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 Helena Foster, School Community Gardener, Wodonga Middle Years College Felltimber Campus Back in the 70’s I read a memorable article in Grass Roots magazine by the late Neil Douglas, Australian artist, environmentalist and advocate for sustainable living, where he stressed the need for schools to run gardening as part
By Karen Brawn, Halve Waste How much do you know about where your waste goes? What happens to your mattresses, tyres, e-waste and polystyrene? Want to know how the landfill powers 1500 Albury homes or what a dirty MRF is? If you’re curious, Albury Waste Management Centre will be opening
By Sharon Potocnik, Coordinator, Sustainable Activity Centre, Gateway Island As waste awareness grows, seeing the ground littered with plastic bottles and food wrappers when the crowds go home is becoming less acceptable to festival and event goers. As an example, a local event provided red and yellow lidded bins which attendees
By Bruce Key, Wodonga Albury Towards Climate Health (WATCH) A modern economy needs a reliable supply of low-cost electricity. In Australia at present our electricity is expensive when compared to other countries. This raises the question of whether renewable energy is more or less expensive than electricity produced by fossil fuels,
By Gill Baker, Wangaratta Sustainability Network If you are as lucky as I am, you can sit in your garden and hear twenty or more different native bird calls. Luckier still, and you may catch sight of them. Several species of Honeyeaters and an Eastern Spinebill are enjoying the camellias and
By Bruce Key, Wodonga Albury Towards Climate Health (WATCH) Many people think that trying to tread lightly on the earth is too much trouble. But it’s mostly easy and sometimes it returns immediate positive benefits. Consider the following examples. Each morning I go for a walk on Federation hill where I
By Bruce Key, Wodonga Albury Towards Climate Health (WATCH) Consider what’s happening in the northern hemisphere: A few months ago, a town in Oman went for 51 hours without the temperature getting below 42.6 degrees Celsius, even at night. The Arctic summer sea ice has reduced in volume by 70% since
By Lizette Salmon, Repair Café coordinator Most of you probably sharpen your kitchen knives regularly and service your cars annually, but if you have a sewing machine do you maintain it regularly too? Feeling guilty? Never serviced your machine or don’t know how? Never fear, Repair Café is here. We’re
By Ted and Glenda Minty, Minty’s Binderee Grove House Living in a galvanized iron shack for 25 years with hot summers and brisk winters gives one time for reflection. Glenda and I realized it’s relatively easy to keep warm in winter as we have access to firewood, but keeping comfortable
By Karen Bowley, Wodonga Albury Towards Climate Health (WATCH) and Wooragee Landcare “My two favourite things in life are libraries and bicycles. They both move people forward without wasting anything.” – Peter Golkin, Public Information Officer at Arlington Public Library , USA. I love libraries. Not only are they cool in
By Maureen Cooper, Wooragee Landcare Our First People, the Traditional Owners of our country, must have watched with horror at the Pandora’s Box that the European colonists loosed on their land with the introduction of foxes. I am sure that everyone in Victoria knows the cost to farmers from fox depredation
By David Macilwain, Wodonga Albury Towards Climate Health (WATCH) While people may have different motivations for “living lightly”, most like to think that their little efforts and sacrifices will “make a difference”. We can all avoid wasting power, or re-use and recycle, and perhaps encourage others to do the same. That
