The book so long it requires its own trolley

THE world’s longest environmentally friendly book has found a permanent home at Geelong’s Heritage Centre after four years of community collaboration.

Created by Portarlington artist Fern Smith, the handmade concertina book stretches almost 700m across almost 2,800 pages and features artwork and writing contributed by hundreds of people from across the region.

Smith conceived the project in 2022 after looking for a way to reuse leftover paper from an earlier artwork, setting out to create a single collaborative publication made entirely from recycled and environmentally friendly materials.

The pages were created using end rolls from Australia Post’s tough bags, while each page was made from outdated Geelong Visitor Information Centre brochures and flyers.

Even the glue was homemade, with Smith creating a wheat and cornflour paste to bind the pages together.

Realising the scale of the project, Smith invited the community to help.

“I went ‘Let’s see if we can make the longest book in the world’. And I thought ‘I won’t have to do it on my own’,” she said.

Public workshops followed, giving people of all ages the opportunity to contribute their own artwork and stories.

Smith said ensuring the project was accessible was a priority, with contributors ranging in age from seven months to more than 90 years.

She hoped the project would “give agency to anyone to create”, while reminding contributors they had become published artists and authors.

“It’s a public record now so it’s in the people’s hands, the people who created it. They own it. It’s got a home,” Smith said.

The book is now housed at the Heritage Centre, where it can be viewed by request.

Because of its size, it is stored in a custom-built box and has to be transported on what Smith describes as a “converted shopping trolley”.

The book will be placed on public display in the Geelong Library in October, with designated days when the book will be fully unfolded.