A feature article in the RM Williams “Outback” Oct/Nov 2010 written by Dion Isaacson. Great photo’s too Dion, nice work as usual. Thought we’d better publish it on the site.

When Jim Alston was convalescing after an accident, he dreamt of living on a deserted island, Robinson Crusoe-Style, and now that’s exactly what he does.

Ten years ago Jim Alston was paragliding when he hit a thermal. His chute folded and he plunged 30 metres to the ground. He was very lucky to survive and spent the next 3 months in hospital, then a year recovering.

“I was lying in a hospital bed, having doctors tell me that they didn’t know if I would ever walk again, “Jim says. “I was staring at the ceiling for months and months.

I had a little wish that if I ever got better and could walk again, that I would live on a remote island somewhere, like Robinson Crusoe. It was my favorite story when I was a kid.”

Jim decided his new venture would be call Wilderness Island Safari Holidays or WISH.

When Jim did walk again. He and his father chartered a plane and went scouting for his dream island. Years of paperwork, title searches, approvals and, most importantly for Jim, the permission of local Indigenous people resulted in the creation of Wilderness Island in Western Australia’s Exmouth Gulf five years ago.

Wilderness Island isn’t found on any conventional map it is roughly 40 kilometres east of Exmouth. Jim and his family have lived in the area for five generation – he grew up on nearly Yanrey Station, where he mustered cattle before his accident.

Around this time Jim met ‘Harry’ Butler (his real first name is known only to himself and his closest friends, Harry is a nickname inspired by the famous Australian naturalist), who helped him set up WISH.

Jim and Harry had something in common – the former steel fixer injured his back when he fell 50m through history Derby Jetty after a rusting grate gave way. A lengthy convalescence followed while Harry dealt with a long list of injuries, including five crushed vertebrae.

“Jim had this idea for the island that I knew very well,” Harry says. “It was a great idea and I thought, ‘My back’s stuffed, his back’s stuffed so let’s put two stuffed spines together and see what we can come up with’.” Harry doesn’t wear shoes and survives on beer, cigarettes, steak and sauce.

But 10 years experience as a fishing guide – despite the fact that he doesn’t eat fish makes him a major attraction for visitors to the island.

Jim spent $6000 on timber, building materials and power tools to add basic facilities to the island. “I left Perth in a hire truck with $20 in my bank account and a cartoon of baked beans,” he says. “If I got hungry along the way, I’d chuck a can of baked beans. I borrowed a mate’s barge and brought all the gear over here.

Harry and I just lived here, checking out the fishing and learning where we were going to put everything.” The two worked hard to make Jim’s dream a reality and they learnt a lot about each other in the process.

Jim knows the boundaries; Harry is not a morning person. “I have a coffee and a smoke, then on the second smoke you’re safe to talk to me,” Harry says.

“It was just me and him living over here for a long time,” Jim says. “We were just digging holes and putting in posts, and catching a fish for dinner (Jim’s dinner anyway – Harry ate steak and beans).

The locals around Exmouth started hearing about Jim and Harry setting up camp and the amazing fishing in the area. “People would ask, ‘Can we come?”’ Jim says. “I would just say, ‘It’s a bit rough – the fishing’s good but you’ll be swagging it on the beach’.”

The fishing is undeveloped and the area is still quite unknown, but it is starting to attract attention.

Jim loves meeting new people and introducing them to the beauty of the remote north-west. His previous tourism experience includes working on the Kimberley Quest cruise ship.

“We had a group of fly-fishermen here and they caught 52 species over 10 days,” Jim says. “These guys’ fish all over the world – Christmas Island, Mexico, Vanuatu and Hawaii – and they reckon it’s the best fishing they’d ever done.

We had Peter Morse here last year – he’s a pretty well-known fishing identity – and he took out a world record for a Spanish mackeral while he was with us. He reckons it’s the best flats for fly-fishing in Australia.”

The island is about 1.6km long and 800m wide, and features sandy beaches, limestone cliffs, sand dunes and mangroves. With no human habitation other than the camp, which can accommodate 10 people in twin-share safari huts, the island is almost undeveloped, supporting a range of plants and animals, including prolific birdlife.

Jim is mindful of the island’s unspoilt environment. “We run a commercial operation with minimal impact,” he says. “We take hardly any fish and no one takes fish home to Exmouth.

What’s caught on the island is consumed here and 90 percent of the fish caught is released immediately.”

Apart from fishing and relaxing on the beach, the other major drawcard on Wilderness Island is whale watching. Between July and November the annual humpback migration passes the Exmouth Gulf. “We go out and find a pod of whales; you turn the engine off and most of the time the whales come over to you,” Jim says.

“You’ve got a whale that’s 12-13m long; some are three times bigger than the boat. We’ve never had any sort of aggression from them; they are just curious. I think the whales are people watching, as much as we are whale watching.”

Wilderness Island has brought a big change to Jim’s life, and he couldn’t be happier.

“Harry is a pretty good teacher,” Jim Says. “For years he’s been trying to tell me things about the ocean, then one day I said, ‘Hell Harry, I think I’ve got it. It’s just like the bush, but it’s covered in water.”

(Story + Photo’s by Dion Isaacson) As Featured in R.M.Williams OUTBACK Issue Oct/Nov 2010)