Book on our Tarzan

At an event held recently at the German Club in Cairns, about a hundred local history enthusiasts gathered to attend the launch of Peter Ryle's new book on the life of the eccentric adventurer, Michael Fomenko who is also known about the North as 'Tarzan'.  This new book tells of Michael's unsettled youth as the Fomenko family fled the old Soviet Union to the Far East and then on to Australia in 1937.  After nearly twenty years of growing up in Sydney, Michael first came to Cairns in 1955 and fell under the spell of the tropics which led the young man to begin his life of adventure in the North.  The story also covers well his conflict with Australian officialdom during that deeply conservative period of the 1950's and 60's which led him to be sent to a mental health facility for some time.  Much of the information used in this publication was collected by the late Harold Jung who got to know Michael in later years when he was camped close to the Jung's farm.  Harold past away before he was able to put his material into book form and the project was handed on to local historian, Peter Ryle.  The tale of Michael 'Tarzan' Fomenko's adventures in the North and how he lived his life on his own terms will lead to him been remembered as a later-day folk hero and an adventurer the likes of which we will not see again.