The Origins of Buderim Rare Books

A & F McIlreavy Books was established in 1977 in Melbourne, Australia.

Partners Alan and Fiona McIlreavy are both originally from Glasgow, Scotland and immigrated to Australia in 1973. Fiona worked for Kenneth Hince Antiquarian Bookseller in Melbourne where she received something of an “apprenticeship” in bookselling. Alan was still working in engineering during this time and we began selling books part time at Melbourne’s Croydon market on a Sunday.

In 1977, A & F McIlreavy Rare & Interesting Books opened in High Street, Prahran in Melbourne’s Antiques District. After a year, we moved the stock and bookcases a few yards down the street with the help of friends to our second shop. Alan joined the business full time. The business grew and prospered; we took part in the Kew, St Kilda, Camberwell and Caulfield Antiques fairs. We ran a book fair for the Australian Antiquarian Booksellers in the Palais in St Kilda and were invited to join ANZAAB.

The next steps were the ANZAAB Book Fairs in Melbourne and a move to Kings Arcade in Armadale. This threw us into the absolute heart of the Antique District opposite the Armadale Antique Market. During this period we ran the Regent Antiquarian Book Fair for ANZAAB alongside Kay Craddock, who is now godmother to our son.

We returned to Scotland in 1985 where we settled in Fife and opened a bookshop at 57 South Street, St. Andrews. We were proud members of the Antiquarian Booksellers Association and took part in the ABA book fairs in Edinburgh, Bath and Chelsea in London. Fiona was on the Scottish Branch Committee for a number of years.

During this time, Fiona helped run the successful Lawhead Book Fairs which brought authors, illustrators and storytellers to the primary school children of St Andrews, attracting such authors as Alexander McCall Smith.

In January 2000 we returned to Australia and settled in Buderim in South East Queensland, and here we remain. We opened a small shop in Buderim for the first two years before deciding to change the nature of our business and work from home

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Now we operate mainly online and by telephone. We are no longer a browsing bookshop, but with a little notice we can accommodate customers if they wish to view specific titles.

We see ourselves as custodians of beautiful books and although now most of our customers are complete strangers from all over the world, through the magic of the internet many become regular customers.