Trewin — plus a feature on the picturesque Toorongo Falls Reserve, the upcoming Baw Baw Shire Council elections, and a welcome for new arrival Mavis Jean Duck.
The town rallies for bushfire-ravaged East Gippsland — a Noojee Hotel and Little Red Duck Café fundraiser raises a matched $6,000 for affected farmers while residents truck donated food to Foodbank Victoria — and the first Noojee Bush Market proves a resounding success with around 20 stalls. Locals launch the 'Noojee Buddies' system to help at-risk residents evacuate, and the CFA holds a fire-preparedness open day — alongside the Baw Baw Shire's $200,000 Placemaking grants program and a wild goanna touring the main street.
The inaugural edition heralds two big November events — a CFA Open Day at the fire station and the launch of the quarterly Noojee Bush Market at the Hall — as the new 'Noojee Noticeboard' Facebook page passes 200 members. The historic Targa Florio classic-car event is set to roll roughly 100 cars through town, and the NCBT details its sustainable-development push for footpaths, toilets and reserve upgrades — plus a Christmas family barbeque at the reserve with a visit from Father Christmas.
