The Banksia Street Library is a wonderful collaboration between the train station, the local library, and a book club. With plenty of people starting and ending their train journey. It is a great addition to the station with The Shed placed on the mobile stand to encourage more kids to grab a book before boarding the train.

Celebrating Steve, the train station champion and Catriona the booklover!  Without Steve and Catriona, the Street Library project would not have been able to take off. Steve connected everyone together to get approval to host the library at the station and Catriona picked the Street Library up from Erskineville. All you need is two determined community members like Catriona and Steve to endorse the project.

The Street Library that best suited the station was The Shed our most popular library. The mobile stand was also added to allow the library to be moved around to different locations within the station. By day the library is wheeled out and by night it is stored in the office for safe keeping.

Thanks to the local library who donate their discarded books. There is a high turnover of interesting books at this Street Library! The fastest books to hop on a train are cookbooks they go like hot cakes. A box was also added at the base for children books. Encouraging kids to take a book on the train has brought a lot of joy to parents, grandparents and carers. 

There are many amazing stories that a Street Library can bring to a community. One that happened a few months ago at Banksia Trains Station was, a young girl and her grandmother were waiting at the platform when the grandmother suddenly had a stroke. Steve quickly called the ambulance. The girl was crying and very upset to see her grandmother so unwell. Steve grab a book and distracted the girl with lots books to help her stay calm. She sat down and started reading. When paramedics arrived, they had never seen anything like the Street Library and loved the distraction for the girl. 

The library is painted orange for a reason. The train signs are orange and so are Penguin books which coincidentally was started after Allen Lane couldn’t find a decent book to read for his train journey. 

The Street Library was launched on the local community Facebook page and has become very popular on Instagram. It is a great way to promote and show people in the neighbourhood something new.

Catriona words of wisdom say it all “I encourage anyone who catches a train, loves books and is part of a book club to get together and start their own.”