One shared place. Four braided pillars.
NNEST is being designed as an integrated system.
The pillars aren't separate programs competing for space — they're woven together into the ordinary rhythm of a shared place.
Nature-Based Wellbeing
Places and programs that intend to restore the nervous system, build resilience, and reconnect people with the land. We envisage sensory and regulation spaces, forest therapy sessions, gentle movement and wellbeing programs, trauma-aware support, and spaces designed for carers, NDIS groups and families.
Environmental Education & Citizen Science
Hands-on, place-based learning for kids, adults, schools, and visitors — deeply rooted in the forest around us. We envisage outdoor classrooms and bush-kinder, fungi, wildlife and biodiversity programs, water testing, flora surveys and citizen science, and partnerships with landcare, conservation groups and schools.
Creative & Practical Skills
A working makerspace and creative hub where elders' knowledge, young people's energy, and new ideas can meet. We envisage a makerspace for woodwork, craft, upcycling and repair, art workshops and creative residencies, intergenerational knowledge-sharing, and community cooking, preserving and traditional skill programs.
Community-Led Design & Facilitation
A Victorian-first capability. NNEST is intended to be not just built by the community, but continuously shaped by it. This includes coordinating Expressions of Interest from members and partners, designing room usage and scheduling, supporting conflict resolution and membership growth, and ongoing adaptive design as the hub evolves.
The spaces
The Noojee Library is the proposed Stage 1 site.
It's being designed to include:
- A welcoming hub — the front door for members, visitors and partner groups
- Sensory and quiet rooms — regulated, safe, calm
- A makerspace — tools, benches, machines, mess allowed
- Flexible program rooms — for classes, workshops, meetings, groups
- Outdoor learning areas — the forest on our doorstep as classroom
- A shared kitchen and gathering space — because food brings people in
- Field hub facilities — for environmental and bush-user groups arriving to work or teach
The former Primary School site sits in our long-term horizon as a possible expansion, subject to community appetite and funding.
The exact mix of spaces will evolve through community input and design.
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?