The extraordinary life story of Gregory Smith, a homeless man who lived as a hermit in a NSW rainforest for 10 years, has been told with the help of a local scribe.
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Former Ulladulla Times columnist Craig Henderson was asked to co-write Smith's memoir, Out Of The Forest, after the remarkable tale first came to public attention on ABC Radio.
Smith - who eventually staggered out of the North Coast forest close to death - has remade his life, earned a PhD and lectures in sociology at Southern Cross University.
"The publishers had struggled to find the right writer for the project," Henderson said, who lives in Narrawallee, on the NSW south coast.
"But when I first met Gregory we hit it right off."
Henderson spent six months interviewing Smith and researching his life, and admits to being "blown away" as the incredible details slowly emerged.
"His existence was so chaotic, so traumatic, so beset by violence and crazy misadventure that you'd have struggled to make it up," Henderson said.
Smith endured domestic violence and poverty as a child in Tamworth and was dumped in a Catholic orphanage at age 10.
His teenage years were spent in and out of juvenile detention and when he was freed at age 19, he had the education of a fifth grader.
More than 15 years of lonely alcoholism, drug addiction and abject homelessness ensued as he roamed aimlessly up and down the eastern seaboard.
Around 1990 Smith wandered into the rainforest west of Mullumbimby that would become his home.
"In all those preceding years he'd been bashed, spat on, abused and shunned by society," Henderson said.
When he entered that forest he felt a strange sense of belonging.
Even so Smith lived a desperate, dangerous and dysfunctional life in the bush, too.
"On top of surviving the elements he caught and ate bats and lizards, snared small animals and he even forced himself to eat worms, grasshoppers, beetles and grubs," Henderson explained.
"After 10 completely unhinged years in the forest, Gregory was on the brink of death - and that's when his life took a massive and unexpected U-turn."
Against all odds Smith survived, re-entered society, slowly educated himself and now has a distinguished career in academia.
He is also a leading advocate for Forgotten Australians - the thousands of people like him who were mistreated in out of home care institutions.
"I've interviewed a hell of a lot of interesting people over 30-odd years in journalism," Henderson said, "but no one's story even comes close to his."
