WHEN Kate Lauritsen-Graham had to pack up and leave her childhood home unexpectedly, she was left with more than just memories – she had over 500 books and toys with nowhere to go.
“We had to leave so suddenly and were like, what are we going to do with all these books and toys and things?” she said.
“There were hundreds of books; fantasy, fiction, murder mystery, war books, everything. I didn’t want them to get thrown away.”
Instead of letting them go to landfill, she decided to start a remote Bush Library on the Cobb Highway.
Armed with a busted old fridge and some spray paint, she went about installing the Tasman Bush Library.
“I wrote a letter in the fridge that said for over 25 years we’ve looked after these books, but now we have to leave. Take a book if you like, leave one if you like,” she said.
The concept caught on quickly, and within a week the fridge was almost empty.
Ms Lauritsen-Graham began stocking the fridge up with books each week, along with the toys.
One local mother reached out to her with a heartfelt message.
“She said when her daughter has had a bad day at school or whatever, she goes up there and gets to choose a toy,” she said.
With the popularity of the Tasman Bush Library growing — and its remote location making upkeep difficult — Ms Lauritsen-Graham recently passed the torch to that same mother.
“I handed over all my books and she’s going to manage it now because it’s too far from me in town.”
Ms Lauritsen-Graham has set up a second bush library on the old wool track near Cobar-Ivanhoe road, about 70kms out of Ivanhoe.
In a region where the nearest public library is hundreds of kilometres away, these little libraries are more than a quirky roadside attraction; they’re essential access pointes for literature and imagination.
“You can borrow, leave or take a book,” Ms Lauritsen-Graham said.
“You don’t have to do any of those. You don’t have to bring it back.”
