William Ricketts' Sanctuary

William Ricketts' Sanctuary was visited by Billy Connolly on his World Tour of Australia. This is how I came to hear of it, and whenever I mentioned it to other people, they invariably made a reference to Billy Connolly. In fact the attendant in the ticket office yesterday specifically asked if that was where I'd heard of it.

It seemed somehow fitting that this should be almost the last place I visited, since it was about the first place I identified that I wanted to see. I was determined to get there before I leave Australia on Sunday, so I hired a car yesterday and drove out of the city eastwards, into the Dandenongs. After picking up the car I took the Eastern Freeway out of the City, then turned off at Fern Tree Gully to follow the Dandenong Tourist Road through Sassafras and Olinda - beautiful names - and along the winding uphill road bordered by towering eucalyptus forest.

From what I had already seen and read about the sanctuary and William ('Brother Billy')Ricketts himself, I expected to find the place moving. I wasn't prepared for the effect it did have on me. In the filmed interview, Ricketts himself says that the essence of spirit cannot be described in words, but only felt in the heart. I feel a bit like that about the place itself and my whole experience of it.

I watched the documentary about William Rickets life and work, then sat through the video of the interview with him, made when he was already in his 90s. He died - aged 94 - in 1992 or thereabouts. I found it painful to watch the video. He was one of those people who have such passion and belief that it is easy to dismiss them as strange or 'eccentric'. Sitting there in what was Ricketts' home, watching the video, I wondered if the discomfort engendered by the experience stems in part from the fear that I too might be thought just as strange if I were to speak about my beliefs.

Ricketts spoke of all wildlife, and his Aborignal 'brothers', as being the essence of god, or spirit. It was his life's work to give form to that spirit and to create form that was itself a part of that spirit and inseparable from it. He spoke of himself as being 'of the Lyrebird Totem' and did a little shimmying dance to illustrate it.

He reminded me of Thoreau, both in his beliefs themselves and in the passion and conviction with which he spoke of them. Like Thoreau, he found in Hinduism a receptacle for and expression of his deeply-held beliefs.

It was cold in the video room and I was sitting quite rigidly on the low wooden bench, both trying to sit comfortably and also holding in my emotions. I didn't realise how cold I was or how stiffly I had been holding myself until I got outside. I got out the camera to take a photograph of one of the sculptures and suddenly froze in pain - it felt as though a nerve was trapped between my shoulders. The sensation was of that rigid shell across my shoulders which might suddenly crack open. The pain brought tears to my eyes; the pain and the shock of being suddenly plunged back into that place of pain, and the fear that comes with that. For a few moments I thought I wasn't going to be able to move. The pain eased off, but didn't entirely leave me all day. A reminder - of something.

It was wet and cold in the Dandenongs yesterday. By the time I left William Ricketts sanctuary I was cold to the marrow, my fingers white and dead-looking. I got into the hired car and turned the heater up.


Figures in the forest. The sculpture on the right is 'Earthly Mother'








After a late lunch I went on to Healesville to visit the wildlife sanctuary there (see reference in earlier post). There I came across a water rat which seemed to be having difficulties breathing. I was very concerned about it and walked back to the veterinary centre in the rain to report it. Apparently she was found in Victoria Market in Melbourne and has some kind of bronchial asthma. She gets very out of breath on exertion, especially if she has been in the water. A bit unfortunate for a water rat!