Man restored

Australia’s own Robinson Crusoe, David Glasheen, tells Wild why life on a desert island is no holiday but is as close to paradise as you can get

fter the mutiny on the HMS Bounty developed grander and more profitable plans. he explains. He makes an annual trip to in 1789, Captain Bligh and the men He says: “They got approval for a 60-bed Cairns for staples such as rice, and receives Aloyal to him sought sustenance on resort, which is ridiculous. I envisage a 12- crayfish and prawns from passing fishermen a 40-hectare speck of sand off Cape York, bed, possibly donation-based, healing retreat in return for island-brewed beer. which they duly dubbed Restoration Island. for people who are looking for breathing “I’ve never regretted moving here but it’s not A couple of centuries later, following the space and seeking the wild; the kinds of all beer and skittles, it’s character building,” stock market crash of 1987, Sydney people who are now travelling to places like he says. “A line once got tangled around my businessman David Glasheen too sought Nepal or Peru looking for another dimension ankle when a big mackerel grabbed it, I was refuge on ‘Resto’. Sitting 40 minutes from to their life.” As a result of the conflicting dragged over oysters and cut from head to the settlement of Lockhart River by boat and resort plans and a title dispute with the toe; I was lucky I didn’t get knocked out.” some 800 kilometres from Cairns, the traditional owners, the island has been at the He was able to get to the mainland in his picture-postcard volcanic island is two-thirds centre of various legal battles over the years, dingy for treatment on that occasion, but national park, a haven for birdwatchers and with David having given his share to the another time had to drag himself up the now the subject of several castaway-themed Kuuku Ya’u people long ago. Though he beach to phone for help after tearing a television shows. could officially be evicted any day, David says ligament in his leg. He adds: “I’ve got a Speaking to Wild on a solar-powered phone the support of the local community protects problem croc at the moment, I’ve only had from his pre-WWII boatshed home, David his way of life from “white-fella law” and two in 20 years with bad attitudes and you recalls the moment he opted to become the considers himself island caretaker. can see them in the clear water, but it does sole resident of this idyllic island on the Great Barrier Reef more than 20 years ago. “I was a chairman of a major company when [the crash] came out of nowhere, I lost “Kids today are so marshmallowed they don’t know what the wild is $10 million and my whole lifestyle fell anymore, but the beauty of Australia is there’s no one in our remote apart,” he says. “I was what you’d classify as places—the fact I’ve got all this to myself really surprises people.” clinically depressed and made the decision not to get back into the stress of the mainstream, which was when a new lady friend started talking about how an island is While he receives frequent visits from sea rule out skinny dipping at night.” supposed to be the most non-stressful place kayakers, fishermen and volunteers from the The island’s kitchen consists of a tarp- to live.” In 1993, with help from a real estate Willing Workers On Organic Farms scheme covered lean-to with two gas burners, a agent friend who arranged subleasing from over much of the year, David is alone with solar-powered fridge and an unused gas the Ballarat-based owner of a 13-hectare only his beloved ridgeback-dingo crossbreed oven. David says the biggest problem is not portion of the island, David and his then- Quasi for company for long periods during having a permanent source of freshwater. girlfriend moved to Resto. “We looked at the wet season. Occasionally a Korean “You don’t realise how much freshwater Hicks Island as well but settled on documentary crew or burnt-out American showers and toilets use until you live Restoration because it’s closer to executive will arrive on a yacht or helicopter, somewhere like this and haven’t had a infrastructure and has all-weather anchorage, not to mention the likes of Dick Smith and rainfall event in three years; it’s camping- plus it has a bit of history to it,” David Russell Crowe, and David welcomes the style living,” he says. Repairing rusted explains. “People thought I was crazy then chance to broaden his horizons. The talkative water tanks and hand-watering plants with and still ask when I’m coming back to ‘the 71-year-old, who chatters as if his mind is a drinking water keeps him busy, and then real world’, but looking at some of my Matrix-style scrolling screen of information, there’s the litter to collect. “You can’t have a friends I don’t think I’d be alive today if I’d seems an unlikely recluse, and he clearly routine here but I get up just before the sun stayed [in the city]. I live a physical life free relishes seeing the effect that a stint on Resto and like to keep the place looking nice,” of chemicals and I’m fitter than I was 30 can have on others. says David. “I find everything from thongs years ago.” Besides collecting bananas and coconuts, and to Japanese beer crates on the beach, and It was not long, however, before David’s tending his garden of papaya, passionfruit, whisky bottles, always empty bottles though, partner grew tired of their remote lifestyle wongai and yilti, he survives by fishing and and then have to get it all sent to Cairns on and he was left alone. At the same time, the bartering. “Fishing is not a luxury for me, a mothership.” businessmen with whom he had discussed it’s essential, but because I know where to go Being barely a metre above sea level means building a small-scale health retreat on the I can catch something like a tuna, mackerel, battening down the hatches when a storm island—as a condition of his habituation— golden trevally or queenfish in 10 minutes,” blows in. He explains: “I put sheets of ply

