It's worth noting in passing that there's at least one small part of Europe with
a continuous record of recluse inhabitation of more than a millenia - Mount
Athos in Greece.  I'm not talking about the self-governing monasteries, which
have also been there since at least the tenth century, but rather the reclusive
(often cave-dwelling) hermit monks found on the southern slopes of the Holy
Mountain for centuries.

I'd be the first to concede that the connection between an Orthodox Hesychast
and a New South Welsh hermit of Italian extraction are at best superficial, but
a quick detour through the Mediterranean traditions of religious hermitage -
both Orthodox and Catholic - may help to ground the Italian-Australian hermit in
broader ideological context.

Just a thought (though admittedly a rather tangential one)

Alasdair Brooks
(currently trying to imagine the stratigraphic record left in a cave by 10
continuous centuries of hermitic inhabitation)