Loneliness can spread a thick desolation. Out the back of beyond or beneath neon lights in a city street, you can experience the emptiness of being alone. Sense the vastness of this land, feel the solitude. Loneliness drives people apart or it draws them together in surprising ways.
There was no denying that in the back of my mind was the fear of solitude. I don't think you can ever prepare adequately for spending nine months alone, but it perhaps would have been good to speak to someone, to talk through some issues.
Jesse Martin, 1999
When 18-year-old Jesse Martin sailed his yacht Lionheart into Port Phillip Bay on 31 October 1999, he became the youngest person to circumnavigate the globe non-stop and unassisted.
During his 326 days at sea, Jesse battled with rough seas and long nights and his journey was one of fear, anger, frustration and elation.
Jesse's story is also one of isolation - his greatest enemy being loneliness. He spent months at a time without sighting land or another human face, with no-one but his portable video camera to share his experiences.
In the Eternity gallery you can see the diary Jesse kept during the voyage, and record your own story of loneliness.
Beryl Royal and the loneliness of living on a lighthouse
Photo of Beryl Royal at South Solitary Island Lighthouse for
The Australian Women's Weekly 1946. Courtesy:
The Australian Women's Weekly.
Born 1929
Beryl's father was a lighthouse keeper, so she spent her childhood at various lighthouse stations around NSW. This story focuses on their posting at South Solitary Island lighthouse, off the coast near Port Macquarie. This was one of only two island lighthouses in NSW. A rocky, windswept lump of rock of about 11 hectares, with radio the only form of communication and mail delivered once a week.
Beryl and her siblings all listened to the ABC Children's Hour on the radio, which kept them in touch with life on the mainland. One of the most popular children's programs was The Argonauts. Children could become members and send in their writings, music, poetry and art. In 1950 there were over 50,000 members and Beryl's membership certificate and badge are on display. The Argonauts aired continuously on ABC Radio from 1941-1972.
Minetta Huppatz and the loneliness of farm life
Minetta Huppatz. Courtesy: National Museum of Australia.
1915-1987
Nettie Huppatz grew up on a farm at Eurelia, an isolated town 300km north of Adelaide in South Australia. She stitched a prize winning quilt from patterns in the Adelaide Chronicle newspaper. She commented that:
Often when I am stitching away at the quilt, I wonder how many more girls and women, perhaps hundreds of miles away from each other are working away at the same pattern. (Letter, Adelaide Chronicle, 1933)
This was one of the first stories included in the Eternity Gallery in 2001. The wildflower quilt stitched by Minetta when she was about 18 years old is on display.
John Collinson Close and the loneliness of an Antarctic expedition
1878-1949
John Collinson Close accompanied Sir Douglas Mawson on the Australasian Antarctic Expedition of 1911-1914. Close was assistant collector on the expedition and later published many journal articles on his findings. However his letters to his wife, Alice, tell of the anguish he feels at being separated from her.
Close's telescope, which he used to look 'over the sea to Australia, home' is on display.
Mary McConnel and the loneliness of a far-off land
1824-1910
Mary McConnel migrated with her husband from Scotland to Brisbane in 1849. At that time, Brisbane had only been open to free settlers for about 6 years and with a population around 1000 people, it was still a small, frontier town. Her reflections about Brisbane's Moreton Bay reveal her sense of isolation and depression:
What a dreary waste of water the bay looked ... It seemed really to me as if we had come to the end of the known world, and no other had dawned upon us.
Mary felt the separation from her family in Scotland very keenly. She writes:
I longed with a great longing to be with parents, brothers and sisters again.
But they were on the other side of the world.
Despite her grief, Mary endeavoured to make a home for her family on their farm at Cressbrook. The death of two infant sons and the lack of children's hospital services in Brisbane led her to rally other women to raise funds and establish the Hospital for Sick Children in 1878. This later became the Royal Children's Hospital.
By 1905, after nearly 60 years living near Brisbane, she was able to write:
I had begun to feel contented and happy in my far-away home. This far-awayness caused the one heartache in my otherwise happy life.
Mary had a strong Christian faith. A Presbyterian Hymn book which was given to her by her sons in 1878 is on display.
Stories no longer on display
Bejah Dervish
The loneliness of exploring inland Australia (1900-40s)
Ingrid Ozols
Suffering from the loneliness of depression and anxiety (contemporary)
Jack Castrission
Immigrant established a cafe in Gundagai, bringing together locals and travellers (1930s)
Jane McLean
Reaching out through the Salvation Army to the men on in the Western Australian goldfields (1890s)
Mildrid Hartigan
Loneliness of women in suburban Australia in the 1950s (post WW2)
Noelle Sandwith
Loneliness travelling on the Birdsville Track (1950s)
Normie Rowe
Alienation and trauma of a returning Vietnam vet and groups to overcome this (1960s-today)
