Koorong

Koorong is a Christian bookstore chain operating across Australia. It is one of the two largest retailers of Christian books and media in Australia, along with Word book store chain.

Koorong is a family owned company that began over 30 years ago in Marsfield, Sydney, in the garage of the Koorong Street home of Bruce and Olive Bootes, a Reformed baptist pastor and his wife. In 1978, their son, Paul began the management of his family’s bookshop business. Koorong opened their first Sydney store in Ryedale Road, West Ryde in 1978, moving to larger premises in West Parade, West Ryde in 1995. In August 2005, Koorong took over the three Church Army bookstores at Newcastle, Tamworth and Gosford.

Koorong now operates 18 stores across Australia, including Melbourne, Adelaide, Brisbane, Perth, Hobart and Launceston, with approximately 400 staff, Australia-wide and a brochure mailing list of about 120,000. Koorong was described in 1994 as theologically conservative in terms of the books it sold, which was consistent with its Reformed baptist roots. Since that time, its product range has grown and widened to the point that it sells books ranging from Banner of Truth titles by Iain Murray and a variety of Matthias Media titles to titles by well-known Pentecostal pastor Brian Houston, faith-healing televangelist Benny Hinn and Prosperity Doctrine advocate Kenneth Hagin, as well as a number of dietary books. It has been asserted that most of the titles found at Koorong (and Word) nowadays are by American authors.