Travel agent to turn Goomeri Wimberley and Sons Cafe a surprising new store

Growth in the Goomeri business community is full steam ahead with a historic cafe about to be transformed into a brand new venture

Felicity Dascombe is turning an old Goomeri cafe into a new bookshop

A 98-year-old shop on Goomeri’s main street is about to get a new lease of life thanks to Felicity Dascombe and her love of books.

Mrs Dascombe is transforming the closed Wimberley and Sons Cafe on Moore St into the Wimberley and Sons Bookstore, with the aim of bringing back the business trade once commonly found in the South Burnett township.

“Years ago there used to be heaps of antique stores (in Goomeri) … you’d stay all day in town,” Mrs Dascombe said.

Mrs Dascombe and her husband Andrew have been residents of the region for three decades, and the book shop will not be her first foray into the world of business.

She is also the owner and manager of Pursers Travel and Cruise in Murgon and has been a Queensland Telstra Business Woman of the Year finalist.

Felicity Dascombe.

So what brought her from travel to books?

“If you’re a book lover there’s something about it,” she said.

“You can escape anywhere.”

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Then there was the simple feeling of turning pages, which readers cannot experience on a Kindle – plus books were never at risk of running out of power at the worst possible time, Mrs Dascombe said.

The building turns 100 in two years’ time.

She had a unique choice for favourite book, too: the dictionary.

She said she used to carry one around because it had all the words used to create other books inside.

The Dascombes plan to throw open the doors of the shop by mid-April.

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Originally published as Travel agent to turn Goomeri Wimberley and Sons Cafe a surprising new store