The Reading Room (2pm in the Library for a start @ 2.30pm – 4pm)

This volunteer run reading and discussion group meets monthly. It is anticipated that members will read the selected book prior to attendance.
If you would like to be a part of this group (free to BMI members) please complete the Expression of Interest. We welcome your feedback through this form as we progress this great new initiative. 
 
There will be no December meeting.
 
Expression of Interest to participate >

For more information go to

book cover
Past the Shallows | Favel Parrett

NOVEMBER SESSION

Past the Shallows | Favel Parrett

Brothers Joe, Harry and Miles live with their father, an abalone fisherman, on the south-east coast of Tasmania. Everyday their dad battles the unpredictable ocean to make a living. He is a hard man, a bitter drinker who harbours a devastating secret that is destroying him. 

Unlike Joe, Harry and Miles are too young to leave home and so are forced to live under the dark cloud of their father’s mood, trying to stay as invisible as possible whenever he is home. Harry, the youngest, is the most vulnerable and it seems he bears the brunt of his father’s anger…

January reading – More> 

This event is a BMI Community Art Project – Ballarat’s Oldest Cultural Institution

Cannon graphic novel cover art by Lee Lai

Stella Prize 2026 : Winner Lee Lai

24/05/2026 No Comments

Stella Prize Announcing the 2026 Stella Prize Winner “This is a thoughtful, deliberative work, and one of the best graphic novels I have read this year.” Sydney Morning Herald / The Age “A meditative graphic novel laced with horror and humour Lai’s drawings come alive in these sequences, which crescendo to a red-hot climax, with bursts of fury standing starkly on the page.” The Guardian “The book feels lifelike precisely because of its depiction of the characters’ unsatisfying, difficult choices.

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The Model Murder book cover by Amanda Hampson, BMI Library

Rosemary’s Book of the Week

18/05/2026 No Comments

The Model Murder Amanda Hampson Don’t miss Amanda who will be in conversation with local radio presenter Prue Bentley talking about Amanda’s new book at BMI on Wednesday 27 May at 6.30pm A Tea Ladies Mystery A model vanishes – A man is murdered – and the Tea Ladies are back on the case. Sydney, 1968. In a shadowy city lane, a young man is shot dead. His glamorous fiancée, a rising fashion model, disappears without a trace. The police think they’ve  found their

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Book cover The Marriage Trap by Victoria Purman promotional image

Rosemary’s Book of the Week

04/05/2026 No Comments

The Marriage Trap Victoria Purman Don’t miss Victoria who will be in conversation with radio presenter Prue Bentley at the BMI on Monday 11 May at 6pm In 1960s Australia, the scent of freedom is in the air… From bestselling Australian author, comes the story of a mother and her two daughters, set in the tumultuous extraordinary decade of the 1960s. A time of great change; the effects of the pill, rebellion and new ideas on ordinary Australian women… as, alongside

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