ISLAND LIFE

Maatsuyker Island volunteer caretakers Jesse Siebler and Taylor Stevens have come a long way since their awkward first Tinder date three years ago. “By some miracle we managed to secure a second date, adventuring in country Victoria near Taggerty, where Jesse grew up,” says Taylor (left), who is originally from Colorado in the US.

Jesse and Taylor, who are shown here outside the 1891 Maatsuyker lighthouse, have stayed close to the elements since then. They’re four months into a six-month caretaker stint on Maatsuyker, a 186ha island with extreme weather off the south coast of Tasmania.

They applied for the job because they’d “both dreamt of living and working in Antarctica (as we still do),” says Taylor.

“As a couple, our greatest challenge here is also our greatest victory, which is simply that we are the only two people on this entire island [the majority of the time],” she says.

“Sure, we have bird friends and seal neighbours, and skinks that love to creep under our door and sun themselves in our laundry room, but we don’t have other mates to joke around with, family to share time with [or] workmates to whine to.

“We share all of our emotions and attitudes with each other. So when one person is feeling sensitive that day and the other sarcastic that doesn’t always mix well. But, ultimately, this closeness and reliance on on each other has deeply strengthened our bond and communication as friends and partners.”

Follow @thelighthousekeepers on Instagram and via their blog thelighthousekeepers.org The island’s volunteer program is fully staffed until 2019