MAN: We're halfway to the South Pole.
We're gonna be totally alone.
WOMAN: It's Tasmania. It's cold, it's rain, it's snow.
WOMAN 2: We're all going to leave changed forever.
Holy fuck.
What is this place?
MAN: What have I gotten myself into?
MAN 2: Yeah!
MAN: We have to document this whole experience,
while trying to survive at the same time.
Ha-ha.
Check it out.
Like, 60k winds.
MAN: Mother Nature's kicking my arse.
Whoa-argh!
WOMAN: Did you hear that?
(CREATURES GROWL)
MAN: This experience is just as much a mind game
as it is a survival game. (CRYING)
MAN 2: Ah, we got dinner!
Ah, you FUCKER!
Yum!
I'm suddenly going downhill, very, very fast.
Whoa!
(TEARFULLY) Oh, my heart!
WOMAN: A $250,000 prize would change my life.
Whoa. Sinking!
MAN: I'm not out here for coming first
if it means I'm gonna kill myself.
I like you, Tasmania! (VOICE ECHOES)
We're about to be dropped into the wilderness,
far from everyone we know and love,
to survive against all the odds.
We're strangers in a strange land.
Wow! What?
This is wild!
Do you know that feeling, when, like fear and excitement
are so next to each other that you don't know which is which?
This is going to be the hardest thing any of us have ever done.
Oh, that's muddy.
(GROANS) Come on!
We are completely and utterly alone out here.
What have I done?
The only food we can eat is stuff that we catch.
WOMAN: You ready?
No. I don't think anyone could be ready.
We have to live off the land.
Wow.
I am speechless. It's scary beautiful.
I want to acknowledge the traditional owners of the land,
the palawa people.
There's no crew.
There's no producers.
There's zero contact with the outside world.
I can't believe that I'm getting to do this.
This is going to be so good,
and so bad, probably at the same time.
Now that I'm out here,
and I see how difficult the terrain is to walk through...
I was preparing for the worst case.
As Mike Tyson says,
"Everyone has a plan until they get punched in the face."
The west coast of Tasmania is well known
for its harsh weather conditions.
And it is one of the toughest places in Australia to survive.
Holy shit.
Oh!
My new home.
Oh, my God.
It's a fight between nature and yourself,
and that is a very hard thing to come out on top with.
That's c-c-c-c-c-cold!
It's hard country, it's gonna be very hard country,
but this is gonna be home for the next couple of months.
With my skill set, I do have what it takes to win this.
The adventure begins.
We're only allowed to bring 10 items with us on this journey,
and I tried to choose my 10 items based on things
that I would normally take bush anyway.
Here we are.
Things like my axe, my saw, my knife, sleeping bag.
Going, going...
..gone.
Whoa. Here we go.
I'm prepared to stay out there for 90 days.
All my stuff on my back.
See you guys!
But what if that's not enough?
I'm not gonna tap out at 90 days 'cause it's 91.
Dear Lord Jesus,
thank you for your beautiful country down here that you've created.
We can tap out any time,
but as soon as you press that button, you're tapped out.
It's the end of the game.
There's a $250,000 prize for the last person standing.
How you goin'?
(LAUGHS)
That'll be mine soon.
This is a mind game as much as a survival game.
Landed.
I don't know.
Mental toughness will be the winner.
See you in two years!
Hello? (VOICE ECHOES)
Nothing but silence. That's what we want.
What do you reckon? It's so good, eh?
You beauty! Ha-ha!
So, I'm from Tassie.
You guys probably know this already.
Get out of the swamp here.
Whoa, whoa, whoa.
Jesus.
Oh!
Whoa!
It's pretty, pretty bloody serious, that shit.
And, um, yeah, come along with me on this little journey,
this challenge.
Spirits are high.
It's going to get dark, and nasty, and emotional,
at times, but...
..you and me, we'll work through it, alright?
Ha-ha! You beauty!
I definitely think I've got more skills than the average person.
I do a lot of outdoor stuff,
you know, diving and spear-fishing.
I catch a lot of my food.
Let's chuck a bit of fish on.
It's not a bad diet, is it?
Scallops and crayfish,
sea urchins, abalone.
MAN: Bloody beautiful.
Come on, come on.
Good boy. Here!
Being completely alone, I don't think's going to be a problem.
Come on!
Here. Good boy! There you go.
Yeah, it is just myself and Billy, my dog.
I don't have a partner or children and that.
Oh, you know, I used to be in the army for many years.
I'm a veteran of the Iraq war.
I joined the military quite young,
and, you know, that gave me the skills to sort of just keep going
and going and going.
The ultimate goal is to win.
I don't want to miss out on any time out there.
you know, I want that full experience.
Let's say goodbye, mate. Come on. Here, come on.
I don't want to leave any what-ifs.
To be there from day one to day end.
Good boy.
I'm gonna go now, alright?
I reckon,
probably get some rain, but might have a quick walk,
for, I don't know, 10 minutes...
..into the abyss.
Every minute I'm here without a shelter
is a very big gamble.
