Golden Yak Award
By Kim McConchie, Totally Renewable Yackandandah (TRY) Committee member Chris Horton & Karen Dods were awarded a Golden Yak by TRY (Totally Renewable Yackandandah) during the Earth Hour festival event, for their commitment to sustainability and renewable energy. You’d think a tornado taking out 300 trees might be a bit of a setback, but for Chris …
Spiders, wasps and other creatures – friend or foe?
By David Thurley, Albury If we are to believe the advertisements we see so frequently on TV, we are besieged by bacteria and insects that pose an immediate threat to our safety and that of our children. We are told that every surface in the house is covered with bacteria (which is true) and that they …
A Plastic Ocean – starts here in our towns
By Nicki Munro, Beechworth Urban Landcare and Sustainability Did you know that just 8.7 plastic checkout bags contain enough embodied petroleum energy to drive a car 1 kilometre? Or that by 2050 plastic items could outnumber fish in the ocean? Australians are the second highest producers of waste per person (after the US), with each …
Plastic Free July: More Ideas
By Ann Brain, Wangaratta Sustainability Network Thank you to Wendy Baker for her suggested ways of avoiding single-use plastics (Living Lightly 21/6/17). Plastic Free July is a great way to get ideas and get motivated to reduce plastic in our everyday lives. The challenge is to avoid all single-use plastics or the top four; supermarket bags, …
Repair Cafe’s 1,000th item
By Lizette Salmon, Coordinator Repair Cafe Albury-Wodonga Speech pathology student Vanessa has been invited to an 18th birthday. The night before the party she opens her wardrobe, contemplating an outfit. A pretty floral dress catches her eye. But what’s this? It has a split seam. Vanessa doesn’t own a sewing machine. She’s been shown how …
Plastic Free July
By Wendy Baker, Benalla Sustainable Futures Group Plastic Free July is an international initiative developed by a Perth council to raise awareness of the amount of plastic in our lives. The challenge is to refuse single use plastic during July. Some of you may think it is too difficult to stop using plastic. It is. Plastic …
Living with Batteries
By David Macilwain, Wodonga Albury Towards Climate Health (WATCH) When people ‘who already had electricity’ began putting solar panels on their roofs, we off-gridders were a bit sceptical. These people weren’t used to skimping a bit to save power, or even at all, and weren’t about to give up on all those juice-guzzling devices we never had. …
Living Lightly Off the Grid
By David Macilwain, Wodonga Albury Towards Climate Health (WATCH) We still get those calls offering help with our electricity bill. “We get our power from the sun” I say – but then they offer a better feed-in tariff. “We’re not connected to the grid!” I say, and that’s usually it – though some answer “Oh really – …
Swap Shop
By Carolyn Re, Albury If you yearn for a fun-filled shopping spree without spending cash or maxing out your credit card why not try setting up a free ‘swap shop’ at home? A group of my friends did this recently and it worked a treat. Like most people we had assorted items hanging around the house …
Losing a Legend
By Tess Middleton, Fin Free Albury Wodonga On January 31st this year we lost one of the ocean’s greatest advocates and the sharks’ greatest hero. Rob Stewart grew up swimming and scuba diving. It blossomed to a love of the marine ecosystem, leading Stewart to study biology in school at the University of Western Ontario and …
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