The idea that those who withdraw from the world accrue great wisdom is an old and powerful one. In Hindu philosophy, all humans ideally mature into hermits. As the Indian guru Sri Ramakrishna put it: “The last part of life’s road has to be walked in single file.”
A typist who moved to a remote island alone in the Great Barrier Reef to study marine life vanished from the history books in 1966, never to be heard of, until 2020.
Terrie Ridgway, Queensland’s “Girl Robinson Crusoe” has been discovered, many years after publicity “destroyed” her idyllic life on an island off central Queensland.
Having abandoned the folly of riding a 50cc motorbikes across the Nullarbor with her friend, Gillian Warry, but feeling adventurous, Terri Ridgway just got on a train and headed north. She got a job as a barmaid on Heron Island, a resort that was also home to a marine research station owned by the University of Queensland.
While there, after befriending the researchers working on the island, she became an accomplished diver and developed a fascination with marine biology. Tired of the long hours as a barmaid she moved to North West Island, which was nearby, into a beautiful little shack near the beach with her diving gear, books, paints, a 12v battery and a light. Ostensibly she came to eat she stalks wild fowls, dives for seafood and grows vegetables in the island’s rich soils.
There was a research station that shared the island and all the boys and girls over at the research station were just fabulous and I used to go out with them when they were specimen collecting and I just hung on every word and every little thing I could learn. I used to also go out with all the boys … and get fresh fish for the table for the resort and so I had every excuse to go in the water … I learned a lot from both the researchers and the divers I worked with at the resort but seeing as how I didn’t get off shift in the bar until about 2am, my friend would leave one of the windows open in the research station so I could climb in window and go into the library and I’d just sit there after my shift and just read and read and read
She could never have imagined that she would become a headline. The world was fascinated with the then 19-year-old whose story made headlines across the globe. American newspapers of the day ran headlines declaring: “Gay Nature girl gambols Down Under” describing the teenager as a “bikini-clad nature nymp and other stories described her living in a hut near the beach in her “leopard-skin mini-bikini”.
Then she disappeared and has only resurfaced in 2020 and what she did afterwards is the stuff fiction writers dream up.
If you are currently contemplating that you need to be alone do not be afraid to take the chance to reflect, as it could help you clear your mind of all the clutter that comes with everyday life.
Waltzing With Matilda's 