Three times a year, Lifeline Canberra’s bookfairs raise much-needed money for their 24/7 suicide prevention and crisis support hotline (13 11 14) – “a service that can cater to absolutely anyone for any conceivable human crisis, any time of day or night, at any age,” CEO Carrie-Ann Leeson says.

Ms Leeson expects the next bookfair – Friday 9 to Sunday 11 February, at EPIC – will exceed even last February’s, which at the time was the biggest ever, and raised a record half million dollars.

Last February, 200 pallets were unpacked, or enough books to stretch three times around Lake Burley Griffin. This year, there has been a 20 pallet increase in the stock: books, records, talking books, games, puzzles, and music – thousands of pre-loved items donated by Canberrans.

“We are looking at a record number of books again,” Ms Leeson said. “That continues to amaze us. We’re so grateful, because not only are we funding and supplying the two major bookfairs [the other is in September] and the Southside bookfair [in June]; we’ve also got our bookstore, which is generating as much as a bookfair every year as well.”

The bookfair is Lifeline’s main fundraiser, and every cent raised will fund the crisis hotline.

“The bookfair is the mainstay in terms of our funding, and generates a few million dollars for us every year,” Ms Leeson said. “And that allows us to answer all of the calls that we do…

“Our mission of suicide prevention is only possible thanks to the unwavering support of the Canberra community, and for that, we are eternally grateful.”

Lifeline nationwide answers more than 3,160 calls every day, or 1.15 million each year. In 2023, 32,000 of those calls were from Canberrans.

The focus of a call is always around the human element, Ms Leeson says: loss, relationship difficulties, isolation, bullying. Sometimes, financial distress, alcohol abuse or misuse, or gambling are factors.

While Lifeline Canberra punches above its weight, its volunteers answer proportionately many more calls than other states, the charity finds it difficult to answer all the calls to their hotline.

Calls to Lifeline increased by 40 per cent during the pandemic – and three years later, that demand has not subsided, Ms Leeson said.

“The community is under immense pressure… People are struggling with high levels of anxiety around the future and uncertainty… We’re finding a lot of people are struggling financially, and that is placing challenges on relationships. Some people are feeling isolated, they don’t have the support…  We know that the government is trying to do everything to support it, but it is often not sufficient to take the distress away.”

Lifeline has grown by 40 per cent to meet that increase, but still around 15 to 20 per cent of the calls (a couple of hundred thousand out of 1.2 million) go unanswered every year.

“We’re still a bit behind on that front,” Ms Leeson said. “It’s the only thing that keeps the team awake at night, trying to find ways to get to every caller when they find the courage to reach out for help.”

Here is where the public can help. One call to the crisis line costs $26, or as much as a handful of books, so coming to the bookfair helps pay for the hotline.

“You grab four books, and you’ve essentially got a bargain,” Ms Leeson said. “But you’ve also got in the back of your mind the fact that you’ve funded a call to someone you’ll never meet, but you’ve changed their life for the better. It’s a wonderful story that we like to tell, because so many people do come through that book fair, and they’ve made use of the service themselves, or they know someone who has. It’s a great way to demonstrate to them just what they’re doing to support that.”

Some of the rare and collectible books can cost a few thousand dollars, but on average, a fiction book costs between $4 and $6. Some cost as little as 50 cents – but, Ms Leeson reassures the public, they are high-quality, clean, and fully intact.

“We don’t sell any damaged stock,” Ms Leeson said. “The books are all cleaned up; a lot of love is put back into them when they are donated to the warehouse.”

Between your car boot and the bookfair, Ms Leeson said, each book goes through a careful process to ensure it is ready for its next home. Items are assessed for damage, then sorted into their relevant category. Each genre is lovingly tended to by volunteers with expertise or special interest in that area. These volunteers pack the books into boxes for a short stay in storage before they are brought out for the February, June, or September bookfair. 

Any high-value items are thoroughly researched to ascertain their value. They then either make their way to the Lifeline Canberra eBay store or the top-tier Collectors Room at the Bookfair, the index for which can be found on the Lifeline Canberra website. 

The public can also support Lifeline through the activities they organise throughout the year, such as the Gala in May, or physical challenges like their attempt at a world record for the twist in March. They can donate via Lifeline Canberra’s website, or volunteer.

“People are so generous with their time, but we’re always looking for more volunteers, either at the bookfair warehouse, on the phones, or in the bookstore,” Ms Leeson said. “If anyone would like to volunteer, we will provide the training and all of the resources… We’d be very grateful to hear from them.

“On that note, a very big thank you to our volunteers. It’s not a small undertaking… We wouldn’t be able to do what we do with a workforce of 800 people if 99 per cent of them weren’t volunteers.”

Ms Leeson encourages anyone feeling stressed, unsettled, or anxious and who needs help to ring Lifeline, which she says provides a highly clinical and compassionate service.

“Give us a call and we’ll listen, we’ll help you through it…

“People sometimes will ring up and apologise: ‘I’m so sorry; my situation isn’t potentially that bad; I’ might be using the time that you could be with someone else.’ … You don’t need to be at a point where you are struggling with safety to call. Obviously, if you are, we want you to pick up the phone and call us. But we want people to reach out early and to try to get to a point where we can enable their coping.”

Lifeline Bookfair will be held at Exhibition Park in Canberra (EPIC), corner of Northbourne Avenue and Flemington Road, Mitchell, from 9 to 11 February.