The above photo may well be the only one in existence of French Joe, or Joe Austen (formerly Joseph Augustin de Paoli), seen in the centre wearing a hat, who prompted W. Somerset Maugham to write his short story "French Joe".
He died on Thursday Island in 1927, aged 94, but his memory has lived on in several articles in the PACIFIC ISLANDS MONTHLY:
French Joe, German Harry, the "Wild Man of Badu", or, in more recent times, Gösta Brand of Packe Island - the Torres Strait has seen scores of adventurers, seekers of oblivion, failures in the world of competition, and expatriates of many nations, enough to fill an edition of Boy's Own.
In fact, only a few years after I had lived and worked on Thursday Island in 1976, Lucy Irvine spent a year on tiny Tuin Island, after which she wrote her book "Castaway" which was made into a film - click here (unfortunately, the full-length film has disappeared - again! - but you can read the full-length book here; after all, the book is also a film which takes place in the mind of the reader).
