On a rainy day in Melbourne’s CBD, a large crowd of people gathered on Bourke Street to form a human chain for the purpose of transferring books. Despite the wintry weather, approximately 300 individuals took part in the event, which was organized to aid the relocation of the beloved bookshop, Hill of Content, to a new location after over a century at its original site.
Book lovers, construction workers, children, and their parents, stretching for hundreds of meters along Bourke Street, participated in passing thousands of books from the old Hill of Content store to its new location. People pulled out umbrellas and wore raincoats, with the books wrapped in brown paper, but they were undeterred by the weather.
Hill of Content, Melbourne’s oldest bookstore which opened in 1922 and had the three-story heritage-listed building sold for $5.3m last year, is now situated at 32 Bourke Street. The owner, Diana Johnson, indicated that the human chain would help move 17,000 books to the new store, expressing gratitude to the loyal customers for their long-time support.
Within an hour, the book lovers managed to place hundreds of books on the new shelves. Diana Johnson was inspired by a similar “book brigade” event in the United States that helped to relocate Serendipity Books in Michigan. Book lovers were invited through a social media post, resulting in a strong show of community support with Jess, Wyatt, and Angela among the volunteers who took part in the move.
Source: https://www.theguardian.com/australia-news/2025/jul/10/hill-of-content-bookshop-melbourne-human-chain-bourke-street-move
