Published on June 8, 2018 (also appeared in the SMH Spectrum Magazine June 9-10, 2018). Read the full article here.

On a day of dark clouds, Gregory Peel Smith took his pack and walked out of Mullumbimby, climbed a mountain, hit a dirt road and wondered what was at the end of it. He was a homeless alcoholic, a trauma survivor who knew nobody, had nothing to do and nowhere to go, so he kept walking.

The road ended in a rainforest that lived up to its name. “It rained a lot and I was trying to protect myself all night,” he says. “When the sun came up, it was such a beautiful morning in a misty, magical place. I was one of the hobbits, before hobbits were discovered.