Man, it's thick.
It's really thick bush.
(BREATHES HEAVILY)
How's that? I take like,
what, seven or eight steps,
and this is what it looks like.
Some really big, dangerous trees.
There's a bit of flat ground here, though.
I reckon I'll, uh,
clear a bit of foliage in there,
and chuck a tent up.
(SINGS TO HIMSELF)
(WHISTLES A TUNE)
I've come up with a little bit of a strategy,
and I think while I've got a bit of weight on me, and a bit of energy,
I'll just crack onto the shelter straightaway,
and then, once that's done and dusted,
we'll start chasing some food.
OK.
That's gonna go all the way up here.
It's gonna be my little house.
Just noticed something.
Check this out.
What the hell is that?
Hmm.
Wasps-sps-sps-sps.
Oh, well.
Looks like they were here first.
Oh.
I just had one... I literally just had a...
Whoa!
I'm going to lift that up a bit so I can collect some water.
Who knows? I might even stay here.
This is not a bad spot...
..except for the waspies.
So, I've just, only just come...
..into the bush, where I've been dropped off by the boat...
..and I can hear something moving around up here.
Might be a little wallaby or something.
Nothing can prepare you for lutruwita,
but I just keep in mind and keep telling myself
that, you know, palawa and pakana people
have survived here for millennia.
Oh, my mouth's so dry.
So, before I do anything here,
because I'm new to this place and I've never been here before...
..it's important that I, um...
..that I speak to this place
uh, in my grandmother's language, in te reo Maori.
And this is true in both Aboriginal culture and Maori culture,
you know, protocol 101 for any First Nations person,
really, around the world.
And the wind just dropped right then, when I said that.
This sun coming through here's beautiful.
Hello, lake.
Hello.
Hello, trees.
This is home.
It's stark, it's wild,
it's brilliant.
And I want to take it all in now,
because in...
..in a week, and then in a month, and then in three months,
all of these trees are going to be friends.
This whole place,
I'm going to know it as well as I know my own hand.
So, right now,
I want to kind of revel in the newness.
Oh, this moss feels amazing!
This isn't about defeating nature or conquering the wilderness.
If you go in with that kind of attitude,
Mother Nature is going to slap you hard.
The only way to truly be at home in the wild is to have humility,
and to realise that nature is going to
break every single one of us open.
For me, it's about my own personal journey,
learning how to be more deeply at home in the wild
and letting wild nature teach me how to be.
But I really have to get to work
because that sun is going to go down really fast.
OK.
Time to get to work.
Holy shit.
It's like the craziest thing I've ever, ever done.
I don't know what to do.
Oh, my God.
I'm doing this because we have this idea of who we are.
I know what I'm capable of.
I've got tenacity. I'm stubborn.
But then we're put in a situation where we're not with anybody
and we can't talk to anybody.
We have to deal with ourselves.
I've never been truly alone ever in my life.
I think I'm OK, but I won't know how prepared I am
until I'm actually on the land.
(BABY GURGLES) What do you want, darling?
Well, my life is crazy busy.
You do? You hungry?
I've got people around me all the time.
We do love camping and Nan's going on a big camp, isn't she?
Katrina and I have been together for nearly 19 years,
and we've got four boys and two granddaughters...
Do you want to put that one on the plate for me?
..and all these animals.
It's chaos.
Oh, yeah. Tummy scratch, yeah.
Go.
I'm a proud Wiradjuri woman.
Always put your knives back in your pouch,
so you know where they are.
A big part of who I am in our family
is to be outdoors and connecting with country
and connecting with nature.
And there, got caught.
My goal is to be the first woman in Australia, First Nations,
grandmother, mother, to win this.
It's a lot of shit we got to carry.
Fuck.
Oh, just puffed.
Anyhow, alright.
I'm going to make a digging stick.
I need to dig out this ground a little bit,
so I can at least get a fire started.
That's a good one.
It's nice and heavy, too.
I can feel eyeballs
on me.
Mentally, I don't know how I'm going to be when I am isolated,
and I worry about where my head might go.
So many different noises here.
Something really smells.
Um...
It could be a Tassie Devil den.
Um...
We'll see.
It could be in here, actually.
But I can't see any carcasses of anything.
So, somewhere... Ooh!
You're for later.
I can smell something really pongy.
I'll fucking shit myself if something comes out.
Wake up and a Tasmanian Devil in my face, wanting to eat it.
I'm just paranoid.
It's just those branches rubbing together
that are making me...
..nervous.
(CREAKING) Ooh.
(CRASHING)
Ooh!
Did you hear that?
That was a tree falling.
Ooh.
Fuck.
Just not happy with what's above me.
This is fucking stupid. This is ridiculous.
Doing this, absolutely ridiculous.
BECK: It's going to rain, I'm sure.
Ooh, slippery.
(CLANK!) Ooh!
You got that. (LAUGHS)
Oh!
So thirsty.
Try and start our fire.
Something stinks.
And you know what?
It'll be a fucking devil ben...den...
