The Hermit's Cave is a heritage-listed complex of stone structures on Scenic Hill on the northeastern outskirts of Griffith, New South Wales, Australia.
Misleadingly called 'The Hermit's Cave', the site in reality comprises a complex of shelters, terraced gardens, exotic plants, water-cisterns, dry-stone walling and linking bridges, stairways and paths that stretch intermittently across more than a kilometre of the escarpment. Made single-handedly by a reclusive Italian migrant, Valerio Ricetti, these structures involved the moving of hundreds of tons of stone and earth, together with the ingenious incorporation of natural features in the landscape.
The site is recognised for being a rare example of an Australian hermit's domain. It was added to the New South Wales State Heritage Register on 12 January 2007.
History
Over the period from around 1929 to 1952 the hermit Valerio Ricetti fashioned an outcrop of rock shelters and rock overhangs on a ridge-top site outside Griffith into his living quarters. The historical archaeological complex includes rock shelters (some modified into cave-like enclosures), dry-stone walling, stone stairways and paths, terraced gardens, water cisterns, remnant plantings, inscriptions and rock murals. Over more than two decades Ricetti developed, utilised and occupied structures along the one-kilometre-long site where he lived in isolated seclusion from 1929 to 1941. He continued to work on the site until 1952, when he returned to Italy, where he died in the same year.
Valerio Ricetti's history as told by others
Valerio Ricetti was born in north Italy around 1897-98 in Sondalo, a small town in a valley in the Italian Alps, close to the border with Switzerland. In his home region he was apprenticed as a cement and stonemason and gained experience working on road and rail tunnel constructions. With the declining economic situation and impending war in Europe, his uncle encouraged him to migrate to Australia to seek better opportunities. Aged 16 or 17, Ricetti arrived at Port Pirie, South Australia, in October 1914. He worked at Port Pirie for a few months before heading off to Broken Hill where he stayed at the Ceccato boarding house (signed on as being 18 years old) and obtained work in the mines with Valentino Ceccato and Francesco Bicego. During his time at Broken Hill Ricetti learned to speak English which he spoke well although he retained an accent. Later, Ceccato and Bicego left Broken Hill and came to Griffith. Ricetti continued to work in the mines until 1918 when he left Broken Hill, heartbroken from being spurned by a barmaid he intended to marry. This love affair devastated him and scarred him for the rest of his life.P Ceccato 2001:15,43, pers.comm. 2004; B Ceccato pers.comm. 2004; J Bicego pers. comm. 2004; J Bugno n.d: 1, cited in Caillard 2005: 28–29
Ricetti travelled to South Australia where he worked at various jobs for several years. His life experiences fed his disillusionment with humanity. With a year's timber-cutting wages in his pocket he departed for Adelaide where he visited a brothel. On leaving he found that he had left his wallet behind, but the bouncer would not allow him back in. He hurled a rock through a window, was chased and ended up in Adelaide Gaol. On release he left for Victoria. In Melbourne he intended to pawn his one remaining possession, a coat, but a passer-by who offered to pawn it for him never returned. He moved on to Burrinjuck, NSW, in 1928. In the decade since he left Broken Hill Ricetti had befriended many people but few of these friendships had lasted long. Leaving Burrinjuck, he set out on his own. For the next twelve months or so Ricetti followed the Murrumbidgee River downstream to the Lachlan River then upstream to Hillston, NSW.
Griffith's newspaper, "The Area News", reported in 1977 that "He finally found work on a riverboat of the period. He later explained that he had been a sailor on the Murray and that his "ship" had been the Mary Anne. The Mary Anne was one of the many boats that steamed the Murray, Murrumbidgee and Lachlan, and it would appear that Ricetti was to learn more about life during the period he spent on board her; perhaps something about love, unrequited. On the walls of his cave he etched a brief, pathetic epitaph to those days - two hearts and an anchor".(Fenwick 1977: 8 )
Ricetti walked along the railway line to Griffith, with no idea of where he was heading. He was searching for a location where he could be on his own. That did not eventuate and he reached in Griffith in 1929.
Arriving on the outskirts of Griffith, a sudden rainstorm drove him to seek shelter on Scenic Hill. Next day he explored the area. About a quarter of the way down from the hilltop, he found a huge overhanging rock which was dry underneath. Close by he saw two reservoirs full of water and fruit and vegetable farms at the foot of the hill. To the west was the town rubbish dump which teemed with rabbits.
Tired of travelling, and with no money left, he later recalled saying to himself "I have found the Garden of Eden". Ricetti decided to construct a private utopia, by making the cave his permanent home. He scavenged the rubbish dump where he found a half-worn out shovel, a pick head and an axe head. He felled tree branches to make handles for them. He believed himself to be the only Italian in the area and kept entirely to himself. In reality, his old compatriots Ceccato and Bicego from Broken Hill had settled nearby and increasing numbers of Italian migrants were settling the area.
