General News
15 July, 2025
Libraries on the chopping block
JUST two weeks after Tablelands Regional Council announced it will be reviewing services to the community in a bid to find more money for major upgrades to its infrastructure, the organisation has revealed it is going to shut three libraries.
Council announced last week it was proposing to close the Millaa Millaa and Yungaburra libraries, and the Herberton Library and Customer Service Centre, triggering a swift and negative response from the community on social media.
Most people were angry the community had not been consulted about the proposed closures, while others were simply against shutting what they consider to be important facilities.
The council, which has libraries in Atherton, Herberton, Malanda, Millaa Millaa, Mount Garnet, Ravenshoe and Yungaburra, responded to people critical of the lack of consultation, claiming the organisation had consulted the community in 2023 when developing its Library Strategy.
According to Mayor Rod Marti, the decision to change opening hours at some libraries and close others follows a service review which, he said, revealed a significant decline in people attending libraries.
“The needs of our community are constantly changing and we need to evolve and adapt the way we provide services,” he said.
“Our library service review informed improvements and provided direction for the delivery of a quality, contemporary, cost-effective and equitable library service.
“Our libraries have seen a significant decrease in attendance over the past nine years while access to digital resources has increased, and the bottom line is, we can’t continue to provide seven libraries in our region.
“We’re proposing to start outreach services to Herberton, Millaa Millaa and Yungaburra where we’ll provide services, workshops and one-on-one support.
“We’ll work to increase digital skills so, among other benefits, the community can access digital library services.
“We’re also trialling changes to the operating hours of the Atherton, Malanda and Ravenshoe libraries to allow increased access on weekends and after 5pm.”
Mayor Marti said the staff who worked at Millaa Millaa and Yungaburra libraries, and the Herberton Library and Customer Service Centre would be reassigned within the organisation’s library services.
“These fairly significant changes are some of the first steps to ensuring we position ourselves to meet the evolving needs of our community and continue laying the foundations for a sustainable future for our local government area,” he said.
“We met with our library staff today (last week) to commence consultation on the proposed changes and will continue to gather feedback throughout the coming weeks before a final decision is made.”
The Express reached out to divisional councillors, Maree Baade and Annette Haydon, to determine whether they supported the closures, but neither responded to texts or phone calls.
Community members vented their opposition to the closures on social media, with many wanting to see evidence of the council’s consultation and the details of the library service review. The Express asked for details of the service review but TRC did not provide any.
TRC did respond to one of the Facebook posts, revealing that “visitation to the Herberton library has dropped 65% and borrowing 58% over the last nine years”.
But that did little to calm commentators, some of whom were also concerned that poor internet coverage in many areas of the Tablelands affected the ability of people to use digital library services.
“There are many elderly people in our communities that don’t use computers and digital resources nor do a lot of young children and I would hope that the community consultation involved the over 65s and parents of young children,” one person wrote.
“I can only feel for the families in these smaller centres with young children with wet weather. The digital plan is also fraught (with danger) given how poor internet coverage is in some regions up here.”
Another person lamented that the Millaa Millaa branch would close.
“Unbelievable. We value and need our wonderful Millaa Millaa library service. Millaa Millaa has had a council library service since 1957 which has been greatly appreciated by the community,” the person posted.
“Many areas cannot access enough digital coverage to download books and many locals do not travel across the Tableland frequently. How can the TRC council and bureaucracy think that reducing our community assets be a good idea? Why should we ratepayers not be entitled to the same council services as are those in Atherton?”
Jemma Bimrose used her post to call on residents to lobby councillors in a bid to stop the closures.
“Call/email your councillor and query their consultation process. They keep saying they’ve consulted on the strategy... they did a survey in 2023 to INFORM a strategy... not ON the strategy (where they’d surely have had to spell out closures for community consultation),” she wrote.
“Libraries are not just about books... as many have called out, they are integral to community connection. Don’t just post here... make a noise to the people that you’ve elected, and have a chance to elect, or not, again based on their decisions and process.”
