It’s Friday morning at the Kyogle library in the New South Wales northern rivers region and Luca Barbieri is running an Italian language class. His students are seated across from crafters, teenagers studying or downloading videos, people using the bank of computers – and, of course, those checking out books.
There’s a sense of community here that has survived catastrophic local events: the economic devastation of the pandemic followed swiftly by floods that destroyed houses and damaged roads.
