Our Vision
Connected people. Connected places. Shared knowledge.
NNEST is being designed as a connected system rather than a single physical site. The work is still braided, but the strands are broader: relationships, digital tools and physical places all supporting one another.
Three Kinds of Community Infrastructure
Social Infrastructure
The people, relationships, trust, knowledge and partnerships that help a community work together.
This is NNEST's foundation.
Digital Infrastructure
Tools that help make businesses, services, places, organisations, knowledge and opportunities easier to discover and connect with.
Physical Infrastructure
Places where people can gather, learn, collaborate, demonstrate ideas and access visiting programs and services.
These three forms of infrastructure support one another.
- Social infrastructure creates the network.
- Digital infrastructure makes it visible and accessible.
- Physical infrastructure gives it places to activate.
Areas We Explore
Depending on community interest, available expertise and partnerships, NNEST may support opportunities connected with:
- Community resilience and preparedness
- Environmental education and citizen science
- Nature based wellbeing
- Creative and practical skills
- Place based education
- Sustainable forestry and circular economy innovation
- Food resilience and local production
- Responsible visitation
- Local enterprise and skills development
These aren't promises that NNEST will provide everything.
They are areas where we can help connect community interest with appropriate knowledge, partners and opportunities.
Physical Community Infrastructure
Project to repurpose the school
NNEST is currently working with the relevant State authorities to undertake preliminary inspections and assessments of the former Noojee Primary School.
Before considering any long term lease arrangement or seeking major funding, we want to understand what would be required to make the site safe, compliant, financially sustainable and suitable for community use.
If viable, our emerging vision is for the site to support three interconnected functions:
Community Resilience
Practical learning, preparedness, skills sharing, community connection and opportunities for visiting services and organisations.
Visitor Field Hub
A base that helps visitors connect with local businesses, environmental information, community knowledge and responsible ways of experiencing the surrounding landscape.
Place Based Education and Demonstration
A place for practical workshops, field education, citizen science, research partnerships and demonstration projects connected with the particular opportunities and challenges of forest communities.
The site would support NNEST's network. It would not define it.
Current pathway: ✅ Site access → assessment → feasibility → planning → partnerships and funding → staged activation if viable.
Digital Infrastructure
Connecting Noojee Digitally
NNEST is developing locally informed digital tools that help people understand what exists in and around Noojee.
This includes businesses, services, accommodation, hospitality, producers, attractions, walking tracks, community groups, events and useful local information.
Over time, this can also help us understand the wider network that supports the community.
- Who services Noojee?
- What organisations already work here?
- What skills and resources exist?
- Where are the gaps?
- What might be better connected?
The goal is not simply to build another directory.
It is to make the network around Noojee more visible and easier to navigate.
A day in the life
A homeschool group uses the outdoor classroom in the morning. A sensory-safe session runs in a quiet room in the afternoon. A woodwork workshop runs next door. A carer drops in for a cup of tea and a wellbeing program. A visiting landcare group uses the field hub as a base before heading into the forest. An artist in residence teaches an evening class.
Extendable systems
A model for other regional towns
NNEST is being designed as a replicable model. Regional towns across Victoria are facing similar transitions — changing industries, underused public assets, and the need for new infrastructure that supports wellbeing, learning and connection. What we're building here can work elsewhere.
Like to use our systems?