AN Australian pensioner whose family once lived in Darwen has made a 12,000 mile journey back to East Lancashire to hand in a book at the town library.

Doug Duxbury, 75, now lives in Brisbane but he and fellow Australian citizen Ray Morton, are both originally from England. After joining the merchant navy in their youth, both made Australia their home.

But when Doug visited his pal recently he noticed a book entitled "Darwen in Retrospect" on his shelf. Ray had inherited it from his grandfather, who was a bookbinder, and when he died the only thing Ray had requested from the estate was the book.

His grandfather had bound the book in 1930 so it was of great sentimental value. When the pair discussed the book further, Doug and Ray discovered they both had a family tree which stemmed back to Darwen and after scanning the pictures in the book, Doug discovered two pictures of his own relatives. Ray, who is in his late 70s, realised how valuable the book would be to Darwen people wanting to find out more about their town's history and their relatives. So he vowed to return the book to Darwen so it would not be lost and could be used by others.

Doug, who has a brother in Morecambe, offered to bring the book with him during his next visit to England.

He said: "Ray will be so pleased the book has finally come back home to Darwen. I'm sure it will now be well preserved."

Blackburn Central Library manager Adele Karwat, said: "We knew nothing about the book until Doug arrived and told us the incredible tale of how it had come into his possession. The book will now go over to Darwen Library for the community history collection."