Dave Glasheen was always happy to pull out a pen for an impromptu beach signing session of his bestselling book, The Millionaire Castaway, for literary lovers who washed up on Restoration Island. Photo: Supplied.
Dave Glasheen was a lot of things: father, friend, business titan who lost his empire, enigmatic raconteur, bestselling author, and perpetual life of the party.
He was also a man who managed to rediscover himself and, in doing so, find a rare peace with the world before he died in Brisbane on 5 July.
He was 81 years old.
Glasheen, a former Sydney businessman who lost his fortune in the stock market crash of 1987, turned his back on a conventional lifestyle to spend more than 25 years as a modern-day Robinson Crusoe on remote Restoration Island, just off the east coast of Cape York between Lockhart River and Portland Roads.
He came to global attention in 2013 when English broadcaster and adventurer Ben Fogle featured him in an episode of his New Lives in the Wild series, before Glasheen put his life to paper in 2019 with The Millionaire Castaway, which has sold more than 250,000 copies worldwide.
Fogle told Cape York Weekly his first impression after hearing about Glasheen had been like flicking through the pages of a move script.
“The story sounded like a Hollywood script,” he said.
“I remember first hearing about him in the British press when he represented himself in court; his fight with the government for the right to stay on Resto captured the world’s attention.
“I remember thinking he was the kind of bloke I’d like to meet.”
Katie Goodwin, who lived on Restoration Island with Glasheen for six months after responding to a newspaper advertisement, said he had ended up having a “butterfly effect” on her life that led to meeting her now-fiance and settling on Cape York.
“I was looking to buy a boat in Far North Queensland, and his ad popped up in the Google search saying he was looking for a single or a couple to help restore an old yacht on the island,” she reflected.
“I’d never thought about going to Cape York before in my life and I responded to the ad, and me and Dave got along like a house on fire.
“At that time, I actually did need some restoring, and I ended up on Restoration Island not realising that my new life was going to start in Cape York just from responding to his ad.
“Now, I’m engaged to Jayson, and everything [with Glasheen] just led to greater things.”
When asked what the most important lesson she had learned from Glasheen was, Ms Goodwin said it was that “money meant nothing” in the pursuit of happiness.
Ben Fogle says Dave Glasheen “lost everything but found happiness” as he imparted an important lesson to many about what truly matters in life. Photo: Instagram (benfogle).
“He moved himself away from the rat race, because when you’re down in the rat race, you’re just thinking about materialistic shit – making money, or success and all that sort of stuff.
“When you come up here, it wouldn’t even matter if you were a multi-millionaire; you’ve got nowhere to spend your money.
“If you think you need it, you actually don’t.”
Glasheen’s message of not putting a price on happiness also resonated with Fogle, who urged people to give up chasing material possessions that played no tangible part in a life lived well.
“Money does not buy you happiness,” Fogle said of Glasheen.
“He had it all, but it took losing it to realise that it was what was making him unhappy; I respect that many people are struggling to make ends meet, but many are chasing an excess that we don’t need.
“Dave lost everything but found happiness.”
Lockhart River Aboriginal Shire Council chief executive officer David Clarke said Glasheen would be sorely missed by community residents with whom he had developed “deep friendships” after arriving on Restoration Island in 1997.
“He always had a good heart and was always trying to do the right thing by the Kuuku Ya’u people, whose Country he was living on,” Mr Clarke said.
“Everyone warmed up to him over time, even though he still couldn’t fix a bloody lawnmower after 25 years.”
Ms Goodwin said while many believed Glasheen was living a lonely, solitary existence on Restoration Island, he had a “constant visitor base” of friends, commercial fishing vessels, recreational boaties, cruise ships and celebrities.
She added the octogenarian was also never one to shy away from cutting loose on the dancefloor, even if it was sand.
“He was the life of the party – he was an energy,” she said.
“He’d always be the last man standing at a party, which was always amazing; he would be the one there till the very end.”
Glasheen’s passing has left a deep void on Restoration Island and in the hearts of the family and friends who loved him.
There will never be another Millionaire Castaway.
Ben Fogle and Dave Glasheen share a beer on the beach while the English broadcaster was on Restoration Island filming an episode of New Lives in the Wild. Photo: Instagram (benfogle).
