An 1858 edition of Antiquities of Athens has been returned to the Kiama Library in New South Wales, roughly 150 years overdue. A local homeowner discovered the water-damaged volume inside a tea crate bricked into a sealed fireplace during home renovations, leaving librarians with an unprecedented overdue return and a lost borrower ledger.
Public libraries rarely see a book returned decades after it was checked out, usually discovering them during estate cleanouts years later. But an Australian public collection in the seaside town of Kiama has shattered every precedent with the return of a mid-19th-century architectural text that spent more than a century hidden inside a chimney structure.
Discovery Inside a Sealed Fireplace During Home Renovations
The extraordinary recovery began when a local family undertook renovations on their historic property. While unveiling an old fireplace in the house, they found a tea crate tucked inside and bricked securely into the sealed structure. Inside that wooden crate lay a historical volume: an 1858 edition of Antiquities of Athens.
Local homeowner Ross Simmons delivered the book to the Kiama Library in New South Wales. Simmons told reporters that he assumes the volume was originally borrowed by his great-great-grandfather John Simmons, an English immigrant who resided in the cottage and served as an alderman in Kiama’s municipal government. Noting that his ancestor’s children would have been quite young at the time, Simmons remarked on the unusual family heirloom.
“The family has been in Kiama a long time and discovered this as part of unveiling the old fireplace in the house.”
Michelle Hudson, Kiama Library manager
Library manager Michelle Hudson noted that staff occasionally receive books returned three or four decades late after estate clearances, but a 150-year gap is entirely unprecedented for their system.
Calculating a 28,000 Australian Dollar Overdue Bill Under 1872 Rules
The book itself bears distinct physical markers of its origins. It was stamped as item No. 506 in the library’s foundational collection, which originally totaled roughly 1,000 volumes when the institution opened in 1872. Back then, the library operated out of the local Kiama School of Arts building before moving across town to its current home on Railway Parade.
Printed plainly on the inside cover are the strict borrowing rules and fee structures enforced during the Victorian era. Library patrons were assessed an overdue charge of three pence per week. Factoring in inflation over a century and a half, Hudson calculates that the late return fine would reach roughly 28,000 Australian dollars (approximately $19,500 USD or $27,450 Cdn).
However, the library cannot collect the debt. The 19th-century paper journal that recorded individual borrower names and checkout dates has been lost to time, creating an archival gap that leaves the exact identity of the last borrower a mystery.
“Unfortunately, we have a missing link. There’s nothing in the book that tells us who the last borrower was.”
Michelle Hudson, Kiama Library manager
Hudson suggested that strict 19th-century by-laws might explain why the book vanished into a chimney in the first place. Rules dictated that a borrowed item had to be returned and any outstanding overdue debts fully settled before another book could be checked out. Operating under such punitive debt systems may have incentivized a borrower to quietly seal the volume away rather than face penalties.
Retirement to the Local History Archive
Although decades tucked inside a tea crate beneath a chimney left the small text with minor weather and water damage, library staff emphasize that the volume remains in remarkably good condition.
Modern patrons will not be able to check the volume out for home reading. Library officials plan to retire the text permanently from circulation and store it inside an archival-quality box within the institution’s Local Studies collection. The family who uncovered and returned the item will be formally acknowledged for ensuring the cultural treasure returned safely to public stewardship.
“We’re not going to allow it to go back out again. We don’t want to wait another 150 years for this book to be returned.”
Michelle Hudson, Kiama Library manager
Instead, the rare volume will remain securely preserved within the library's collection to ensure that this significant piece of local history is protected for all future generations.
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