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 Richard Paschke, Wangaratta A couple of years back I heard of something called Repair Café. Someone in Amsterdam had the idea to help people fix their broken goods and keep them from going to landfill. At the time I thought ‘What a great idea’. I also thought ‘a lot of
By Bruce Key, Wodonga Albury Towards Climate Health (WATCH) Renewable energy is very popular, but it has a big drawback – its intermittency. This raises the question of how to store electricity so that it is available when required. The obvious answer is batteries, but it is difficult to have sufficient
By Tess Middleton, Fin Free Albury Wodonga Can you believe it’s the end of March already?! Where has this year gone! As Easter is only a few days away I thought I would remind you of your sustainable seafood options for Good Friday (and any day of the year!) Now I know
By Sue Slater, Birallee Park Neighbourhood House Many of us plant a zucchini seedling in spring, only to find that we can harvest enough zucchinis to compete with major supermarket growers. Or how about that lemon tree that reminds us of Nanna’s lemon meringue pie, or the pasta sauce that our Nona
By Joan Jones, Trust for Nature Covenanter Many of us have had bumper crops of fruit and vegetables this year, but what to do with the excess? We’ve made jams, jellies, sauces, relishes and soups. We’ve bottled, dried, pickled and frozen to such an extent the freezer and pantry are full.
By Roger Findlay, Gerogery Hobby farming out here in Gerogery West isn’t quite like what you see on River Cottage and Gourmet Farmer. Yes, it goes close to living the dream but it does have ups and downs. For a start there’s a lot of hard work involved and you don’t
By Stephen Routledge, Stanley The Ovens Fire Tower complex maintained and operated by DELWP includes the towers at Mt Hotham, Mt Porpunkah, Mt Stanley and the new tower at Mt Barambogie. Being employed up these towers during the fire season, one has the privilege of being closer to the clouds, having
By Sally Hendy and Jan Hastings, StopAdani Albury-Wodonga The Adani Carmichael coal mine concerns us greatly, so we’re off to a queue-in at Sussan Ley’s office tomorrow and would love you to join us. We live in Albury, so why should we care about a mine in Queensland? We care
By Jonathon Howard, Albury Sometimes the small things that surround us can be fascinating. Cuckoo wasps are those remarkable iridescent blue-green jewels you see hovering slowly around your house looking for wasp nests. Although about the size of a fly, these wasps live a bold and vibrant lifestyle. You see, cuckoo wasps
By Alan Hewitt, Chiltern Living Lightly articles give an insight into efforts at sustainable living and protecting and preserving our natural environment. They are often inspirational and reflect the mantra, ‘think global, act local’. The battle to save our planet begins in our own backyards but have the world’s problems
By Lauriston Muirhead, Albury Wodonga Towards Climate Health (WATCH) Food Recipe Seed Sunlight Water Soil Air Mix above ingredients gently together in the correct proportions (follow specific instructions on seed packets) in a comfortable place for several weeks. When ready, harvest, prepare, serve and eat. This old favourite recipe for life
By Alan Hewett, Chiltern ‘Anything but renewables’ seems to be the mantra of the moment. If the continual use of coal for power generation isn’t enough there are calls for a nuclear power industry to be developed. Proponents argue that nuclear power emits low greenhouse emissions and can provide continuous base
