Living Lightly is a collection of local stories about sustainable living.
The column commenced in 2012 and until 2023 was published in the Border Mail newspaper each week.
The content is community sourced – groups, organisations and individuals have written and contributed each of these informative and entertaining articles – all overseen by a local volunteer coordinator.
We are currently considering a monthly schedule for articles, stay tuned as we explore this option.
Here you can browse and search previous articles or subscribe to receive an email each time an article is published.
The Living Lightly coordinator is always keen to receive articles! Use the link below to find out how you can submit an article for the column.
With a big thank you to all the Living Lightly authors for contributing to this wonderful collection of articles.
By Alan Hewett “They had not lived long enough.” Judge Leonard Stretton made this famous statement in his royal commission report after the 1939 bushfires. He was not referring to the age of those who died but indicated their lack of knowledge about the environment they lived in. The question
By Lauren Salathiel In Victoria, local council elections are just around the corner, with voting closing on October 23. Voting for a candidate is about much more than the cliched “roads, rates, rubbish”, though. With climate change the defining issue of this era, this local government election presents us with
By Tony van Rompaey, Wodonga Albury Towards Climate Health (WATCH) In recent years climate change has had more and more exposure in the media. There are many organisations across the world that are advocating governments to take ‘climate action.’ Despite calls for action, little seems to change and each year
By Lauriston Muirhead Australia has made a great deal of money from mining an incredibly useful family of compounds for use locally and for export. The industry created large numbers of jobs in mining, transport, processing and marketing for example. Unfortunately, solid scientific research indicated significant damage to environmental and
By Kirsten Coates My internet yoga teacher conducts her lessons with her dog Benji by her side. I have tried this too but my three-legged dog Lexi just thinks this is time to play and, needless to say, I end up banishing her to another room. Although she is a
By Melissa Kane I’m bringing thrifty back, which might sound quite presumptuous, but I’ve been using the time during COVID and on the back of Plastic Free July to pause, reflect and examine what going plastic free means for me. Everyone is on their own plastic free journey and I
By Jonathan Howard In spring most of us turn our attention to the garden and plants. Some of us might look to plant natives with nectar-producing flowers to attract honeyeaters and wrens in the garden. This spring, I encourage you to do something different – why not install some insect
By Lizette Salmon, Gardens for Wildlife Albury-Wodonga To be purrfectly honest I’ve always been more of a dog person, but having recently visited a dozen cat enclosures, I’m feeling the fuzzies for cats. But first things first. What’s a cat enclosure? Many people think it’s a cage for transporting cats.
By Karen Retra, Wodonga Urban Landcare Network Have you spotted the delightful purple flowers of Hardenbergia recently? It is also known as purple coral pea, false sarsaparilla and happy wanderer, among other names. Hardenbergia typically flowers in our region from mid-winter. Like several other species, some plants seemed to take an ‘early
By Chris McGorlick As days get longer, wattle blooms, and the thought of spring teases amid the icy grips of winter, I start to feel the need to move. No, not star-jumps. Rather to bust out, throw off the old routine, seek adventure. Usually this would involve seeking a far-flung,
By Lauren Salathiel At 7.30pm every second Monday for the past 12 weeks, I’ve turned on my computer to “meet” digitally with a group of Yackandandah friends and neighbours for a reading group with a potentially world-changing difference. Our group has been one of hundreds, nation-wide, to participate in a
By Anne Stelling, Parklands Albury Wodonga “River restoration” sounds like something beyond the power of ordinary people – something requiring engineers, heavy machinery and lots of money. But here in Albury Wodonga, a long-term community vision for restoration and reconnection of our Murray River corridor is quietly achieving just that,
