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 Gill Baker, Wangaratta Sustainability Researching family history is fascinating, you learn so much about past lives, and understanding our past should enable us to better handle our future. My granddaughter, Kim, loves to sew and design clothes, so I showed her the contents of her Great, Great Grandmother’s sewing box.
By Alison Mitchell, Friend of Willow Park I’ll admit it – I’m a sustainability nerd. You’ll find me either reading about sustainability issues from one of the many newsletters I subscribe to, learning how and practicing living lightly as much as possible, or working with my wonderful community to enhance
By Lizette Salmon, Wodonga Albury Towards Climate Health (WATCH) Last September a five year anniversary slipped by virtually unnoticed – the anniversary of the Living Lightly series. Since 2010 we’ve had weekly articles about sustainable living authored entirely by members of the community, a total of around 270 stories by 90
By Melissa Kane, Eco friendly Mum In this gorgeous autumn weather I’m finding myself drawn outdoors, more specifically to my garden and the dirt within. What is so appealing about gardening? The return on my vegie patch is self evident reason for pride and joy, the bounty at the end of the
By Lizette Salmon, Coordinator, Repair Café Albury-Wodonga I love my sewing machine. It was a birthday present 30 years ago and has been ever the faithful companion. In my twenties I taught myself to sew and made lots of my own clothing. A decade or so later, I discovered the joys
By Thea McCarthy, Wangaratta A regrettable outcome of our rushed, throwaway lifestyle has been a decline in the use of meat stocks whereby bones are simmered for long periods of time. Bone broth is a delicious and nutritious stock that cannot be recommended highly enough. The modern diet, with food grown in
By Sue Brunskill, Teacher, National Environment Centre, and member of Wooragee Landcare I have just had a weekend in Melbourne and my friend and I hired a bike- $45 each for two days hire including helmet and bike chain. We left from the city and rode out to Williamstown on
By Karen Retra, Seed Savers Albury-Wodonga I’m taking the Local Harvest Challenge, a national initiative encouraging people to make mindful food choices for a week (localharvest.org.au). Not because I’m usually into food challenges, nor because I’ve got all the answers, but because it’s a great excuse to re-examine where my food
By Alison Mitchell, Friend of Willow Park Most of us know the popular three-word slogan for reducing waste – ‘Reduce, reuse, recycle’. It is a testament to the effectiveness of education programs from government and non-government organisations around waste that we see and hear this slogan so often. It is
By Tess Middleton, Fin Free Albury Wodonga Good Friday is just around the corner and with every Good Friday comes the family fish and chip order. This year make an ethical choice when it comes to your fish. Now I am not saying that you can’t eat fish with your
By Jan Hewett & Joan Jones, Trust For Nature Covenanters The fire that started in Barnawartha and swept through the Indigo Valley just before Christmas severely impacted our 53 hectare property. There was a high mortality rate amongst the wildlife and extensive damage to our native vegetation, particularly the mature trees.
By Melissa Kane, Eco friendly Mum As I pack my little cherubs back off to school and I finish doing the happy dance, I thought those new to the school system might like a heads up. You might not understand the happy dance reference yet, but give it time. There are