Ricetti cleared and decorated the caves, creating massive stone galleries and pathways, cliff-side gardens and floral painted rock walls. He worked at night and early in the morning, to remain unseen, eventually moving hundreds of tonnes of rock. Digging under the huge rock, the earth that he threw out rolled down the steep hillside. So he set about building a stone retaining wall. As it was gradually back-filled, he increased the retaining wall height and length. Finally it reached 9 metres long and 2.4 metres high. This gave him a level surface of 2.7 to 3.7 metres outside the cave. Portions on either side of the rock were closed off with stones and clay mortar leaving an opening just over 1 metre wide and 2 metres high to enter the cave.
Outside he planted flowers on both sides of a path that led to the top of the retaining wall. Turning right, he then followed along the top of the wall for about 6 metres where he had made a pathway a little over half a metre wide that led to and from the cave.
Under the lookout, some 36 metres to the right, is a formation of three high rocks in a half circle. The centre one is fashioned by nature as a dome. In front of these rocks he built a stone retaining wall about 1.5 metres high and 4.5 metres long. This he filled with earth to level it, and then he planted more flowers. He called it his "shrine".
Further west he found an area that was partly surrounded by a sheer wall of rocks jutting out from the sloping hill. He made flower beds with pathways leading from one bed to another. On the sloping side he built small stone retaining walls. Near a corner of this complex were four large rocks, joined together front and back, with one either side forming a central open space about 3 metres in diameter. The top was open. On the garden side was a hole about a metre deep that he had to crawl through to get inside. Ricetti dug down in front of the hole to make it large enough to walk through, but just over half a metre down he found rock. At this level he dug inwards, carrying the soil up and forming more flowerbeds. At the centre of this "room" was a rock a little over half a metre high and too large to move. So with stone and clay mortar he shaped it into a table. At the entrance he made a stairway so he could walk down to the cave. For the top he laid thin poles across like a lattice, planting grapevines and wisteria to form a canopy.
Close to these gardens he had a couple of places to hide when people came. These places were not developed in any prominent way. But over the other side of the hill, some 180 metres from the main cave, he built a stone walled circular cave amongst shrubs, around a large tree with a peephole which afforded him another place to hide when people appeared.
In 1935 Ricetti fell off some rocks, breaking his leg and badly bruising his ribs. A passing swagman found him and notified an ambulance that took Ricetti to hospital where the Government Medical Officer, Dr E.W. Burrell, attended to him. He became a celebrity when the enormity of his work on Scenic Hill was discovered. During Ricetti's hospitalisation Wade Shire Council came to his assistance, resolving 'to attend to and maintain the gardens during the hermit's indisposition. Councillor Lenehan stated that the recluse, by vast labour, had added considerably to the interest of Griffith outlook and it was up to the Council to do something for him.'
After leaving hospital Ricetti returned to his reclusive existence. Anxious to pay Dr Burrell for his treatment, however, Ricetti slipped into town at night and worked in the doctor's garden. After a few visits the doctor caught him and explained to Ricetti that payment was made to him by the Government. A friendship grew between the two, which Ricetti valued greatly. Dr Burrell would visit Ricetti regularly at the cave and leave boxes with useful items such as clothes and shoes.
In 1937 a Mr Agostini wandered up the hill one night and came face to face with Ricetti. In conversation the names Ceccato and Bicego came up and Ricetti commented that he had worked at Broken Hill with people of those names. Agostini informed Ceccato of his contact with Ricetti and the acquaintance between Ceccato, Bicego and Ricetti was renewed.
On weekends they would pick up Ricetti, and take him to places where he met many people. They would try to coax him to come and live among them, but the hill remained his home. By now Ricetti had become more socialised and did not shy away from people.
During World War II Ricetti was interned as an enemy alien. He had allegedly lined one of his caves with newspapers that included reports of Hitler with the swastika prominently displayed (Fenwick 1977: 9 ). He was put to work building roads and instructed his captors on how to improve their road-building methods. After four months he was assessed, declared a deranged person and moved to a mental institution at Orange, NSW. Six months later he was released and sent back to Griffith where the police met him and told him to get a job, find accommodation and not go back to the hill. Asked if he could name someone he gave Valentino Ceccato's name, who agreed to take him in.
From 1942 to 1952 Ricetti worked and lived at the Ceccato's, first on Valentino Ceccato's farm until 1948 and then on the farm of Valentino'a son and daughter-in-law, Bruno and Nora Ceccato. From 1943-47 Ricetti worked in the orchards and vineyards alongside Valentino's son, Peter Ceccato, to whom he told stories of his life.P. Ceccato 2001: 43, 45; B & N Ceccato pers. comm. 2004, cited in Caillard 2005: 29, 32–33 But Ricetti was always a loner, working away from others on the farm and sleeping in the pruning shed. He was troubled by visions and obsessed with his cave: "Disturbing him also was an illusion - a "man and woman in the sky". Very real to him, they towered above him, demanding that he do more and more work." By all accounts these visions stemmed from his disastrous love affair in Broken Hill.Ceccato 2001: 37; pers. comm. B & N Ceccato and P. Ceccato 2004, cited in Caillard 2005: 33 Ricetti spent as much time as possible at his cave where he stuffed his earnings from Ceccato into clefts in the rocks before Ceccato opened a bank account into which he paid Ricetti's wages direct (Fenwick 1977: 9 ).