Dangerous Ambitions

‘An exciting lifetime’ barely captures the extraordinary adventures of this boy-turned-86-year-old as he journeys from childhood to old age. His tales of diving throughout the wild, beautiful Pacific include terrifying encounters with large sharks, a feeding frenzy of orcas, and surviving a crush of whales. Touching stories humanize the fish and sea creatures he encountered while diving, building, and sailing his self-made ocean-going yachts along the Pacific Coast of NSW. The narrative vividly captures the region’s varied moods and beauty, from rough seas to dangerous rocks.

Sydney, with its stunning headlands, towering trees, unique wildflowers, and strings of white sand beaches, also plays a starring role. The extreme yachting opportunities of Ku-Ring-Gai Chase National Park and Sydney’s four natural harbours – Pittwater, Sydney Harbour, Botany Bay, and Port Hacking – are celebrated as some of the most beautiful, diverse, and unique places in the world. Growing up here during WWII, with the freedom to explore and choose his path, shaped an extraordinary life filled with unparalleled adventures.

Victor Cusack, now 86, has enjoyed an unusually full and happy life with many careers, spending half his life building and designing mines and departing one large company as D&GM. For half his long life, he was self-employed as a sculptor, artist, author of five books, poet, built two ocean-going yachts, designed and constructed four houses, designed and cast many carillon bells, conserved very old sculptures and historical metal objects, founded an important early bamboo specialist nursery, an art foundry, and created and cast some of Australia’s largest bronze sculptures.

When asked how or why, he replies, “Energy, passion, curiosity, and old age give me longer to do it all. Life is full of adventure and curiosities that not many of us explore, but they are waiting to be taken up by those brave enough! Making money alone is boring!”

He has spent a lifetime exploring this beautiful Pacific Ocean, fascinated that its variable moods and creatures carried such an inappropriate name, its namesake meaning calmness, but it raged more fiercely than most oceans. His explorations were often on yachts of his own construction, which he both built and sailed into many adventures.

He also founded two successful businesses and is still busy painting canvasses. He still manages his newly founded art gallery near Forster, NSW, and is now enjoying life at a slower pace by and by as he gets older!

“All pastimes become creative, be it woodwork, art, sculpture, building boats, jewellery, knitting, etc., also making more money when investing money, a non-creative, non-productive evil that disadvantages the poor. Having reached the ripe old age of 86, I don’t hesitate to recommend reading the book, ‘Happiness’, written by Matthieu Ricard, a Buddhist book that avoids teaching Buddhism.

“Everyone has the responsibility to create happiness, and maintain good relationships, to make the world a better place (and free of today’s war and greed). Better Tchaikovsky than Putin!

“Happiness is infectious, creative, and makes the world a better place, and a little love helps. Happiness is not an event, but a process, continuous, and creates its own awareness, being infectious!”