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Early Australian Bookcrossers
Apr. 27th, 2004 12:03 pmThe first Australian Bookcrosser was TravellerRose in Sydney, who joined on Sunday 29 April 2001. Medusa from Darwin joined a month later. Neither registered a book or had any other input. They just joined up and apparently forgot about it. Four days later, cat in Melbourne signed up, registered a book (Tick Tock by Dean R Koontz) and apparently spread the word to 13 others. Sphinx in Sydney joined on 12 September 2001 – a day of shock and sorrow and registered 19 books, mostly science fiction, none of which were released.
In fact the first book released into the wild by an Australian Bookcrosser was Cloudstreet, by Tim Winton, let go at Sunsets Café on the foreshore at Rockhingham in Western Australia on Sunday 14 April 2002 by lacie in Perth. Book number 91425. It was never caught.
So we've been going for just over two years, apparently. I'm doing some research for "Bookcrossing through Oz" and if anyone can find information on those early days I'd be grateful. The first Aussie Bookcrosser of any energy seems to have been Sarah-Melbourne, who participated in a number of bookrings and controlled releases.
I'm trying to find the first wild catch - the earliest I can find is January 2003, which is when I joined up, so there MUST be earlier examples.
I've been trying to put together a structure for this book. Unlike New Zealand, i can't just tell the story of a couple of trips and leave it there. For one thing, i haven't been all over Australia, and the bits that I have visited, many of them were before I got involved in Bookcrossing. It's been a long time since I went to Tasmania, for instance, and I doubt I'll ever visit Goondiwindi again, now that the Pacific Highway has been upgraded.
I've been thinking of a rambling set of interlocking diamonds, where I describe a location and then edge out in one of four directions - history, Bookcrossing, geography or culture. So I can pretty much hop around the country at will, and still maintain some sort of coherent flow. Must think some more on this.
In fact the first book released into the wild by an Australian Bookcrosser was Cloudstreet, by Tim Winton, let go at Sunsets Café on the foreshore at Rockhingham in Western Australia on Sunday 14 April 2002 by lacie in Perth. Book number 91425. It was never caught.
So we've been going for just over two years, apparently. I'm doing some research for "Bookcrossing through Oz" and if anyone can find information on those early days I'd be grateful. The first Aussie Bookcrosser of any energy seems to have been Sarah-Melbourne, who participated in a number of bookrings and controlled releases.
I'm trying to find the first wild catch - the earliest I can find is January 2003, which is when I joined up, so there MUST be earlier examples.
I've been trying to put together a structure for this book. Unlike New Zealand, i can't just tell the story of a couple of trips and leave it there. For one thing, i haven't been all over Australia, and the bits that I have visited, many of them were before I got involved in Bookcrossing. It's been a long time since I went to Tasmania, for instance, and I doubt I'll ever visit Goondiwindi again, now that the Pacific Highway has been upgraded.
I've been thinking of a rambling set of interlocking diamonds, where I describe a location and then edge out in one of four directions - history, Bookcrossing, geography or culture. So I can pretty much hop around the country at will, and still maintain some sort of coherent flow. Must think some more on this.
