00:07A lonely island off Australia's coast. Our reporter Raphael Lauer lived here for
00:13four days along with the hermit and former millionaire Dave Glashin. The
00:18Robinson Crusoe of our times lives in a much more modern fashion than expected.
00:23Raphael wants to find out more during dinner.
00:26Why did you move to the island?
00:30No good question. It was after the stock market crash. 87. I lost a whole lot of money and
00:39lost my family and all my material means basically.
00:43How does it feel to lose everything?
00:46Not good initially, but I didn't have the money in my hand. It was real estate, shares,
00:52it wasn't real money in my head. And I was a victim of the banks. And they've treated
00:58little people like me, like a gangster. When they took our house, our home we lived in,
01:03I'm in the bank pleading with them, saying give me some time, I'll pay rent. But try to
01:07sell the house in a collapsed market. Didn't even advertise the place. And someone inside
01:12the bank bought it. You know, this is very bad, corrupt stuff.
01:16When was the moment you said to yourself, okay, I'm leaving the table. I go.
01:23Yeah, it was about four years later. Things all happened. My marriage failed.
01:28Property's gone. Family's gone. I'm here. A new life, you know. So, and that's what you
01:35do when you're in trouble. You've got to really think hard about what you're going to do. So,
01:40this, this seemed a natural thing for me. Get away from stress. You don't need a lawyer.
01:47It was clear to me. I'm not making a claim. This man is not crazy. You don't need to surrender.
01:57Actually, he's quite clever. I'm not taking aim. But is he happy after getting away from everything?
02:03I don't need a lover. No, no, no. The wretched beast is tame. I don't need a lover. So blow
02:18out the flame.
02:22A new morning in paradise. My first night on this lonely island was quite moist and a bit scary. But
02:29all in all, okay. Like every morning, Dave gives me my load of work. Young adults from all over the
02:38world can also live on Dave's island in their work and travel year. In exchange, they have to help with
02:44the workload. There's enough to do. And at 72, the body isn't quite as strong anymore. And that worries me.
02:53Because life on a lonely island is also dangerous. As I was about to learn. On the third day, Dave
03:01wants to go
03:01fishing with me.
03:04No seriously, are there crocodiles in here? Yeah, yeah.
03:08Okay. They're friends. They're local pets. Are you kidding me?
03:14I'm kidding me. You don't see the train. They each in one go.
03:17How big are they? Up to 10 meters. No, you're kidding me. There's one nearly 10 meters.
03:24But they're not here at the moment, the crocodiles? No, we can't see them.
03:28Yeah, they're pretty big. They're twice as big as the boat, a big one. So they're hard to hide,
03:32you know. They're not transparent. They're easy to spot. Do they attack boats? No.
03:39Okay, okay. Dog's your best. People and dogs.
03:44Actually, a crocodile ate Dave's long-time partner, his dog Polly, on the beach. The modern
03:50Robinson deals with it unusually. But with Dave, a lot is unusual. Such as his technique of fishing,
03:57working with a line at full speed.
04:16It doesn't work.
04:18According to Dave, he pulls a fish out of the water almost every day. This time, however,
04:23the hook gets caught on a rock underwater. And neither show signs of reappearing.
04:33It usually wouldn't be much of a problem, right? You get in the water, you get the hook out again.
04:38But with 10-meter crocodiles swimming around here, nobody is eager to jump in, not even him.
04:47Okay.
04:48Incidentally, Dave's second dog has been bitten by a taipan snake on the island, the most poisonous snake
04:54in the world. Dave thinks it must have swum over. His island is free of poisonous snakes.
05:02Either way, there is nothing that would bring me or Dave into the water. We have to call the fishing
05:07off.
05:12And what does the modern Robinson do if he doesn't catch any fish? That's right. He gets meat from his
05:19solar-powered freezer. Oh, wow. Does it work? The spoiled fishing trip gives me food for thought,
05:26however. What would Dave do if something really happens to him? The answer is given to me directly
05:32by the 72-year-old himself. This is where I fell over. Right here. You fell over here? Yeah. I
05:39tripped on this.
