Borrowed 150 years ago, Australian library gets back book. Fine is Rs 18 lakh

A book has been returned to a public library in Australia roughly 150 years after the due date, with water damage from years bricked into a fireplace. While the late return has racked up a fine of thousands of Australian dollars, the library says it has no way to figure out who last borrowed the book, which was found during a recent home renovation.

The book, published in 1858, covers Greek antiquities and was returned to a library in the coastal town of Kiama last week by a resident named Ross Simmons.

He found it inside a tea crate bricked into a sealed fireplace during a home renovation, Kiama Library manager Michelle Hudson said.

"We've never had anything that old come back to us," the library official was quoted as saying by the Associated Press.

She added, "I follow lots of libraries on social media and often you'll get things that are maybe 30 or 40 years old when they're cleaning out estates and stuff like that."

Later, Ross Simmons said he believes the book was borrowed by his great-great-grandfather John Simmons, who once used to be the owner of the house where it was found.

"I'm making an assumption. He was in residence in the cottage around about that time and his children were probably too young," the man told AP.

The library opened in 1872, and the book, titled "Antiquities of Athens," was marked as No. 506 in its library’s original collection of around 1,000 books. Hudson assumes it went missing within a few years of the library's opening.

The fine on the late return would add up to around a whopping 28,000 Australian dollars (approx. INR 18.76 lakh), taking into account inflation, per the library manager.

The estimate was reached on the basis of the British three pence-a-week overdue fee that was printed on the inside cover of the book, as well as a series of rules applicable when the library first opened.

However, the library’s records of borrowers were lost in the 1870s, Hudson said. "Unfortunately, we have a missing link. There’s nothing in the book that tells us who the last borrower was," she remarked.

Ross Simmons said he was unable to figure why his English immigrant ancestor, who had also served as an alderman in Kiama's municipal government, did not return the book.

The library plans to display the returned book in its local history collection.

"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," Hudson said.

- Ends

(With agency inputs)