Category: Australia

Posted on

Jo Nemeth, living moneyless

The Guardian presents an article on Jo Nemeth, who lives in Australia — and lives moneyless. Nemeth was partly inspired by Mark Boyle (whose book, The Moneyless Man, is reviewed by Hermitary). Byline: “Ten years ago, Jo Nemeth quit her job and closed her bank account. Today, she’s more committed than ever to her moneyless life.” Nemeth says: “I feel more secure than when I was earning.”

URL: https://www.theguardian.com/lifeandstyle/2025/feb/01/meet-the-woman-who-lives-without-money-i-feel-more-secure-than-when-i-was-earning
Jo Nemeth’s blog: https://jolowimpact.wordpress.com/
Hermitary review ofBoyle book: https://www.hermitary.com/bookreviews/boyle.html

Posted on

David Glasheen, Australian hermit

ABC News (Australian Broadcasting Company) offers a report titled “When David Glasheen lost everything, moving to a remote island saved him.”

“In his earlier life he lived in Sydney where he built a multi-million-dollar mining company. But he lost most of his family’s wealth, around $37 million today, in the stock market crash of 1987. Shortly after, his marriage broke down. He was ‘wounded, seriously wounded’.

“He arrived on Restoration Island after hearing about it through a friend — and never left.”

URL: https://www.abc.net.au/news/2019-07-23/ex-millionaire-david-glasheen-revived-by-remote-island-living/11310184

Posted on

Maija Zlatic, hermit mystery

Maija Zlatic, a Serbian-Australian widow who inherited over $5 million but deliberately lived in apparent poverty as a hermit in a mud hut in Serbia, died without a trace of the money she inherited from her late husband. She had supposedly given away the first million dollars awarded to her by an Australian court, but the rest of the money’s whereabouts is unknown. Her fellow-villagers are curious, suspecting that caregivers may have stolen everything.

URL: http://www.news.com.au/finance/money/maija-zlatic-a-serbian-woman-who-inherited-1m-from-her-australian-husband-has-died-and-her-neighbours-are-curious-about-her-fotune/news-story/51df02ef9a6eeab4e171dcdb86f71113; http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-3681914/Serbian-hermit-woman-dies-months-Australian-husband-left-1million.html

Posted on

Cloistered Australian nuns

From the Northern Star (Australia) comes a unique photo gallery of  cloistered or reclused nuns, from the Carmelite monastery of Goonellebah. Notes the article:

The Northern Star was recently given access to the hidden world of the Carmelite nuns in Goonellabah.

It has been almost 20 years since the Star visited and it was a rare opportunity to glimpse a life which, for many, is unimaginable.

As seen in the photos the nuns days are filled with tasks, prayer, duties and other items around the monastery.

URL: article: http://www.northernstar.com.au/news/nuns-live-life-solitude/3048471/; photos: http://www.northernstar.com.au/photos/photo-gallery-03-06-2016-1150/41352/#/0

Posted on

Australian “Tarzan” hermit

Michael Peter Fomenko, 84, has been called the original Tarzan, surviving in the wilderness of Australia 60 years, accumulating legend and notoriety for decades. Reputedly the son of a Russian princess, Fomenko, notes the Daily Mail,

shunned modern society 60 years ago and survived by slaying crocodiles and boars with his bare hands in the wilderness.

He fled Sydney at the age of 24 and retreated to the rainforests between Cape York and Ingham in northern Australia to live as a recluse after becoming inspired by Homer’s epic poem, The Odyssey.

Over the years, Fomenko was harassed for vagrancy, indecency (he wore a Tarzan-like loincloth), and was once charged with mental illness and institutionalized in a psychiatric hospital. But Fomenko has outlasted these mishaps, returning to extended periods of solitude in the wilderness to resurface occasionally. He now lives in an old age care facility where he reportedly does not commnicate much but appears content.

URL: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-3233460/Real-life-Tarzan-Michael-Peter-Fomenko.html