home

Permaculture teaching and design
for the New England region, New South Wales, Australia

  • Permaculture courses
  • Permaculture designs for homes and farms
  • Energy audits
  • Water audits
  • House retrofitting
  • Advice on renewable energy
  • Advice on greywater
  • Green your business

LivinLightly has been set up to help and provide advice to anyone in the New England region of Australia who wishes to live or do business more sustainably.

 

About Jane

Jane

I have been interested in permaculture for over 15 years. I have been developing Nioka using permaculture principles since January 2002 and completed my Permaculture Design Certificate with Rosemary Morrow in 2006.

I came to Australia from the UK in 1985 to study for my PhD in Zoology and had a great time for 3 years doing lots of scuba-diving and snorkelling around Tasmania looking at sea urchins.

Then I moved to Western Australia and worked at Murdoch University on the health of urban wetlands. My speciality was the microscopic invertebrates that live in the wetlands.

We moved back to Tasmania after my husband finished his PhD but we could not find work, so we moved to Sydney in 1992. During my 4 years in Sydney I worked for the research and consulting branch of Sydney Water as a senior consultant. I was now working on riverine invertebrates as well as water quality issues.

In 1996 we moved to Albury where I worked for the Murray-Darling Freshwater Research Institute on the effects of river regulation on 2 lowland rivers in northern Victoria.

During my 10 years as a freshwater ecologist I had become disillusioned with the effectiveness of applied research on the real world. So when my husband was offered a job in Port Stephens, near Newcastle, I gave up my scientific career and studied music at the Newcastle Conservatorium.

I have been living in Armidale since January 2002 with my husband, Ivor and our 2 children, Beth and Zac. I have been teaching clarinet, saxophone and piano, as well as setting up a Linda Woodrow garden based on movable chook domes.

I had wanted to do a Permaculture Design Course for many years but had never been able to find the time. However, I managed to organise enough people for a course to run in Armidale and Rosemary Morrow and Dan Palmer came and ran it for us. During the course I became convinced that Permaculture was the way forward for me and I made the decision to start LivinLightly.

Jane on bike shed roof

 

 

 

 

 

 

LivinLightly Code of Ethics

 

At LivinLightly we commit ourselves to:
  • dealing honestly, transparently and fairly with our clients;
  • wherever possible using bicycle or public transport;
  • minimising the use of electricity;
  • purchasing 100% Accredited GreenPower until we can move to solar photovoltaic power;
  • minimising the use of equipment with high embodied energy (i.e. the amount of energy needed to produce and transport the piece of equipment);
  • using minimal amounts of fully recycled Australian paper or hemp paper;
  • charging modest hourly rates, because we:
    want to ensure affordability for the client;
    believe that everyone's work is equally valuable; and
    want to reduce the pressure for constant economic growth.