American businessman sets up second human colony, offers one-way ticket to paradise ‘before the world ends’

A RICH businessman has turned a remote island into a human colony to survive the end of the world. There’s just one catch.

IT’S been called one of “the greatest single acts in human endeavour”, a tropical paradise where humankind will be preserved when the end of the world comes.

Now its founder is creating another one.

American budget airline founder Steve Quinto has spent nine years and his fortune building a man-made utopia on Espiritu Santo, an island off Vanuatu. Amid dense jungle and white sandy beaches is the Sacred Garden of Edenhope, where Quinto lives with wife Ruth and their beautiful young Canadian companion Ona.

They are the original inhabitants of the new human colony but are seeking other members to join them at Edenhope and another colony Quinto is establishing, called East of Eden. There’s just one catch: you can go to paradise, you just can’t leave.

A ONE-WAY TICKET

Life is good at Edenhope. You can swim beneath waterfalls, live in rustic cabins and survive off fresh fruit and vegetables grown in your own gardens. There are no mobile phones. There are no televisions. There are no newspapers, no taxes, no electricity bills.

It’s a world away from the one which made Quinto rich.

A former Florida cargo pilot, he started his own low-cost airline in 1982. Northeastern International Airways expanded rapidly by undercutting rivals, but filed for bankruptcy in 1985.

Quinto was undeterred.

“He’s one of the most tenacious men you’ll ever meet,” executive Phil Golbitz told a newspaper at the time.

“He’s got the instincts of a junkyard dog. If it is possible — he’ll find a way.”

But the Quintos eventually turned their backs on society, disgusted by what they saw happening around them.

They believe the world’s end is imminent; that man is on a “suicidal journey” led by consumerism and narcissism. On Edenhope, they plan to wait out the end of the world and emerge as its survivors. There is room for about 20 others, plus the Quintos and Ona.

Quinto owns the land for the next 75 years, a lease that will outlast his lifetime. To make his investment worthwhile, he hopes others will take his place in paradise.

Ironically, to attract new residents, he relies on technology.
On his website, the 81-year-old has posted a call to action. He asks candidates to apply by email. Like a job interview, those who apply are asked to provide “a recent photo, a brief synopsis of your life path, current interests and skill sets, your purpose in life, your spiritual practices and how you feel you would be compatible with our community, vision and values”.

There are strict rules, too. No drugs or alcohol, and no history of drug use.

Quinto says his shoulders are “burdened” these days. He’s a difficult man to pin down, busy with “another project”, a second oasis.

The concept is the same. On its website, Quinto describes it is “also remote” and “as ‘far out’ as one gets”.

“Being conscious of the emergent crisis around us, we sought to leave the failing world,” he said.

“We are aware too that a cascade of torments will soon rain down upon the remains of the old world … so we hasten to reach out to those who will share the ultimate journey with us.”

‘WE’RE IN THE END OF THE WORLD’

Journalist Trent Dalton visited Edenhope last year. He is one of a lucky few to have witnessed paradise first hand.

“There it is: a new world among the trees, a network of wooden bridges and paths and staircases weaving through manicured garden beds and rolling orchards with fruit trees in the hundreds and a kitchen hut and 10 octagonal bungalows made of high-end red hardwood timbers,” Dalton described it at the time.

“The wondrous dreamscape includes wild blue flowers and bird of paradise plants and trees so big their root ­systems form houses of their own. There’s a communal library; a warehouse filled with ­endless tools and hardware; a surgery stocked with enough medicines to last two decades.”

Dalton told news.com.au Quinto is very selective about the island’s future inhabitants. When he finds them, he wants them to stay forever.

“He wants people to seek it out, to earn it,” Dalton said.

“He wants commitment. He wants people who are on the same page. That page exists in realms that people like me don’t necessarily understand.

“I believe anyone intending to go would get a decent trial period, but he doesn’t want damaged people. He doesn’t want people who are looking for a quick fix.

“He used to say ‘out here there is nothing. There’s nothing else to face but yourself’.”

Having tasted Edenhope, Dalton says he could never live there permanently.

“Steve was lovely, all he wanted was for me to get some experience out of it,” he said.

“He said: ‘I hope you got what you needed out of it’. For me though, I found out what I missed about home. I know I couldn’t be there because I’m a slave to what he calls ‘the paradigm’. I need Friday night football, a six pack of beer, not to mention my wife and kids.”

Quinto says none of that will matter in 20 years.

“There ain’t gonna be anything left of this world,” he said last year.

“Twenty more years at the outside, that’s all that’s left for the end of the destruction of this world. Finished. We’re in it. We’re in the end of the world.”

Those who have already seen the light say they’ve never been happier.

Ona, who was raised in Canada to a Swiss mother and a Moroccan father, says she doesn’t know exactly why she’s there but she’s looking forward to finding out.

“Why are we here? Each and every answer is the right one,” she told Dalton last year.

“We are here to explore.”

And to survive, Quinto explains on the new East of Eden website.

“When the earth is ravaged and the animals are dying, a new tribe of people shall come unto the earth from many colours, classes, creeds, and who by their actions and deeds shall make the earth green again. They will be known as the warriors of the Rainbow.”

As busy as he is trying to create the world after this one ends and round up the warriors of the Rainbow, Dalton says Quinto should reflect on what he’s already created.

“He should rightfully be proud of this place he’s built,” he says.

“It is one of the greatest single acts of human endeavour that you will ever see.”

To leave the paradigm behind, visit edenhope.org.

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