You could look at the Oration Jones House in the Dandenongs, unusual recluse built of flattened kero tins and bush timber, with a beautiful rustic feel about it., National Trust classified and privately owned and conserved.

-----Original Message-----
From: Bobby Caillard [mailto:[log in to unmask]]
Sent: Wednesday, 9 March 2005 9:32 AM
To: [log in to unmask]
Subject: Archaeoloty of a recluse


I'm a 4th year archaeology student at Sydney uni.  The research for my
Honours thesis involves a site created by a psychologically damaged
(highly likely paranoid schizophrenic)  Italian migrant who chose to
live as a recluse on a steep, rocky hillside on the outskirts of
Griffith, NSW, between the mid 1920s and 1942 (when he was temporarily
interned as an enemy alien).  Taking advantage of natural features in
the landscape and moving hundreds of tons of stone and earth, Valeri
Ricetti single handedly created a complex of dwellings, terraced
gardens, water cisterns, dry stone walling and linking bridges,
stairways and paths that stretch across more than a kilometer of the
hill side.
My aim is to determine whether there was a visionary grand design
underlying this large scale reshaping of the natural environment.  Where
scant oral histories and government records allude to a homophobic,
mentally deficient eccentric, I believe the archaeological record can
demonstrate a vastly contrasting insight to this man's character and
behaviour.
I guess the context of my research will be based on landscape
archaeology and the interpretation of what has been expressed through
this particular landscape.  I was wondering if anyone knew of any
similar or parallel studies.
Regards, Bobby Caillard