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 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
By Tess Middleton, Fin Free Albury Wodonga The media so often sensationalises negative shark-human encounters that the positive, heart-warming stories often go unheard. In fact 60% of all shark stories are portrayed in a negative light. This could be for a number of reasons, most likely the “jaws” mentality. The reality is
By Janien Ferguson, Albury City Council What is going on in the world of science? Climate change, genetically modified food, windmills, vaccination…why do some issues in science become so contentious and how do we address each other’s concerns in a respectful way while communicating the facts and benefits of the science? We
By Olivia Noto, StopAdani Albury-Wodonga With another election not far away and by-elections happening left, right and centre, one must wonder what tedious mantra the leaders of the nation will take any opportunity to repeat. Anyone’s trained pet bird would’ve surely echoed last election’s ‘jobs and growth’ catchphrase the Turnbull Government
By Tess Middleton, Fin Free Albury Wodonga Good morning ocean lovers and those who just enjoy learning something new every day! Today while you eat your breakfast and sip your coffee I am going to give you 30 fast facts, all relating to our oceans, enjoy! 90% of the global shark population
By Richard Paschke, Wangaratta If you are a Baby Boomer or older you may remember the times before recycling. Drinks came in bottles, bottles came in wooden crates, which went back into the crate when empty. Crates full of empty bottles were returned to the shop where you were given a
By Cam Klose, Community Engagement for the community energy retailer project. At a national level, climate change and energy policy is mired in a political quagmire. Rather than working to solve the greatest challenge facing our country and the world, leading politicians are more interested in scoring cheap political points. A
