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 Maureen Cooper, Wooragee Landcare As a refugee from the mining mad state of Queensland I am really enjoying life in Woolshed Valley. Even nature refuges are not exempt from coal mining in Queensland. I have downsized from a 7 bedroom, office and seminar room in Queensland to a 2
By Charlie Robinson, Beechworth Urban Landcare & Sustainability I love chainsaws. Sure, they’re dangerous, noisy, and usually have two stroke motors which can be unkind to the environment. However, they do provide the user with access to sustainable sources of energy and, more than any other internal combustion engine I can
By Alison Mitchell, Friends of Willow Park and Wodonga Urban Landcare Network As a child, my mother would say this regularly. This may not be surprising as she was born in 1930 and so was a toddler during the Great Depression years and endured the shortages associated with the Second
By Lynda Oates, Wodonga Consumers these days are much more savvy when shopping for food and other household products. Labelling now pronounces “Low Fat”, “Less Sugar”, “Baked Not Fried”, “Biodegradable” and a myriad other benefits. Something that slips under most people’s radar is an ingredient that is in nearly 50%
By AAP and the Border Mail No space or time for a vegetable garden? You still can harvest homegrown herbs for daily meals with your own portable herb garden. This garden will grow almost anywhere outdoors; it needs just four hours or more of sun a day. That makes it
By Leanne Murphy, Stanley What will you do with this newspaper when you’ve finished reading it? Perhaps you’ll be doing any number of things to re-use these sheets of fine penmanship, but if you’re going to throw it in the recycling, could my hubby and I have it? You see,
By Alison Mitchell, Friends of Willow Park and Wodonga Urban Landcare Network There are two common myths about living lightly – it’s too expensive and/or it’s too hard. I don’t believe this at all. I know that sometimes if we think the best thing we can do is some kind
By Frank Prem, Stanley Today there’s great excitement in the garden shed. My first king oyster mushrooms have finally transformed from snowy mycelium into the characteristic fat-stemmed shapes of baby fungi. I’ve been growing edible gourmet mushrooms for the last eight months in a space approximately 3m x 2m, after
By Karen Retra, Seed Savers Albury-Wodonga Everyone’s heard about putting up nest boxes for birds and mammals, right? Last summer we did something similar in our backyard, but with a view to providing homes for native bees and other critters. I’d had ‘make a bee hotel’ on my list of
By Karen Bowley, WATCH (Wodonga Albury Towards Climate Health) and Wooragee Landcare The subject of food security is becoming an important and urgent issue. We are beginning to realise that, as we are building suburbs and cities on our most fertile soils, our population is also growing at such a
By Lou Bull, Seed Savers Albury-Wodonga Chooks are so much a part of my family’s life. I reflected on this just recently as we proudly stood by our clucky hen and counted down the 21 days (20 in this case) then hours until the chicks hatched. This dedicated hen (this
By Dave Cromarty, Regional Landcare Facilitator, North East Landcare Farmers have been at the forefront of the tree planting movement for years. Apart from the well-known benefits of regenerating the bush, attracting native wildlife and creating beautiful, natural spaces for generations to come, their motivation has been the flow-on benefits
