May 28, 2025
Yesterday I was invited to speak about Book Love for Tathra on ABC South East NSW as part of an interview for flood disaster recovery and how people can donate/help/contribute.
Authors, publishers and individuals from across Australia donated more than $100,000 of new books to Book Love for Tathra after fire burnt more than 70 homes and damaged many more on March 18, 2018 in the Reedy Swamp, Vimy Ridge and Tathra fire .
I thought it might be useful to share a few things I learnt, as there are so many communities in Australia right now who are going through extremely difficult times from floods to droughts and everything inbetween:
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- What to consider before you put out an appeal: If you are wanting to organise an appeal, be clear about what you are asking for. With book love, I was very clear I wanted new books only. Why? So that Book Love wasn’t treated as an opportunity for people to clear out their bulging book cases and inundate me with second hand books. Also, I wanted the people who’d lost their books to have something new as I imagined if I had lost everything in my home, that receiving something new and undamaged would feel more like a fresh start.
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- Where can people send the donations? I used the local Post Office as the collection point, but needed to be diligent in collecting them as storage was limited.
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- When to appeal for donations: The best time to start the appeal is in the immediate aftermath, as that is when people are feeling most generous and wanting to help.
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- When do people need/want them? Obviously books weren’t a vital item for people who’ve just lost everything, so I had to take a long-term view. Due to people’s generosity, this did create some logistical challenges as I didn’t have room in my house for all the books. I knew when a truckload of Women’s Weekly cookbooks turned up at my front gate, I would have to find another space. Fortunately I was able to use a corner in a storage shed that was donated to the Tathra Lions and Rotary clubs, who were coordinating other donated items, and when that shed was no longer available, a local author Margaret Evans (who sadly died in 2025), let me use her storage sheds for the books for free.
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- Distribution – how are you going to get the donated items to the right people? I worked with the Bega Valley Shire Council recovery centre, and they provided guidance and advice for timing and they also coordinated invitations to the event that I put on. Regarding timing, it was almost a year before I distributed the books at a community event. Most people who’d lost their homes in the fires were still renting, or living in a caravan, and didn’t have a new home to put their books into.
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- Leftover books – we had more books than what we needed so what could I do to avoid them going into landfill? I made donations to school libraries and other groups, and the Rotary Club very generously accepted the remaining books to sell at their annual book fair – ensuring any money raised from the books went back into the community.
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- Making it public – keeping in mind that people had experienced significant trauma, it was important that it be a closed event and that everyone was aware of photos and filming and had the opportunity to be included or not included in any publicity.
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- Bringing people together – people were given the option of collecting the books privately from the recovery centre or being part of the community event where we set up a giant bookstore including a reading corner for the kids and a cafe. Local cafes and the bakery supported the event and it was heartwarming to watch people catching up, some of who hadn’t been back to Tathra since the fires.
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- The long-term impact – I was fortunate to meet a family recently (six years on from Book Love) who still has the books they chose. I was able to ask about their experience and memory of the event. Their children are a lot older now but still have fond memories of how excited they were to be able to take home as many books as they wanted. This was only one small gesture of kindness but the ripple effect has been long-lasting.
* With funding from the Bega Valley Shire Council, I was able to produce a film of Book Love for Tathra which you can watch HERE.
* You can read more about Book Love for Tathra HERE.