Noojee Trestle Bridge Walk - March 2020

The highlight of this afternoons stroll, the Noojee Trestle Bridge.

I broke an unwritten rule that I have today, yes I foolishly decided to head away from home in the middle of a long weekend. This post should of been about Toorongo Falls, all things being equal. However after making the longish drive from home I arrived near the start of the Toorongo Falls walk to find that hundreds of people had already beaten me there. Fair dinkum it looked like a cross between Coachella and McPhillamy Park on Bathurst weekend, punters were camped on every available spot of grass, people were riding around on trail bikes and monkey bikes, fires were going everywhere and cars were parked for kilometres on either sides of the small dirt access road, how's the serenity indeed!

Kicking myself at my stupidity I didn't even bother climbing out of the ute, turning around and escaping the heaving dose of humanity I headed for home. While weaving my way through the traffic and parked vehicles I calmed down a little and decided that seeing that I still had quite a few hours daylight up my sleeve then I may as well try another walk. Heading back through Noojee I decided walk the Noojee Trestle Bridge Walk. It's a fairly standard walk that I've done before, so I knew pretty well what was in store - a pretty straightforward out and back along an old railway line with the highlight being a big old trestle bridge, nothing really exciting however nice enough, considering that I was in the area.

The Noojee Heritage Centre. There is normally plenty of parking around here.

I parked at the Noojee Heritage Centre this afternoon, this spot is part museum part picnic area and there is generally a fair bit of parking here (the other option is to park at the trestle bridge). Crossing the Mt Baw Baw Tourist Road I immediately picked up the old railway alignment and headed west...and that was pretty much the extent of today's navigational requirements. For the first ten minutes or so I was walking through the outer suburbs of Noojee before shuffling my way out of town. Once out of town the old railway line passes beneath some fairly impressive Eucalyptus forest, although in reality this protected forest is just a thin line. A couple of kilometres of very gently climbing saw me arrive at the historical Trestle Bridge. With a car park just below the bridge the trestle bridge is generally a fairly busy spot and this afternoon was no different in that regard, so I decided to keep walking a bit today.

Before leaving the grounds of the Heritage Centre I poked around the old rolling stock for awhile.

This old steam train was the last steam train to be regularly rostered in Victoria, being in use up until 1972.

After crossing the Mt Baw Baw Tourist Road is was onto the old railway alignment.

Noojee

The trail starts off feeling a little rural....

.....before heading into the bush. The old Warragul to Noojee rail line operated from 1919 to 1954.

The gullies that I crossed were looking lush and green after some good recent rain.

Away from the gullies the forest was a little drier.

The normal go with this walk is to walk out to the trestle bridge and then head back into town for a walk of around 4 kilometres, this afternoon I decided to keep heading west along the old railway line for awhile and see where I got to. Leaving the bridge the old railway easement gets a little rougher and slightly overgrown, however things are still pretty easy going.... for awhile. After crossing a couple of damp gullies and passing through a couple of decent sized cuttings I eventually arrived at the my turn around point, the open rural land now seen through the trees is the signal that it was time to turn around, well that and the impenetrable wall of blackberries chocking the next cutting.

Arriving at the trestle bridge I decided to push on and explore a bit on my return journey.

Once over the trestle bridge the rail trail is a little rougher however it's still all pretty easy.

There are some nice old cuttings.

The forrest below the rail trail appears to be a little drier.

I turned around at this cutting.

Retracing my steps to the Noojee Trestle Bridge I decided to brave the late afternoon crowds and explore a little. This is a pretty impressive bridge and I'm sure that there are copious amounts of photos floating around the inter web of the bridge and now I've contributed a little. Actually photographing these old structures isn't necessarily a bad things as sadly a lot of this old infrastructure is either rotting away or being claimed by bush fires. Dropping down below the bridge gave me arguably the best photos however I paid for it climbing back up the very steep bluestone steps.

Back at the Noojee Trestle Bridge.

Apart from the bridge I got to check out the Noojee Trestle Bridge Humpy:)

The climb back up to the rail trail is a solid one.

Once I was back up on the rail trail it was now just a matter of ambling down the last couple of kilometres back into town again. The main attraction on my late afternoon walk back to town was watching a couple of Red Breasted Parrots flittering about, although trying to get a photo of them tested me a little. Tearing myself away from the birds I arrived back at the ute a few minutes later and I pulled off my boots and settled in for the drive home, happy that at the day had turned out alright after all.

There are some very tall trees along here.

This afternoons wildlife encounter.

The Dirt.
I walked 7.1 kilometres and climbed 107 metres on this easy walk. Like I eluded to earlier this is one of those excursion that probably isn't worth driving all the way from Melbourne to do, however if you are in the area it's worth spending a couple of hours checking it out. Most people seem to only walk from Noojee to the trestle bridge however it's easy enough to push on another 1.5 kilometres to the end of the cleared trail, the forest scenery is pretty enough and the walking is good. I used Craig Sheathers notes and map out of the book Best Walks East of Melbourne this afternoon, Glenn Tempest has also written up this walk.

Relevant Posts.
Ada Valley Walk, Yarra Ranges State Forest, 2019.
Ada No.2 to Powelltown, Walk into History, Yarra Ranges State Forest, 2017.

Back at the Noojee Heritage Centre. This whole area has a big logging history - unfortunately a lot of the forests around here are now being clear felled.