BARRIER REEF HERMITS.

Waikato Times, Volume 111, Issue 18630, 7 May 1932, Page 12 (Supplement)

BARRIER REEF HERMITS.

The death some years ago of Harry Evoldt, on Deliverance Island. in Torres Strait, removed the best known and mo3t discussed island hermit in the northern waters of Australia, writes F. Reid in the .Melbourne Argus supplement. There were all sorts of legends—most of them wrong concerning his- reasons for living a solitary life on this isolated ooral speck. At “one time it was alleged he was the Archduke Johann, of Austria, and various other eminent persons, but he did not look It. As a fact, Harry Evoldt was a Danish sailor who made his home on Deliverance Island some fortv vears ago. At that time the pearling industry In Torrest Strait was at the height of its- prosperity. Luggers used to pay regular visits to the shell-laden grounds near the island. ]t was not then the isolated speck which it became afterward. I met him nn several occasions, but he was somewhat silent and moody, and as the years passed he became peculiar in his ways. He was but one of the many “haliers” who have made their homes on the coastal side of the Commonwealth.

A Pathetlo Story. All the world knew through his books the late E. J. Banfleld, who lived with only his wife and a dog on Dunk Island, hut the story of the hermit of Rattlesnake Island Is far more pathetic. It is not bn own whence he -came before he drifted to the barren- shores of this rocky Isle which lies between Townsville and'Cairns, but he once revealed soma facts concerning his past to a visitor to his isolated home. It had something to do with a girl who jilted him. The hermit was then a successul business man in Melbourne, and was engaged to marry a charming girl of good family. A relative died in England, and he was -called Home to •claim portion of a large fortune. On his return to Australia he found that the girl he had left behind had transferred her affections- to another, and he began to live a re-okles life. When his money had gone he drifted to Rattlesnake Island, on the North Queensland coast, and there he lived a hermit’s existence for several years. Not many years ago his skeleton was found lying in a crude flat-bottomed punt in a mangrove-fringed coastal •creek. At the time It was believed that he had run short of food on the island, and had made a sorry craft in'

Queer Lives of People Marooned from

which he attempted to reach the mainland., Probably the boat was swamped at the mouth of the creek, and the hermit was too exhausted and feeble to reach dry land,

Orusoe-Llke Existence. Another eccentric character who lived a Crusoe-like existence on a northern island, was Edward Mosby, perhaps better known as “Yankee Ned.” Mosby landed on Yorke Islands, in Torres Strait, about forty years ago, and before that ho had been one of the ‘leaders of a mutiny on an American , whaling schooner roaming in southern Australian waters. For -this offence he was marooned on a small coral speck for ■three years. He was then picked up by a trading vessel, and was taken to Thursday Island, whoro ho resided for a time,* but eventually he found his way to Yorke Island. There he lived the life of a hermit, but he soon mixed with the natives, who were a fairly Intelligent race, and he eventually married a fine-looking aboriginal woman. She bore him four sons, all of whom are well known and highly respected at ;Thursday I-sland. Mosby came into prominence several years ago when -he found an old telescope on York Island. “ Shellbacks” examined It and -declared that the relio had once belonged to La Perouse. The death of George Lawson, better known as “Yorkle, the hermit of Green Island,” ocourred only a few years ago, but he was another eccentric person, whose adventurous career would fill a large book. I first met him when he was hunting trepang at Hook Island, one of the Whitsunday group, butf later he removed to Green Island, on which he lived the life of a recluse until his deat-h. For a time Yorkie had a mate—a Jamaican native—who possessed the name of John the Baptist, but during most of the twenty-five years he lived on Green Island he was the only inhabitant of this coastal paradise. He never discussed his early life, but from hints which he dropped when his tongue was loosened with rum it Is believed that he once

Civilisation off Australian Coast.

had a greait deal to do with blaokbirdlng in the South Seas. He had a nodding acquaintance with that romantic larrikin Captain "Bully Hayes.

Female Hermit. When I first heard the story of the female hermit of Border Island, on the northern end of the Barrier Reef, it endowed that wind-swept -coral spook with a gleam of romance and pathos. I have listened to several versions- of how the woman came to live there for five years. The ono most commonly told by the natives is that a schooner anchored -off the island one day, and the crew landed on the beach. Among them was -a woman with a child. When the vessel was about to sail the woman began to cry, saying that she had left her baby ashore. The natives say that she was rowed ashore, and that when -she went to search for the child the dinghy pulled back to the schooner. The -skipper then sailed without her. At first the woman became nearly crazed at having been deserted. Fori a time the natives avoided her, but -she found food In fish traps, and ate the shellfish eaten by the natives. She -built herself a home by standing palm branches in -the sand and covering the top with grass. Later -she acquired ■skill in catching birds, and became hardened to the life. Knowing the value of pearls, she began to -collect them, and when she became friendly with the natives she assisted in diving for the -lap! shells. When she had -been living -on the island for two years her child died. Then the hitherto peaoeful ■ nature of the woman changed. She began to bully the natives. On one occasion, when -she had been insulted by a burly male, she picked up a spear and buried the point in his heart. After this the natives treated her with greater reverence, and she became practically the ruler of the island. One morning a French whaler -anchored off the island, and she was taken aboard. When, she left she carried with .her a finecollection of pearls. When sold they) must have returned her a fortune.