Category: Australia

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

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

The Telegraph (UK) reports on Australian David Glasheen, who has lived alone on Restoration Island for nearly 20 years. He moved to the deserted island after losing his fortune in a stock market crash. But a recent court order threatens to evict him from the island because he was evidently permitted residence contingent on creating a business partnership to develop a resort.

From the article:

Mr. Glasheen, who is now in his late 60s, said he revels in the tranquility and privacy and has called himself as “the luckiest bloke in the world”. He lives off fish and crab and collects bananas, coconuts and native fruit, as well as growing his own vegetables and brewing beer. He has solar-powered internet access and still flutters on the stock market using an online trading account. …

“It is a fabulous place, I am a lucky bloke to be there,” he said. “I have learnt a huge amount. I started to value what is really important. Trust, honesty, respect – simple things. I have learnt that you can do things with very little. You soon learn in the bush to survive. If you don’t you die pretty quickly.”

URL: http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/australiaandthepacific/9497391/Australias-Robinson-Crusoe-may-be-forced-to-leave-his-island-paradise.html

ABC TV of Australia first aired the documentary “Hermits: Freedom or Madness” in February of 1998 on its Compass series. (Mentioned in this blog back in 2003!) The documentary is now available on the web.

Description from the Compass site:

COMPASS follows six very different Australians who’ve all chosen to live lives of complete seclusion, free from obligations – withdrawn from society (yet in some cases still living in urban environs), exploring life in depth.
We meet people like Vyn Bailey, a hermit and yogin – Father Ronan, a Priest and anchorite – and Pravrajika Ajayaprana, a Hindu nun.

URLs:
Compass site: http://www.abc.net.au/compass/series/1998/hermits.htm
Video: http://www.catholictv.tv/new/index.php/programs/113-freedom

From the Inner West Courier in Australia comes a brief article on Carol Prevedello, who recently became a canonical hermit (Catholic) in Australia.

She has made promises of poverty, chastity and obedience and pledged to live a life of prayer, penance, silence and solitude in a tradition that dates back to biblical times.

She doesn’t dwell in a cave in the wilderness, but lives with her parents in a two-storey house in the Inner West.

Quotes from the article: “I think it was always in me.” … “When I was a teenager, I used to say to my mum, ‘I could go up a mountain and never come back down again.'”

URL: http://inner-west-courier.whereilive.com.au/news/story/hermit/