It's that one Friday of the month (and the following Saturday) when the Queanbeyan Charity Book fills the RB Smith Centre with rows of second hand books and records.

The fair is a treasure trove for book worms, and they turn up in droves. There's freshly made jams from the Red Cross by the cash register, and organiser Peter Bray and his team of volunteers are on hand for a chat and some help navigating the collection.

But there was a bitter sweet note about last Friday night's sale- after nearly 20 years as a community staple, it was the last local outing for the much-loved Queanbeyan Charity Book Fair.

For almost 20 years it's been the charity's charity, raising money for needy local community groups so they didn't have to. Its long list of benefactors includes Meals on Wheels, Wildcare, Queanbeyan Children's Special Needs Group, HOME in Queanbeyan, the list goes on. And the money raised stretches easily into the hundreds of thousands of dollars. Possibly millions.

But for Cr Bray, it was as much a hobby and a social outlet as a way to give back to the Queanbeyan community.

"As I said to my wife, other people pull vintage cars apart or collect stamps. I do this," he said.

"It's a combination of things for me: the social element; the books themselves- you opened a box of books and it was like Christmas time. Some of them were very fascinating; and it's the joy of being able to give proceeds to different little charitable groups.

"We've got certificates everywhere thanking us for our work that for a lot of groups, they wouldn't have had the capacity to do themselves."

What started out as a garage sale 20 years ago quickly became a more organised book fair turning over around 100 tonnes of books each year, with local volunteers coming on board to help staff it.

"Our group was a bit different- it wasn't run by any community organisation, it was just a group of community people," Mr Bray said.

"What we were doing was to give the proceeds of our sales to small community groups so they didn't have to do as much fundraising as they might have otherwise have had to do."

But although the book fair has brought Mr Bray and his team much joy over the years, it's also been plenty of hard work. And with the volunteers all getting on, Mr Bray said it was time to call it a day.

"I am sad to see it go, but time for me personally, time has become more scarce.

"And I don't want people to start hurting themselves moving books around, because they're not young anymore.

"I look around and the people are all tired. We need a break," he said.

The group is hopeful another local community organisation or team of volunteers will take the book fair over and keep it alive in Queanbeyan.

But nevertheless, Mr Bray said it's been a great period of his life that's brought the community together over the love of a good book.

"The books are actually incidental. It's a way of bringing together the community. It's got social benefits that you can't put a price on," he said.

* To enquire about managing the Queanbeyan Charity Book Fair, phone Peter Bray on 6299 9590 or 0425 325 779. You can catch a final clearance sale for the fair at the Fyshwick Fresh Food Markets throughout January, each week Thursday to Sunday.