Book Trail, NEW SOUTH WALES
Airing Date: Apr 5th, 2004
With rolling hills and quaint villages dotting the countryside, the Southern Highlands is a perfect setting for bookshops of all shapes and sizes.
There are so many bookshops around this region that a guide and map has been published to point eager bookworms in the right direction. Produced by the Southern Highlands Booksellers Association, the brochure lists 20 bookshops and dozens of literary points of interest around the Southern Highlands.
A great place to start your book tour is Bowral. This quaint country town was home to many authors, including P.L Travers, author of Mary Poppins, and Paul White, who wrote the popular Jungle Doctor series.
Ron Abbey's Bookhouse is a remodelled federation house holding more than 40 000 books. If you're looking for a collector's item like Dickens, or a first edition like Graham Greene, Abbey is the place to head. It's open every day and books start from just $3.
A 10 minute drive from Bowral is the charming, historic town of Berrima. Home to poets like Grace Perry and John Millet, and the setting for Rolf Boldrewood's classic bushranging tale Robbery Under Arms, Berrima is the nearest country town to Berkelouw's Book Barn.
This distinctive barn is a huge converted barn-turned-bookshop surrounded by paddocks full of farm animals. It's packed to the rafters with over 300 000 second hand books - from classic fiction to aviation manuals. And the best part is that you can browse as much as you like - the owners encourage customers to make a day of it and curl up in front of a fireplace with a book in one hand and a coffee in the other.
Two paddocks away from the Book Barn is the rare and antiquarian section, the place where the serious book buyers come to browse. Here you can spend up to $75 000 for a book. But it's not the words that hike up the price - it's the rareness of each particular book. While a Thomas Hardy novel could go for around $20 in your average bookstore, here it'll set you back $3000 for a first edition.
If you've stocked up on books to read but haven't had time to buy any presents, head to the Bradman Museum in Bowral. The museum is a living centre of cricket, taking visitors on a fantastic journey through cricket history and offering books written by Sir Donald Bradman himself.
The facts:
There are flights to Sydney daily from all capital cities. Prices start from $195 from Melbourne and $465 from Perth.
Little Forest in Alpine has three self-contained cottages. Prices start from $154 per couple, including all breakfast supplies.
Little Forest Country Cottages
Tel: 02 4862 5758
Book Town
You can get a copy of the Booktrail brochure off the internet, or from Tourism Southern highlands.
Southern Highlands Tourism
Tel: 02 4871 2888
Prices correct at 05/04/04
