Ruby Absolum married Henry Hunt and the couple moved to Maria Island in 1925.  In 1930 the Hunts and their two young children moved into this early 1900s cottage with commanding views of the Island and surrounding waterscapes. Ruby was a psychiatric nurse and spent periods of time off the Island working at the Lachlan Park Hospital in New Norfolk. She retired from nursing in 1951 and when her husband was permanently hospitalized in Hobart due to his failing health, and with her children having left the island to seek work, she continued to live alone in the cottage from the early 1960s onwards.  She became renowned for operating a pedal wireless – the only communication link between Maria Island and mainland Tasmania – which relayed telegrams and weather reports to the Hobart Post Office. Mrs Hunt is recognized as one of the last residents to leave Maria island in 1968 before it was declared a National Park in 1971.