I disagree. The Electronic Transactions (Victoria) Act 2000 applies to all VIC legislation and there are currently only 2 exemptions listed in the regulations:Not for the commencement of an action.
Electronic Transactions (Victoria) Regulations 2010
6 Exemption for wills, codicils and other testamentary instruments (not relevant in this case), and
7 Exemption for personal service requirements
(1) Section 7(1) of the Act does not apply to any transaction (being the delivery of information or a document) required to be effected only by personal service.
(2) Division 2 of Part 2 of the Act does not apply to a requirement that information or a document be delivered only by personal service.
(s10 of the Act is in Division 2 of Part 2.)
The exemption at s7 does not apply in this case because the requirement to serve in person is not exclusive - s37 of the Fences Act also allows service by post, to which the exemption does not apply.
Therefore the only issue is with consent under s10(1)(c) of the Electronic Transactions Act. The OP has indicated that communication has been by email and verbal. The problem is that it appears he never asked the other party to stop communicating by email. Since he received emails and then responded to them, either by email himself or verbally, consent to receive the notice by email is implied by his own actions, thus the requirements for s10(1)(c) have been met. If he asked the other party not to send any more emails, but to instead come and see him personally, then that would be another matter.
My bet is that if the OP challenges the validity of the notice at VCAT, the member will ask "Did you ask them to stop emailing you?" If the OP says "No", then VCAT will rule that the notice was properly served. You also need to remember that these Tribunals serve "quick" justice - and if VCAT is anything like NCAT in NSW, they are not going to waste time by forcing someone to serve the notice again in these circumstances.
In short, almost anything that can be served by post can be served by email if there is consent from the other party to receive it that way - and the Electronic Transactions Act specifically allows for consent to be inferred from the recipient's own actions.