Stories From: Sustainability

Lithgow features as a backdrop on ABC TV’s The Messenger, as the fictional town of Moledale. This is the story of one of our prized buildings and the community that built, maintained and restored it to become the Maldhan Ngurr Ngurra Lithgow Transformation Hub.

Tracie McMahon takes you on a foraging journey of discovery and delicious meals with local experts in fungi and foraged plants.

Hamish Dunlop visits Megalong Restaurant and Lot 101 Farm in the Megalong Valley. He talks with Chef Colin Barker and Farm Manager Mark Wells about their philosophy of sustainability, being self-sufficient and reducing the time between pasture and plate.

Under the artificial lights of a shopping aisle, it’s easy to forget the origin of food. For Polona and Nathanael of Bullaburra, raising their own meat is a way of taking themselves out of the global meat-impact equation. Discover their story here.

Almost 30 years ago, the Blue Mountains Wildplant Rescue Service began salvaging local plant species from building sites. Its Katoomba Native Plant Nursery continues to preserve and propagate the plants of our World Heritage area while helping locals recreate a piece of the bush at home.

Sara Reilly rehabilitated her rundown garden in the heart of Katoomba into an enticing environment for the local wildlife, including dancing satin bowerbirds. She reveals the slow but richly rewarding process.

Agroforestry around the world is demonstrating a promising solution for reducing the climate crisis. In a recent hands-on workshop in Hazelbrook, participants created a food forest and learnt how they could ‘bend time’ by accelerating its growth to help create a fertile earth for all organisms to survive.

The Australian Repair Shop sits at the side of the busy Great Western Highway in Faulconbridge. It is run by Mark Phelan, his wife Rebecca and a team of dedicated 'repairers'.

Belle Butler visited Lawson Public School during Nude Food Week - an annual event that encourages families to pack school lunches without single-use packaging. The event promotes minimising plastic waste and opting for healthy food choices.

Chantelle Cambridge recently presented the final in a series of gardening talks hosted by Lithgow Library Learning Centre. Standing in the shade of fifty-year-old elms in a flowery white dress, she was Instagram perfect, but the journey that led her here would have flattened many.