"Individual authors have been incredibly generous. One of the first boxes to arrive was 50 children’s books by a WA-based author for the school, which thankfully was relatively unscathed even though we all know just how close we came to losing it,'' she said.

"Then there’s Jackie French, one of my all-time favourite Australians, who is donating 200+ books to Tathra. As well as Jackie there is a growing number of Canberra authors who are contributing. I am so incredibly humbled.

"Also a big part of Book Love for Tathra is the Australian reading community. People are purchasing their most favourite books in the whole world to add to the collection.''

Other authors who have donated books include L.J.M. Owen,  Craig Cormick, Robert Macklin, Jack Heath, Anna Snoekstra, Robyn Cadwallader, Kerry Malone, Cate Whittle and Tania McCartney.

Jackie said books were "friends''.

"When times are bad you need all of those,'' she said.