Hi Friends,

I recently visited Noojee, Victoria as I had been wanting to visit two particular spots there for quite some time. Those two spots are the Noojee Trestle Bridge and Toorongo Falls Reserve. Noojee is a town located in the Gippsland region of Victoria, about 100km East of Melbourne. I had been putting off my visit to Noojee because of the drive, to be honest.

I, however, found that on my way to Noojee, the awe-inspiring scenic views through the Yarra Junction and Warburton really made the time fly. On the way back I accidentally ended up on the M1/Princess Highway. That was horrendously boring, avoid that if you can. I found both stops easy to find without GPS because the signage was very good all the way to Noojee and to the individual stops.

Noojee Trestle Bridge

Noojee Trestle Bridge is a historic timber trestle bridge that was constructed between 1917-1919. It was designed primarily to transport timber but it also transported passengers, stock and goods to nearby towns. When it was completed it was one of the largest bridges of its kind in the Southern Hemisphere. After decades of use and damage caused by fire, vandalism and neglect it was repaired throughout the ’90s to become its present form.

You can simply climb to the top of the bridge and walk across and back down, as I did or follow the 6km return walking trail (takes about 2 hours to complete) which can be reached from the top of the bridge.

It was cool to see a historic part of Victoria and the view of the forest from above offered an interesting perspective. It was, however, a little underwhelming when compared to the next stop.

Notes/Tips:

• Wear hiking shoes if you have them or walking/running shoes especially if it has been raining as the climb up to the bridge can be slippery.

Toorongo Falls Reserve

Walking through Toorongo Falls Reserve has been the best forest walk I’ve done in Victoria since I did the Wirrawilla Rainforest Walk in Toolangi. An element of both these walks that makes them a favourite for me is the fact that throughout the entire walk I could either see or hear running water which is one of my favourite natural sights and sounds of all time.

Toorongo Falls Reserve is home to a deliciously luscious, thick, green forest as well as two waterfalls and Little Toorongo River which runs wild throughout the reserve.

You can either do the easy/medium walk to Toorongo Falls which is 1.5km return (30-45 minutes return) or the medium walk to both Toorongo Falls and Amphitheatre Falls 2.2km return (1-1.5 hours return).

I opted for the shorter walk as a storm started rolling in. It was getting a bit dark from the stormy skies and rapidly getting colder. Otherwise, I would have definitely continued on to the Amphitheatre Falls.

Notes/Tips:

• Wear hiking shoes if you have them or walking/running shoes especially if it has been raining as the trail can be slippery.
• Pay attention to the weather forecast, as Noojee is close to the mountains it can be significantly colder than Melbourne.
• The waterfalls only look more spectacular after rain, especially heavy rain so definitely visit after rainfall if you can.
• If you wish to spend the night in Noojee so you can do more exploration in the area there is, in fact, a campground at the reserve. It is free (somewhat rare in Victoria) and you can not reserve a spot so it is first in best dressed.

Final Thoughts

I highly recommend doing a day trip to Noojee and visiting both the trestle bridge and Toorongo Falls Reserve. Yes, Noojee is quite a distance from Melbourne but as I mentioned, the forest walk in Toorongo Falls is one of the best I have done so far in Victoria. So, in my opinion, it is worth visiting Noojee, even if you only visit the waterfalls.

Other places to visit near Noojee

You could also visit Warburton (La La Falls and/or the Californian Redwood Forest),  Mt. Baw Baw or Walhalla in conjunction with visiting Noojee. I have only just had my eyes opened to the fact that there a lot of great places to visit in the Gippsland region of Victoria and I look forward to sharing more of it with you.

Stay tuned for the next blog post!

Mikki 🙂

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