General News
4 November, 2025
People power saves libraries
PEOPLE power has forced Tablelands Regional Council to back-pedal on a plan to close the Millaa Millaa, Yungaburra, Mt Garnet and Herberton libraries.
In July, Mayor Rod Marti told the community there had been a significant decrease in attendance to libraries and “the bottom line is, we can’t continue to provide seven libraries in our region”.
But last week, the Mayor backed retaining all libraries, telling council the community had spoken loudly in its desire to keep the facilities open, and the council had listened.
“Council made a decision in January to do the review, council officers have done an enormous amount of work, talking first to council staff and then engaging with the community….and the response from those communities that felt they were under threat has really been overwhelming,” Mayor Marti said.
“We go back to the decision we made in January when we also had advice from CT Consulting ‘don’t mess with libraries’ because the gain you get from cutting your library services compared to the harm you cause to the community, they don’t really match up.
“Libraries do not cost us a motsa – you look at what we spend on libraries and what we spend on one road, (that) could be a whole library’s budget.
“It shows that this council has listened to the community, it shows that this council has maturity because we made a decision to do the review of libraries and it wasn’t a fait accompli.
“Now we have got all the information that’s come in, it doesn’t stack up from a community perspective.
“We look at the investment in libraries and the community benefit that we’re all fully aware of now - this is a mature council making a decision that reflects the community’s response.
“We thought we could make some savings here, but we found what the community felt about libraries and looked at our investment in libraries, which is modest, and we decided that we’re better to fall in favour of the community.”
The decision by council will see the Mt Garnet library stay in its current building rather than being moved to the town’s visitor information centre, and the Millaa Millaa and Herberton libraries to stay open, but changes will be made to how the Yungaburra Library is operated.
Earlier in the council meeting, Yungaburra representative Farrell Morrison proposed a new community model in which volunteers would run the library from the Yungaburra visitor information centre that would be reconfigured to host both services.
Cr Maree Baade backed the move, putting forward a motion to support the transition to a community-managed model, saying it would provide the opportunity to increase the effectiveness of the facility.
But the decision by the council to retain all the libraries riled Cr Kevin Cardew who questioned why the organisation had bothered to review libraries so that those that were under-utilised could be closed, and then fail to see the plan through.
“Why did we embark on this review? Why did we do it? I’d like an answer because we have spent 18 months to two years on this – and I don’t know what’s its cost us in dollars, the ratepayers – to come up with a zero result,” he said.
“Our asset sustainability was what this was all about - our financial position within council and the fact that we know that we need to reduce our assets to be sustainable into the future.
“We know we had to make some hard decisions, so I would like someone to explain to me and the public why we went down this path, spending all this time, energy and resources for a nil result.”
Cr Cardew did support the Yungaburra community-managed model proposal, saying this would “take the cost burden off council”.
“If that works, than that will be a good outcome for the community,” he said, adding that he was disappointed that other communities had not come up with a similar proposal.
Council also agreed to review library opening hours, including a trial of extended weeknight and Saturday opening hours at busier libraries.