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over the windows because there’ll be jobs that need doing, though his work attire relocate to a salvage yacht that he bought coconuts flying around like cannonballs, usually consists of very little. “A silk g-string for a dollar. Wild suspects the self-imposed and jump in the water tank up the hill if is pretty good for wearing around here, plus castaway and his childlike optimism will it’s really bad.We’ve never had a direct hit a hat to keep the sun off you a bit, though it endure either way. “I’m essentially doing but the winds are serious when you’re 60 never gets hotter than the low 40s here now as I did when I was a kid and would kilometres from the eye of a cyclone, and because of the sea breeze,” he explains. Spare spend the summer exploring Jervis Bay; all you’d need is a tidal surge and the whole time is taken up by “the luxury of reading”, there’s a whole new dimension of life in place is underwater. There’s no mediocrity which he only discovered after moving to discovery and age shouldn’t stop you,” he here; it’s either extremely beautiful or the island, while one of the things he misses says. “If you think you’re in heaven, why extremely horrible, but that’s what keeps most about civilisation is going to the would you go to the next heaven?” it interesting,” he adds. movies when the weather is ordinary. The boatshed, a small concrete ‘loveshack’ If he is evicted, David could potentially gofundme.com/SaveRestorationIsland and a new beach campsite are the only manmade structures on the island at present, and David says young tourists often arrive expecting to meet “a crazy old bugger living in a cave being a guru”. The emails he later receives from those visitors has made him confident of Restoration Island’s healing power. He says: “A lot of people, men in particular, feel lost in their societies, stuck in a rut chasing the ‘holy grail’, and deep down they want to run away and have a bit of freedom; then they come somewhere like this where you can reflect on it all and realise how crazy you’ve been.” He adds: “Kids today are so marshmallowed they don’t know what the wild is anymore, but the beauty of Australia is there’s no one in our remote places—the fact I’ve got all this to myself really surprises people.” In 2009, David made international headlines when a friend posted his profile on a dating website. “The women who replied wanted a holiday rather than a life change and would lose interest when I suggested meeting onshore,” he recalls. “And there’s not a lot of older women that want to run around the rock as as I do.” The only time you get a real sense of self-doubt and loneliness from David, however, is when he discusses his youngest daughter, who committed suicide in 2012 after struggles with alcohol abuse that no amount of visits to Restoration proved able to cure. He admits he hopes his 16-year-old son, who visits on school holidays, will take over stewardship of the island if he has not achieved his aim of passing full ownership to the residents of Lockhart River by the time he dies. He is clearly tapped into current affairs (he has an iPad), but is bewildered by his past life as a marketing executive flogging goods he himself never wanted. Much of the time, David’s life runs as rhythmically as that of the migratory birds, lizards, bandicoots and cuscuses that roam the island. He says: “In September millions of metallic starlings appear like clouds of smoke in the air, and from November I expect to see about 10 turtles nesting, though we only had two last year.” He says David stockpiles potential cannonballs he potters the same way a hobby farmer Photo: Brian Cassey might, never having time to finish all the

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