SW Qld Regional Rep Melanie Mills has been catching up on the latest activities from across the south-east region.
BALONNE
Storyfest South West
- 1,195 ticket sales
- 662 attendees
- 14 schools
- Almost 400 new books in homes across our shire!
Schools brought children from near and far to attend our inaugural – Storyfest South West – some staying overnight to take full advantage of all that was on offer. We hosted presentations for both children and adults, schmoozed with the elite of Australian children’s authors, enjoyed Dip ‘n Dots, delighted in the community beehive project, and appreciated numerous visits to the temporary bookshop!
Oliver represented Wyandra State School – the eldest child at his school being 8 years old and in year 3, came with his mum, stayed overnight, attended sessions, met authors, and had an absolute ball! What a story he had to tell his fellow students!
The Somerset Storyfest team were pleasantly surprised with the success of their three-day children’s writers’ festival in the southwest, and we are confident they’ll be back next year!
QUILPIE
Between Makerspace workshops and school holiday STEAM programming, September was a very busy and creative month at Quilpie Library. On September 7th and 8th we held our final Makerspace workshop (funded by State Library of Queensland’s Strategic Priority Grant) facilitated by mosaic artist, Catherine Conaty. Participants created glass mosaics on clear perspex inspired by banksias and bottlebrushes. Catherine taught the fundamentals of glass cutting/chipping and how to put a mosaic composition together. We had 15 participants across the two workshops, ages ranging from 20s to 80s, and received positive feedback from everyone. STEAM programming for the school holidays ran in the last two weeks of September. The highlights for me were our puppet-making session, Minute-to-Win-It games, tech session with Makey-Makeys and MicroBits (purchased with a Backyard Cricket/FOLA grant), and sewing a cushion session held in our makerspace. It was so good to see families utilising our library space for activities and to socialise over the school holidays.
WESTERN DOWNS
First 5 Forever program to support cultural immersion and literacy development –
Under the leadership of Dalby Library, the First 5 Forever Early Years Reference Group organised its second “Celebrating Culture & Community for Early Years” event in Dalby on 19 July. The event was a roaring success, drawing a crowd of over 240 children, accompanied by their parents and caregivers. The day was filled with diverse child-centric activities, generously contributed by 28 local entities including primary schools, childcare providers, allied health teams, and community organisations. Feedback from both parents and stallholders was overwhelmingly positive. The event served as an ideal platform for families to engage with early years’ service providers, community services, and specialised health services.
