A man who lived in a forest for 10 years will visit Altona next week to speak about his uplifting memoir released on Monday.
Out of the Forest by Gregory P. Smith details his harrowing childhood, bizarre experiences living on the fringes of society and his road to becoming a university academic.
Growing up, Smith said his father was a violent alcoholic while his mother wasn’t maternal.
As a child, he and his four sisters were left at an orphanage for two years before their parents returned for them.
He left school at 14 and was in and out of detention.
Wandering Australia’s east coast, he struggled with drug addiction, alcoholism and mental health before deciding about 1990 to retreat into the forest just outside Mullumbimby, north of Byron Bay.
Smith said he was forced to leave the forest only because he was close to death.
“I was very sick, I was going into psychosis,” he said. “My diet consisted of marijuana buds and creek-brewed beer.
“I became a vegetarian in the forest because one of the things I did notice was that every time I ate a little marsupial or little critter, it disappeared; it wasn’t there anymore. So, I was eating my friends.”
When he re-entered society, Smith said he was too sick to appreciate the adjustment period for a while.
“But when I was well enough to realise that I was going to be a part of society again and I was actually looking to go and get a job, that’s when it really hit home,” he said.
“Over a 12-month period, I applied for 40-plus jobs and I didn’t even get an interview, so that was time for a reality check and so I sat down and asked myself what the problem was and did I really have a lot to offer.”
So, he decided to learn.
The boy who had left school at 14 eventually earned a PhD in Sociology and now teaches at Southern Cross University.
He still lives in the forest but today owns a piece of it near Coffs Harbour.
“Your struggles don’t have to be for no reason,” Smith said.
“It’s being able to see beyond the limitations of today and living in the hope of tomorrow.”
Gregory P. Smith will give a free author’s talk at Altona library on Monday, June 4 from 6.30-7.30pm.
Registrations are required, visit: libraries.hobsonsbay.vic.gov.au
