When Wanderer magazine interviewed Pat Walker in March 2026, the interviewer remarked that Wollongong, on the New South Wales coast south of Sydney, had almost no secondhand bookshops, and Walker said his own book buying in town had come down to the op shops, Lifeline above all. He had just opened Swoon, a record and book room upstairs off the Crown Street Mall, and Buried in Books followed in Port Kembla, giving its own opening date as 15 August 2026. The rest of this page spreads along the coast, with Corrimal and Woonona to the north, Berkeley and Oak Flats around Lake Illawarra, and Kiama 27 km south, which the Bureau of Statistics counts within its Wollongong urban area; each entry outside the CBD names its suburb first.
The one event to build a trip around is Lifeline South Coast's Big Book Fair, held each March and October at the sports stadium in Berkeley, with the next edition set for 22 to 25 October 2026. In January, Wollongong City Libraries runs a summer clearance at 50 cents a book across its seven branches. Outside that fortnight, the steady supply sits in charity shops: Lifeline in Corrimal and Kiama, a small Vinnies in Corrimal, the Woonona Salvos and a volunteer-run Lions shop in Oak Flats. All the dollar figures on this page are Australian.
Charity book fair (Lifeline South Coast)Lifeline Big Book Fair
Illawarra Sports & Community Precinct, Hooka Creek Rd, Berkeley NSW 2506
In Berkeley, about 8 km southwest of the CBD, Lifeline South Coast fills the Illawarra Sports & Community Precinct, which Lifeline's own events page also calls the Illawarra Sports Stadium, with more than 90,000 donated books from 22 to 25 October 2026. The Thursday evening is an early-bird session with a $10 donation at the door, the other three days ask for a gold coin, and the organiser publishes separate October 2026 lists of collectables, religion and Folio Society stock so you can arrive with targets. Region Illawarra's preview of the October 2025 edition described a half-price Sunday and a quieter sensory hour late on the Saturday, which had been introduced that March, so check whether both carry over to the October 2026 fair.
Hours: Thu 22 October 2026 5pm–9pm; Fri 23–Sat 24 October 2026 9am–5pm; Sun 25 October 2026 9am–4pmWebsite Rare & secondhand bookshopBuried in Books
61a Wentworth St, Port Kembla NSW 2505
On Wentworth Street in Port Kembla, 6 km south of the city centre, this is a shop whose AbeBooks storefront, active since September 2024, says it opened in Port Kembla on 15 August 2026 selling curated rare and secondhand books and games, with a smaller share of new games, art objects and stationery, and some new Penguin Random House titles. The web catalogue runs sections for rare and collectible stock, local authors, poetry and graphic novels, but the owners say much of the shop's stock has yet to go online, so browse in person. A Port & Poetry night with five Illawarra poets is booked for Thursday 15 October 2026 under the Australian Booksellers Association's events program, and the posted hours carry a warning that they can shift around Port Kembla events.
Hours: Wed–Sun 9am–4pm; closed Mon–TueWebsite Record & book shopSwoon
17/157 Crown St, Wollongong NSW 2500
Upstairs in the Central Chambers, above the Crown Street Mall in the CBD, Pat Walker runs Swoon as a secondhand vinyl and book shop that he told Wanderer magazine in March 2026 treats records and books as equal priorities. He described keeping the stock slim and chosen rather than piling out every donation, and the interviewer thanked him for shelving some of their own old books, so it is worth asking whether yours would fit. The shop's website, which dates the opening to January 2026, added a Preowned Books section on 15 and 20 September 2026 with titles such as Sebald's Austerlitz and Roth's Sabbath's Theater at $10 to $20, and it shuts on Wednesdays and Thursdays.
Hours: Fri–Tue 11am–5pmWebsite Lions Club book shopOak Flats Lions Book Shop
59a Central Ave, Oak Flats NSW 2529
In Oak Flats, within Shellharbour City and roughly 17 km south-southwest of the CBD, the local Lions club keeps a volunteer book shop on Central Avenue, having given up its earlier premises in Warilla Grove. Writing in The Illawarra Flame in December 2025, club member Ken Magnus listed novels by popular authors, hundreds of children's books and a DVD and Blu-ray shelf, and recalled the door staying open late one Saturday that September for Shellharbour City Council's Eats and Beats street day. Takings fund the club's local and national causes, and the shop does not open on public holidays.