05:40Well, this wasn't here at the time. Yeah. So I put that there now, but...
05:45Initially, I'll come in here. The inverter was making noises. Yeah. So I need to turn it. It was
05:505 o'clock in the afternoon. I had a beer in my right hand, and I needed to turn that
05:54off. So I walked in here,
05:55and I tripped on this, and I've gone crash, and I went right down here, like that. Like that. Boom!
06:05Just went whack!
06:06And I got my beer here. Yeah. And all of a sudden this hit broken. I didn't know what happened,
06:11but I knew I hurt myself. So I had a quick sip of beer, and I thought, shit, what am
06:17I going to do?
06:18So I got myself up here. I could feel the pain, and I dragged myself up here. I've got a
06:27broken
06:27bloody hip, wasn't it? And I thought, fuck. I had to get to the house. It took me about an
06:34hour from here
06:34to go 100 metres in terrible pain. So I knew it hurt myself. I didn't know exactly what happened.
06:40And I thought, well, I've got to... I can't stand here. I've got to ring and get help.
06:45So you have a telephone? The telephone was working. Yeah.
06:48It's not working now. It hasn't been working for over a year. Okay.
06:52But the week after I fell, the telephone went out.
06:56A special helicopter flew in from Cairns, Australia, 700 kilometres away, to bring Dave out.
07:02Since then, he's owned a satellite phone. But would it be any use during a critical emergency?
07:08A rescue mission takes at least six hours after receiving an emergency call.
07:15Much more often, the modern Robinson uses the phone to talk to his older brother, who lives in Sydney,
07:21or his son in Cairns. Every other day, there's a call. They even try to visit him on the island
07:27about once a year.
07:28My wife has all my... most of our pictures.
07:32It takes three days for Dave to fulfil Raphael's request and show him some photographs.
07:37It's an album of an impressive life, but also one full of obviously painful memories.
07:50It's my daughter who died, Erica, my only daughter. I miss her like crazy.
07:57She took her own life up here. Oh, in Cairns actually, but she worked in Lockhart.
08:04And she was a superstar. She fed all the community. She started jobs. She did things.
08:10Hung herself. Bloody horrible. Yeah. Intense. Doing an AA. You know, AA?
08:17I probably don't know, yeah. And it's still difficult, you know. You never get over it, you know.
08:22There's nobody missing. There is no reward. Little by little.
08:36We're cutting the cord. We're spending the treasure.
08:44Like this?
08:44Oh, no, no. The love cannot afford. I know you can feel it.
08:54Raphael's last night on Restoration Island is revealing.
09:02So, Dave, don't you feel lonely sometimes?
09:07Of course. You know, it's sort of hard being here on your own sometimes.
09:12Over a period, you know, you hang for intelligent company, particularly female company.
09:18But, you know, I've spent a lot of time here now, and I like my own space, and I love
09:23all this.
09:23This is like my company, if you like the ocean. Nature is my company, if you like.
09:28So, I feel like I'm living in nature here, and that's a good feeling.
09:34I wonder what would have happened to Dave if he'd not rented the island.
09:38A homeless man in Sydney? A beggar? I realized that although he lost everything in his life many times,
09:45he didn't give up. And thanks to the island, he was always able to keep one thing. His dignity.
09:53The modern Robinson. Dave.
09:58What do you wish for the future of Restoration Island?
10:03Well, I'd just like it to be a place where other people can come and restore themselves, as I have
10:10done.
10:19The visit to Dave's island has left its mark, even on me.
10:26An interesting lifestyle. An exciting man. An adventurous escape from everyday life.
10:35There's no one left to blame. I'm leaving the table.
10:43I'm out of the game.
10:46But live there.
10:49I don't want to live with that much loneliness.
10:53I'm really looking forward to the chaos in the city.
11:15I think that it's a best thing for the future.
11:15You know, the high-techness in which you have faith in a place.
11:16I don't want to understand what's going on for this time.
11:16So when the change has created the outlines that doesn't normally come forward.
11:16I think that when you are living with it,
11:16it makes me live with the nature's University of what they're living there somewhere,
11:16We are living with us.
