Meet Lachlann Carter!

Do you want to introduce yourself? I'm Lachlan. I'm an author, a children's author. I write the Big Trouble series for young kids and I'm here at the Toy Library and I'm really excited about being a toy librarian. I don't actually know what that job is. I don't know what my role is other than being like an imagination doctor. I've got the apron, I've got all the things. There's no zapper. I know that's where the returns go and I know that there's toys on all of the shelves. There's some imaginative play toys over here. There's puzzles over there. We've got some wet play stuff over here and then some educational toys down here. Even though they're educational, I still think they can be fun as well. Everything can be fun. Over here, I don't know what that... Oh, that looks like a building box. Okay, that's going to be where I'm probably going to spend most of my time. I don't do... Is part of this job, do I actually get to play with the toys myself? So when kids come in and families come in, we can get into the activity. I'm going to be doing a fair bit of that today, I believe. So I don't actually know how much lending I'm going to be doing. I'm probably useless. I'm actually going to be a bit of a liability. I don't know how much help I'm going to be. But I'm looking forward to it. We are happy to have you here. Thank you very much. Why do you think play is so important for children? I just think it's their world. That's how they live. That's how they experience life. And so if we try to take that away in any way, what are we doing? We're just sort of creating automatons. And that's not the society we want to live in. We want to let kids have that opportunity to explore and play because that gives them the chance to experience and think in different directions rather than just the one direction. Play is so important. I mean, that's how I live my life as well. I try and force myself into thinking in a play way as well. And that's how I write my books. That's not how I do my taxes. I try and do that in a much more sort of straight down the line approach. But I think there are certain parts of life where we do still have to think in a playful manner. I agree. Now, can you tell me a little bit about what you did in Melbourne before you came here? In Melbourne, I did a lot of things. I used to be a primary school teacher. But I also was a co-founder and for about 10 years I was the CEO of an organisation called 100 Story Building, which is a creative learning centre for children and young people. And it was based in Footscray, which is right in the heart of the inner west of Melbourne. We would work with kids and families, young people. And the whole organisation was focused on helping young people create stories in lots of different ways. So not just writing stories, drawing stories, telling stories, acting stories, singing stories. 100 Story Building is still going, so it's still in Footscray. There's been about, I don't know, 60,000 children and young people who've been part of the programs there. But I've been in Cairns for about four years now because my partner grew up up here, and this is my home now. And I do that kind of work up here. I work with kids and families and schools, helping them to tell and craft and create their own stories. That's so great. Thank you so much. And what would be your vision for Cairns, or is that top secret? Oh, I mean, my vision for Cairns is, I guess, something... It's a funny one. My vision for Cairns is a vision that I think young people could have for Cairns. I want to work with young people to create the spaces that they want that are going to help them tell their stories. And so my idea is to create a series of creative writing hubs around Cairns where the young people co-create the space. They imagine what is the space that is going to help us tell the stories we want to tell. We'll design and build that together, and then create the program, which could be after-school clubs, creating comics, book clubs, programs that maybe go over the course of a year where they create something really awesome, like a publication or a movie. And I see my vision is that there could be a whole bunch of those scattered around Cairns. I think that's kind of cool. That is so great. We love it. Thank you so much for volunteering, and thanks for sharing your story. Thank you. I'm looking forward to it.