History

Hike in quality

Tasmania now has a wide network of public and privately run huts in its national parks and wild places, widely varied in terms of amenity, comfort and safety.

Natural pools in depth

Natural pools are designed to minimise the environmental impact of backyard bathing, and are aesthetically beautiful too.

City cornucopia

Increasing wellbeing and connection to nature, reducing food miles to food metres, and turning waste streams into resources: it’s increasingly clear that urban agriculture is a vital ingredient for sustainable cities.

Many happy returns: 21 years of solar

Stuart McQuire and Wendy Orams were second in Australia to install a grid-connected rooftop PV system and haven’t paid an electricity bill since 1996.

Garden house

By 'renovating' the garden at the same time as the house, a Melbourne family has reduced costs over the long term and achieved exactly what they intended – a naturally comfortable home set in a productive landscape.

Sub-tropical build: bringing nature back

Richard Proudfoot and his partner have brought nature in to their suburban block, at the same time as reducing energy and water use. He describes their house and garden build, and the satisfying birdsong-filled results.

Within city limits

Nestled in an inner-urban backyard and surrounded by recent subtropical plantings, the finely detailed, airy home of Lara Nobel and Andrew Carter belies its tiny footprint.

PV and hydro powered Tassie off-grid home

Given their distance from the nearest power pole, it made sense financially as well as philosophically for this Sydney couple to go off-grid in their new home in Tasmania. Peter Tuft describes how they went about it.

Design workshop: A beach shack transformed

When deciding whether or not to demolish their fibro beach shack, Lucien Hoare and Jess Davis chose to keep as much of their new home’s old-school charm as possible.

A better shade of grey: Grey water in your garden

Potable water is becoming the world’s liquid gold, and in the driest continent on earth, it’s priceless. Horticulturist Michael Tanner outlines how you can help save this precious resource by going grey in the garden.

Put your stormwater to use

Even dense inner-city housing can easily hold back most of its stormwater runoff—saving water, cooling cities, reducing flooding problems and protecting rivers. Chris Walsh’s inner-Melbourne house shows how.