By Carolyn Webb
Up in the hills in Melbourne’s east, the enigmatic Belgrave Wizard has been a familiar sight for decades.
Until a few years ago, the Wizard, also known as Baba Desi, would walk up to 15 kilometres of the Dandenong Ranges paths and forest trails a day.
‘I just do what I do’: Baba Desi, the Belgrave Wizard, is a much-loved identity in the Dandenong Ranges.Credit: Wayne Taylor
Although he did not practise any actual magic, he looked like an Eastern mystic, with a wispy white beard, a turban, colourful robes and one of his many handmade staffs. Hence, “the Wizard” caught on.
Now 95 years old, Baba Desi, whose real name is Des Bergin, is still a familiar sight in the cafes of Belgrave, where friends drop in for a natter and strangers ask for selfies with him. Belgrave was recently revealed to be one of the healthiest places to live in Victoria.
“He’s very well-loved, even among people who don’t know him or haven’t met him,” says Selby resident Bree Morel. “He’s an institution.”
So when the community learned that the Wizard needed help, they rallied.
Baba Desi, who worked as a model, actor and artist earlier in life, has felt less agile in recent years and worried he might slip on the 800-metre walk from his house to the Belgrave shops.
But he feared that if he was confined to his home, “I’d feel a bit on my own”.
His friend, Pauline Klemm, understood that social interaction was Baba Desi’s lifeblood, and so she practised some practical magic.
Klemm put a call-out on social media for people to drive Baba Desi to and from Belgrave village when his government-provided carers were not rostered on.
Meeting the Wizard: Baba Desi with friend Pauline Klemm and some of the volunteers helping him.Credit: Wayne Taylor
Klemm says she was inundated with offers, and now has 15 volunteers.
One of them, Bree Morel, says her kids exclaim, “There’s Baba Desi!” when they see him.
Morel hadn’t met Baba Desi until two weeks ago and is keen to hear his stories. She says it felt good to help him.
Tara Watkins, of Narre Warren East, used to see Baba Desi walk down Chapel Street in his eccentric garb when she was a child in the late 1980s.
Baba Desi in a wool fashion shoot in the 1950s with an unknown female model.
“I put my hand up to help straight away because I’ve always wanted to meet him,” she says. “I’ve seen him around and I’m very interested to know more about him.”
This week, at his vibrantly decorated home, Baba Desi thanked some of the volunteers for helping him.
“I think they’re gorgeous,” he says. “They’re good people.”
Being able to get out of the house means the world to him.
Baba Desi supporting strikers on the Maritime Union of Australia picket line in 1998.Credit: Simon O’Dwyer
“It makes me feel strong again, because I’m mixing with people,” he says.
Klemm, a photographer, first met Baba Desi in 2019 when she asked to take his photo for her portfolio.
It turned into a “muse-artist relationship”, as she terms it, and she’s taken more than 5000 photos of him.
“I believe there’s no one else in the world quite like him,” Klemm says.
Some of the hundreds of decorated staffs made by Baba Desi.Credit: Wayne Taylor
“He’s remarkable for his age. He has this public persona, the way he dresses, especially his handmade staffs, of which there are approximately 250, and he’s a real rebel. For his age, he’s not conservative.”
And controversy seems to follow him, Klemm says.
In 2007, Baba Desi’s house was raided by heavily armed police. He’d been mistaken for his neighbour, who had committed an armed robbery in a restaurant.
He was an extra in the 1959 Hollywood movie On the Beach, he modelled for top fashion photographers, including Athol Shmith, and he worked in the upmarket Georges department store.
Baba Desi, age 10, pictured circa 1940 with his racehorse trainer father, Patrick Bergin.
Baba Desi lived in bayside Melbourne for decades and was on a committee pushing for the Gasworks in Albert Park to become a community arts space.
His activism didn’t stop there: he has marched for Aboriginal rights and protested against uranium mining and destruction of heritage buildings. He also ran for the Senate in the mid-1980s but was unsuccessful.
Baba Desi, who moved to Belgrave around 1990, doesn’t mind that he’s been dubbed the Wizard – or the Pirate (he has worn an eye patch since losing sight in one eye years ago).
“I just do what I do,” he says.
Wizard as muse: Baba Desi in his colourful Belgrave home.Credit: Wayne Taylor
His creative attire, including crystal rings and colourful turbans, is influenced by his dressmaker mother, Alice, and his work as a model, actor and artist. He began making his eclectic staffs in the 1980s to go with his outfits.
“I enjoy colour because colour is healing,” he says. “Friends would bring me clothing and jewellery from India and other places. They bring me luck. Colours have helped me to live, art has helped me to live.”
Klemm, who works as a nurse as well as a photographer, brought Baba Desi meals daily during the COVID-19 pandemic, and arranged for repairs to be done around his house.
She taught him how to use a mobile phone, drives him to appointments and helped to organise aged care help. She also helped him sort through his clothes, donating $10,000 worth to an op shop.
In the Alfred Nicholas Memorial Garden in Sherbrooke.Credit: Pauline Klemm / Sliding Door Photography
Klemm is working on a book about Baba Desi and planning a fashion parade to raise funds for charity.
A range of Baba Desi merchandise, including tea towels, tote bags and jigsaws, are sold at the Belgrave gift shop, with 10 per cent of proceeds going to charity and the rest split between Baba Desi and Klemm.
She says social media has helped to reconnect Baba Desi with friends and relatives and reinforced his links to the Belgrave community.
“It’s really opened the lid on his life because he was just this mysterious figure before, and the local community loved him, but they knew very little about him.”
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