The internet has embraced the story of Brendon Grimshaw over the past year.
Grimshaw did what so many dream of doing: he bought an island. He purchased Moyenne Island in the Indian Ocean in 1964 for $20,000, quit his job in 1973 to move there, and spent the past 40 years developing it into a paradise, cultivating and protecting flora and fauna native to the Seychelles.
Now 86, Grimshaw’s island is worth millions to developers, but he is determined that it remain a nature preserve after his death.
There are still many abandoned and uninhabited islands around the world. Why isn’t there anyone living on them? After all, 270 people live on Tristan de Cunha, which is 2430 kilometers from the next inhabited island!
The reasons islands remain uninhabited are financial, political, environmental, or religious—or a combination of those reasons.
Ōkunoshima Island
Three kilometers off the coast of Japan, Ōkunoshima Island is overrun with rabbits, which are not a native species.
But there are no human residents on Okunoshima Island. It was once the site of a chemical weapons plant, turning out poison gas for the Japanese Imperial Army from 1929 to 1945.
The Allied Occupation Forces dismantled the plant and let laboratory animals go free (hence the rabbits). Japan did not speak of Okunoshima for many years. Then in 1988, the Ōkunoshima Poison Gas Museum was opened on the site.
Tourists take the ferry to the island to interact with the friendly rabbits more than to see the museum.
Antipodes Islands
The Antipodes are a group of volcanic islands south of New Zealand.
The cold climate and harsh winds make the islands too harsh a place to live. It is known for numerous shipwrecks and deaths, some from trying to survive on the islands, despite supplies being left there in castaway huts, as seen in the photograph.
Two people died by shipwreck there as recently as 1999.
Jaco Island
Jaco Island in East Timor has no permanent inhabitants because locals consider it sacred land.
However, that does not mean they won’t accommodate tourists. Day trips as well as camping on the island is encouraged. Local fishermen double as vendors to the tourists. Since 2007, Jaco Island is part of Nino Konis Santana National Park.
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