In the 1870s, someone borrowed a book from Kiama Library for one month; 150 years later, Ross Simmons returned it after finding it in a fireplace, but the $20,000 inflation-adjusted fine was never charged by librarians

Some library books are overdue by a few days, while others become part of history. A library book has finally returned home after an extraordinary journey that lasted almost 150 years. The volume, The Antiquities of Athens , disappeared from Kiama Public Library in New South Wales sometime in the 1870s and was eventually discovered hidden inside an old tea crate sealed into a fireplace.

Decades after the crate was found during renovations, 77-year-old Ross Simmons opened the historic book and found something that immediately associated it to the local community: the words “Kiama Public Library” stamped inside.