History
From Brisbane to the bush: the story of a special book club
CHRIS CURRIE discusses the love affair isolated Queensland women had with reading, as told through State Library historic records.
“Please, oh please send me some fiction and love stories. I am a middle-aged woman with a grown family and I do like something interesting.”
It is hard to imagine not being able to pop in to your local library to pick up something interesting to read.
But for women living in isolated parts of Queensland in the early- to mid-20th century, the arrival of a book in the mail provided precious respite from tough conditions and domestic drudgery.
Moved by emotional newspaper reports of the struggles of their Outback sisters, a group of philanthropic, middle-class women from the Lyceum Club in Brisbane established the Queensland Bush Book Club (QBBC) in 1922.
The Lyceum Club was, and remains to this day, a club for women interested in the arts, science, contemporary issues and the pursuit of lifelong learning.
As part of the club’s philanthropic work, books were shipped from Brisbane, Ipswich and Townsville to isolated parts of the state. Enthusiasm for the service spread quickly.
One of the Outback club members wrote: “I am terribly tired tonight, but I must tell you about the arrival of my parcel. I had to take three small children and washing a mile-and-a-half (2.4km) to the dams, as all the house tanks are dry. I washed and watched the children and when I returned, the untidy house met my gaze. The three children were tired and oh so dirty … the unwashed breakfast things looked so hopeless and I was pretty tired of it all. Then your parcel arrived and I just sat down in the middle of the mess and read Punch and New York Life – thank you, thank you for including them – until the world looked bright pink.”
State Library of Queensland holds records related to the club which provide an intriguing snapshot of reading tastes and Outback hardship in the first half of the 20th century.
The Lyceum Club helped fund this important statewide service through garden parties, teas and card events.
American library director Robin Wagner, who researched the QBBC archives at State Library, says that “at its peak, the club had 2200 subscribers, with most of the 7000 books and several thousand magazines donated”.
“To get a sense of distribution: a parcel going to Gilliat travelled 414 miles (666km) by train from Townsville. Then, the mailman would take it out 20 miles (32km) to the fence that was another three miles (4.8km) from the reader’s house,” Robin says.
It wasn’t until the movement for public libraries gathered speed in the 1950s and ’60s that the book club eventually disbanded in 1967.
The Queensland Bush Book Club records, 1921-1967, are held in the John Oxley Library (State Library of Queensland), Reference code: OM78-47.
