By Cam Lucadou-Wells
Berwick Mechanics Institute and Free Library is one of the few of its types still standing in Victoria.
The volunteer-run libraries were the rage in the 19th and early-20th century, once numbering beyond 1000 in the state, historian Ken James told the Berwick library’s AGM on 13 September.
Casey used to be teeming with them – in Clyde, Clyde North, Devon Meadows, Narre Warren North, Tooradin, and of course the still-resplendent Narre Warren building.
Now there are just 13 in Victoria, including the 154-year-old Berwick institution on High Street.
Mr James co-authored a hefty 2.8-kilogram book These Walls Speak Volumes – a comprehensive list of all known past and present Mechanics Institute libraries in Victoria.
The prolific Mechanics’ Institute movement was fuelled by a “thirst for knowledge” by inquisitive Victorians, he said.
The vast construction of libraries didn’t relent even during the Great Depression of the 1890s.
These free libraries built by volunteers doubled as the then rural town’s first community halls. A third of them were also used as state schools.
During his research, he discovered an extra 300 unknown halls scattered through the state.
Mr James noted the Berwick library was on the site of a 500-year lease offered by Robert Bain in 1878.
It still holds the private book and art collection of Lord and Lady Casey as well as a number of 19th-century books.
The library is still going strong – with more than 60,000 loans in the past 18 months, according to its AGM reports.
At the same time, there were nearly 100,000 visitors, including 1862 new borrowers.
During the past year, the library also received generous estate bequests of up to $100,000.
Its volunteers ventured out to schools, kindergartens and dressed up as fairies for story-reading in Wilson Botanic Park.
Badges for long service were presented to members Judith Dwyer (20 years) and Susan Griffiths (10 years).
