Tarzan returns to the tropics

MICHAEL Fomenko, aka Tarzan, is back home in the Far North.

The legend of our region is living quietly in the aged care section of Babinda Multi Purpose Health Centre after spending up to six years in a home at Gympie.

More than two-and-a-half years ago former Cairns Post reporter Dominic Geiger tracked down Mr Fomenko to the home where he was admitted about late 2012.

He used to stride bare-chested up and down the Bruce Highway, winning over the hearts and minds of motorists he passed, as well as locals.

Armed with little more than his potato sack, Mr Fomenko would occasionally accept lifts from strangers as he moved to and from his jungle camps.

Late 2012 he started walking from the Far North to visit his sister in Sydney but his body gave up at Gympie.

Back in 2016 he asked staff at the Cooinda Aged Care Centre if he could return to his much-loved tropics.

Finally his wish has been granted and the 88-year-old can now gaze fondly at the rainforests surrounding Babinda.

Why is it that someone as reclusive as Mr Fomenko garners so much public attention and adulation?

It’s because the reclusive bushman shunned modern society and lived a simple existence with no mobile phone, internet or television.

His home was the jungle and his supermarket the land and waterways surrounding his humpy.

A hospital is far from his preferred way of living but he can now live out his days in relative comfort and security and with the best possible health care and nourishment.

Welcome home Tarzan. Nick Dalton Deputy editor