The Sustainable House

Michael Mobbs has lived in the Sustainable House since 1978 and began the process of making it sustainable in 1996. The house is on Myrtle Street (Michael is one of the prime movers behind the community garden) and there are regular tours where Michael talks candidly about what worked and what didn't work. Unlike the Smart Home, which is a high-end showcase for expensive technology, Michael and his experiences in the Sustainable House (he has also published an excellent book) show how each individual family can make steps towards living sustainably, starting with something as simple as a change to a water-efficient shower head.

Exterior view

Heath Robinson bell pull

Rustic stairs

Back garden

Nasturtium flowers for salad

Michael Mobbs

Ordinary livingroom

Interior decor

Curious chook

Chook run at the side of the house

Solar panels

Sunken pond to collect stormwater

Plants fed by "wicks" in pipes

Passion fruit flower

House from the rear

Grapes in the back yard

Beehive

Stingless bees (ideal for urban neighbourhoods)

Self-cleaning gutter

The back of the house

Kitchen - designed to maximise light

Kitchen windows

Inverter (converts output from solar panels into 240-volt AC power)

Tizzana Winery

The Tizzana Winery is in a valley near the Hawkesbury River, about 70 km north-west of Sydney. It was established as a winery in 1887. There's a little bed and breakfast cottage tucked away behind it, which looks like a lovely place to stay. Walking towards the dark of the open cellar door, with cicadas singing, bees buzzing and the sun beating on the ancient stone, it could have been the south of France. The rosé and the white wine are both excellent and they also make jam, honey and chutney.

Opera House

It's almost with a sense of embarrassment at the obvious that I took today's pictures: there can't possibly be an original angle left. The steps of the Opera House were thronging with tourists, but it was less busy than it would have been on a bright sunny day; and the grey skies gave the building a slightly forbidding feel, so that even the Chinese couple having their wedding photos done had a rather forlorn air about them. Danish architect Jørn Utzon, following controversy over the design and escalating costs, left the project in 1966, long before its completion (in 1973, having cost $102m, 14 times its original budget). There are 1,056,006 Swedish tiles cladding the roof.