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, member of Wodonga Albury Towards Climate Health (WATCH) An area where most of us like to live lightly is spending money. Heating our homes is a costly exercise and it is difficult to make a direct comparison between gas heating and electrical heating, but it can be
By Jonathon Howard Spring is close to breaking free from winter and soon some remarkable moves will take place. Moving can be the ultimate gesture of love: it shows a willingness for someone to drop everything to spend their life with a partner. In the skies above us yellow-faced honeyeaters
By Ian Davidson and Chris Tzaros – Wangaratta Landcare & Sustainability Occurring right throughout south-eastern and south-western Australia, the Dusky Woodswallow is a common and familiar bird found in many different wooded habitat types. It does, however, favour open eucalypt woodlands and forest edges where there are widely spaced large
By Joanne Millar, Kiewa Catchment Landcare Network If you regularly walk through forest reserves around the Border region, you may notice familiar plants from house gardens. Over the years, these garden escapees have found their way into native forests and proliferated. How on earth did they get there you may
By Ian Davidson and Chris Tzaros – Wangaratta Landcare & Sustainability One of the most spectacular birds occurring in north-east Victoria, the Turquoise Parrot is an iconic species of the region. Preferring lightly-timbered habitats, especially forest edges and clearings, Turquoise Parrots may be moderately common in localised patches around Chiltern,
By Lauriston Muirhead Petrol engines come in two main types – two and four stroke. In a “two stroke” the piston goes up (one stroke) and down (two stroke) to produce one push on the crankshaft. In a “four-stroke” the piston goes up and down and then up and down
By Jonathon Howard Our native plants and animals work at different time scales. I know time can be measured using standardised units- but the reality is it is a subjective experience by those who are travelling through it. Trees operate on time scales dramatically more extended than our own. They
By Merlin Tzaros – age 13, who has had a keen interest in nature, especially reptiles, for several years The Bandy Bandy is a predatory snake that sits one step up the food chain than its Blind Snake counterpart, feeding almost exclusively on Blind Snake species, sometimes consuming individuals as
By Lizette Salmon, Gardens for Wildlife Albury-Wodonga Project Officer for Wodonga Urban Landcare Network I’ve had the privilege of visiting many wonderful habitat gardens across Albury-Wodonga, but to date I’ve only come across one that features exclusively indigenous (locally native) plants. Despite being located in the middle of suburbia, stepping into
By Alan Hewett We are well into autumn and the period when prescribed or hazard reduction burning takes place. This entails the deliberate lighting of fires under controlled conditions to reduce leaf litter, grasses and bark. The purpose is to reduce excess fuel to mitigate the danger of severe bush
By Jonathon Howard Wolf spiders are small to medium sized spider that are generally grey or brown with a series of black stripes. You may find them in your garden and lawns. The two most common species around here are Tasmanicosa godeffroyi and Venatrix furcillata. Wolf spiders have eight eyes:
By Ian Davidson and Chris Tzaros – Wangaratta Landcare & Sustainability When birdwatching in bushland areas, our attention is often drawn to species that occur in the trees and shrubs, or that move conspicuously by flying about and calling. However, some birds are quite secretive in their habits and seldom
