The BookBoutique

Part bookshop, part gallery, part coffee room, this Bourbong Street shopfront gives central Bundaberg an independent literary anchor of a kind most regional cities have lost. The shelves mix new titles with a deep pre-loved range, and a back lounge doubles as a record bar where customers browse second-hand vinyl and sell their own. A different local artist hangs the walls each month, complete with an opening night, and the gift lines are drawn largely from nearby makers. Comfortable seating, a chess board and locally sourced coffee and teas encourage the kind of lingering that keeps a bookshop alive, and the family behind it runs a steady program of launches and signings. In a CBD where the alternative is a national chain, it is the room that treats books, records and local art as a single, browsable whole.