Annual General Meeting - 5th March 2011

Our Annual General Meeting will be held on Saturday 5th March, 2011 at the Tom Thumb Room, Wollongong City Library from 2 pm to 4 pm.


We hope to have as our speaker one of the local public librarians.


Hope to see you all there.

HSC Extension Day -1st December 2010

Our final event for 2010 was another workshop day especially for local 2011 HSC students studying English Extension 2. This was held at Edmund Rice College. Over 120 students travelled from all over NSW attended. Some of the schools were Moruya High, Ulladulla High, Nowra High, Macarthur Anglican, Chevalier.


The speakers were Don Carter, BOS Head Inspector of English and Tony Britten, English Co-Ordinator at SCEGGS, Darlinghurst.

CBCA Christmas Dinner - 10th November 2010

On the 10th November over 70 guests enjoyed a wonderful three course dinner at Villa D’Oro, Wollongong and were extremely lucky to have the incredibly talented Glenda Millard fly in from Victoria to entertain them.

Glenda has two books short-listed this year in the CBCA Book of the Year Awards - Isabella’s Garden and A Small Free Kiss in the Dark.

Our table hung onto every word Glenda spoke about her life and writing, we reminisced on our own childhood and were so enthralled that we ignored the delicious desserts that sat in front of us until Glenda finished.

What a great end to the year.

Jackie French and Bruce Whatley - 7th September 2010

Over 500 children from schools throughout the Illawarra were entertained for the morning by Jackie French and Bruce Whatley at The Illawarra Grammar School IGC Hall. A wonderful morning was had by all.

Children’s Literary Lunch – 3rd August 2010

Bruce Whatley
Oliver Phommavanh
This year the Children's Literary Lunch was held at the Fraternity Bowling and Recreation Club, Fairy Meadow. Guest Speaker was Bruce Whatley hosting a drawing workshop.

Approximately 120 children, teachers and librarians from around the Illawarra were lucky enough to be entertained by authors and illustrators Deb Abela, Aleesah Darlison, Sandy Fussell, Susanne Gervay, Richard Harland, Mo Johnson, Annabelle Josse, David Legge, Dawn Meredith, Kim Miller, Oliver Phommavanh, Lisa Shanahan, Mary Small and Sue Walker.

The children were then invited to come down onto the floor and learn to draw a wombat – just like Bruce’s – well some and to create funny faces with doodles. At the end of the day, the children, with their goody bags and lots of autographs and books tucked under their arm, went away eager to return next year.

Under Five's Grug Party - 1 July 2010

The CBCA Illawarra-South Coast Branch hosted an under five's Grug party on the 1st of July. The event was a huge success with over fifty children and their parents enjoying a morning of arts and crafts, games and storytelling. Every child also received a goodie bag with a Grug book inside.
The venue was the Thirroul Library and Community Centre where I felt extremely privileged to mingle with glittering princesses, delightful fairies and some of my favourite superheroes, like Batman and Superman.

But the best part of the morning was the arrival of our special guest: Grug! Everyone I talked to had been looking forward to meeting him. I am very, very close to Grug, so I was especially pleased he would be making an appearance at our party. Halfway through the morning, I began to peek through the windows and the doors to see if I could get a glimpse of him. I was so excited, I couldn't help myself.

At last Grug arrived, and he was so thrilled to meet all the children, he rushed forward and became stuck in the doorway. After a few anxious moments, with a shove from behind, he managed to squeeze himself through! Poor Grug - perhaps he's been eating too many biscuits at morning tea time!

Reported by CBCA Person on the Spot, Sandi Wooton (alias Grug)