Hours: Mon–Fri 9am–4pm, Sat 9am–1pmWebsite Op shop (Lifeline)Lifeline Shop Corrimal
191-193 Princes Hwy, Corrimal NSW 2518
In Corrimal, 6 km north of the CBD on the Princes Highway, this is the Lifeline store that The Illawarra Flame's April 2026 round-up of northern op shops called huge, and the writer put its book range down to the same team that stages the Big Book Fair. The reviewer paid $4 for a hardcover craft title and a dollar for an Iain Banks novel, and also noted a wide spread of reasonably priced clothes and a display of porcelain. Street parking is plentiful on the main road outside.
Hours: Mon–Fri 10am–4pm, Sat 9:30am–2:30pm; closed SunWebsite Library book salesWollongong City Libraries Summer Book Sale
Wollongong Library, 41 Burelli St, Wollongong NSW 2500
Every branch of Wollongong City Libraries turns into a sale room each January, and the pin marks the central library on Burelli Street in the CBD, one of the seven locations taking part. The 2026 edition ran from 12 to 23 January, pricing fiction and non-fiction for adults, teenagers and children at half a dollar a copy, or $5 to fill a bag of your own, paid in cash or by card at the customer service counter, and the library said it would restock the tables as the fortnight went on. Its announcement opened with "Our biggest book sale is back!", and the council had run the same Summer Book Sale from Monday 13 January 2025, so watch the library's events page from late December. Proceeds go to the Friends of Wollongong City Libraries.
Hours: Last documented: 12–23 January 2026, all seven Wollongong City Libraries branchesWebsite Where can I find cheap used books in Wollongong?
In January, start with Wollongong City Libraries, whose 2026 summer clearance charged 50c a book, or a flat $5 per bag, in every branch. Between Januarys, try the charity shops in Corrimal. A local magazine, The Illawarra Flame, toured the northern op shops in April 2026 and came away from Lifeline's Princes Highway store with a $4 hardcover and a one-dollar novel, and pointed readers to the Vinnies around the corner on Railway Street for more cheap books and specials. The Oak Flats Lions shop is another volunteer-priced option, stocked with popular novels and children's books. For volume, wait for Lifeline's Berkeley fair, which opens on 22 October 2026; at the October 2025 edition Region Illawarra reported a half-price Sunday.
Where do I sell used books in Wollongong?
No stop listed here publishes a cash buying policy. Swoon keeps a small, chosen stock and, going by its Wanderer interview, has put its interviewer's own old books on the shelves, so a short, focused box is worth offering there, and Lifeline takes donations at its Auburn Street warehouse by appointment. Anything with real resale value is better listed yourself: Gumtree and Facebook Marketplace suit local pickup, while the .com.au sites of eBay and Amazon suit anything you are happy to post. Before you list, snap one shelf in BiblioScan, which picks out the spines it recognises in that single photo and prices each copy for resale, so you can tell the handful worth a listing from everything bound for the charity bin.
When is the big book sale in Wollongong?
The Big Book Fair that Lifeline South Coast runs every March and October. The October 2026 edition takes over the Illawarra Sports & Community Precinct in Berkeley from Thursday 22 to Sunday 25 October: the Thursday opens at 5pm for early birds who pay a $10 entry donation, and Friday to Sunday are gold-coin entry, with Friday and Saturday running until 5pm and Sunday closing an hour earlier. The organiser's count runs upwards of 90,000 books, paid for in cash or by EFTPOS.
Which day is best for book hunting in Wollongong?
Friday. All six shops on this page that post their hours trade that day, and between 11am and 4pm you can reach any of them: Buried in Books, Swoon, the Oak Flats Lions shop, Lifeline in Corrimal and Kiama, and Vinnies Corrimal. Saturday has all six trading too, but the shared window shrinks to 11am until 1pm, when the Lions shop shuts. Sunday leaves three, Buried in Books, Swoon and Lifeline Kiama; Monday and Tuesday lose Buried in Books, and Wednesday and Thursday lose Swoon. In October 2026 the Berkeley fair adds Thursday evening through Sunday afternoon