Inside Sarina’s award-winning street library made from bar fridges

A humble bar fridge filled with books has transformed into Sarina's only street library, drawing tourists and winning national recognition for its community impact.

Chloe Simpson's Sarina Library on William St won the Street Library Australia street library of the year 2025.

It began as a bar fridge with half a dozen books, and it morphed into one of her town’s own tourist attractions.

Now, with three fridges almost spilling with new and old reads, Chloe Simpson’s book swap collection has won the hearts of her community becoming country’s Street Library of the year.

“It was so amazing,” she said.

“The way it’s blown up has been really really cool.

Starting from a humble bar fridge, the street has expanded to three fridges decorated for nighttime use in the community. Photo: Chloe Simpson

“People would message me saying I’ve got all these books and I thought, I’m going to have to get a bigger fridge.”

Located outside her William St property in Sarina, Ms Simpson’s book collection offers passerbys the chance to swap, take or leave a book for free.

“Generally, you kind of take a book, leave a book but I always put it out there that if you don't have something on you, still feel free to take something because not everyone’s going to have a book on them,” Ms Simpson said as one resident dropped off two bags full of books to add to the collection.

According to Street Library Australia, the first registered library was in 2015, and the trend experienced a boom during COVID as a way to stay connected during lockdowns.

Last month, Street Library Australia announced it was 100 away from having 6000 registered street libraries across the nation, but Ms Simpson’s is the only one in Sarina.

The inspiration came in June this year to begin the project after seeing her grandma’s own collection.

“It’s a good way to bring people together,” Ms Simpson said.

A bag full of books was dropped off by strangers as Ms Simpson was being interviewed. Photo; Chloe Simpson

“You might not see people but I’ve got a little notebook in there, which was actually my husband’s idea, and people leave me little notes saying ‘this is so amazing’, ‘this is such a good thing for the community” and ‘we needed this’.”

The William St street library garnered 36 votes from community members to win the top prize and has even become stopover destination for tourists in town thanks to the caravan park across the road.

One comment from a fan who voted for Ms Simpson said the library filled a hole in the tight knit community.

“So many kids love it and it’s close to the schools for the kids walking home. There’s also tea bags and little miscellaneous things that people may want or need especially when reading a book,” they said.