..and I'll find out about it in the middle of the night.
And then I'll shit myself.
Alright, so I'm going to make my fire here.
Shit. Where the fuck... Oh.
Fuck.
That cannot ever get lost.
Ever.
So...
..this...
..is going in the bra.
Stupid ferro rod.
Fuck.
That would've been dumb.
We've been allowed to bring 10 items with us to help us survive.
And I chose my items based on my skill sets and my comfort
and what I am able to use.
(SIGHS)
My strategy is fire first, shelter second,
food, take it easy,
and live in the moment.
No.
Fuckin' hell.
OK. I've got to really get serious about this.
Come on.
Oh.
Come on.
Yes. Yes, yes.
Yes! (SIGHS)
Yes.
PETER: There is a lot of mud here.
Go for a fish,
see if I can get salmon or something for dinner tonight.
Also need to start a fire.
I've got to boil some water as well.
Still got a bit to do.
But, yeah, surviving here is going to be very hard.
So...if you don't start getting food in quick...
..you're not gonna last long out here.
My job is a hunting guide and I'm based in western Sydney.
We did it, brother. (LAUGHS) (MAN LAUGHS)
When it comes to hunting, I'm very highly skilled.
My strengths are hunting, fishing, tracking, stalking,
archery, rifle shooting,
my mental strength, my way of adapting to what my surroundings are.
I describe myself as definitely an alpha male.
(GROANS)
I love my wife and love my kids.
We are a very hunting family.
So my wife loves hunting.
We shoot together, ride bikes together.
It's a perfect match.
I think I've got the skills to go the whole way,
just due to my line of work.
Being outdoors every single day.
But half the tools that I go hunting with, I'm allow to use on this.
It's my firearms, my bows.
If I could bring my bow and arrow here,
it wouldn't be a survival show.
I'd be able to live out there quite comfortably.
Now it becomes a personal challenge. I can't blame my bow or my gun.
Miss you.
It's really just, if you fuck up, I only can blame one person.
That's me.
Lots of scat and shit around here,
so I'm going to have to set up traps around here.
It's literally like a forest of death.
It looks pretty scary, to be honest.
When you look at it, looks like that place from...
..that dark place from The Lion King.
Alright, I'm gonna get set up.
Here we are. There.
Sweet. Oh, now, see, you can see the fire.
I mean, that fire there.
That's what I wanted.
And then, ta-da.
I don't know why I was doing that.
I'm not... We're here. OK, cool.
We're all sorted now.
Boom.
Day one.
Just set the whole camera up, and got the craps with it.
And I don't even have anything to say.
So...
(WATER RUNS NEARBY)
Yeah.
Nice little stream.
Oh, man, a little waterfall.
I'm going to try this water.
You should always...
You should always boil water, they reckon.
And you should listen to them.
Don't always do what I do, alright?
But I'm going to try it.
It's good to just have a little sip first.
Can't really taste bacteria, can you?
Rule one, boil your water. Woo-woo-woo.
Don't tell me how to live my life.
Oh, I feel sick from the water.
Nah. (CHUCKLES)
ROB: Oh, tree hugging.
Imagine waking up to this every morning.
Costs you a mint to get this anywhere else.
So, this is my shelter for night one.
Pretty happy with it.
It's got two ridge lines
and a front door that overlooks the water.
So, I've started to collect these ferns.
Start laying these down for my bedding.
We'll just make layers and layers of these
to roll out our sleeping bag on.
I do enjoy spending time out on country.
I like being out in the bush,
and sharing knowledge for our children is so important, you know?
We're not rich people.
We can't give them...and fill their bank accounts up with money,
but we can fill their minds and their hearts up
with the right knowledge
that'll do them well through their life.
You alright?
Daddy get this one.
I'm a simple person, lead a pretty simple life.
Myself and my partner, Leanne,
my son, Coby, and my daughter, Coralie.
Automatic.
When you go bush, you go as a family,
and every family member has a job to do.
But you're actually going to do this on your own,
so you have to think about everything.
Well, you know, I'm not a survivalist.
I'm not a doomsday prepper.
As a family, we spend a lot of time out bush.
Another grub. Whoa!
(EXCLAIMS) A big one, Ralie.
Big one, look. We can eat that one.
You can eat him.
I mean, here locally, we go and get kangaroo meat all the time.
We get kangaroo and we get emu.
And it's really important to us to have our children out on country...
Two eggs.
..and learning just how to be out in bush and how to survive out there.
Are you going to carry them for me?
Thank you.
I'm going to take one photo with me.
I don't know if it's a good thing or a bad thing.
Like, whether looking at that photo's going to... (CHUCKLES)
..going to make me more upset than I need to be.
I'm here. Oh.
I want to come.
No. Daddy got to go by himself. OK?
I love you.
For me, I'm doing this to really grow as a human being.
But to be honest, I don't know how I'm going to handle
just being alone and away from my family.
Especially that little girl.
That's going to be the hardest part, I think, for me,
is missing my family.
The trees are crazy, eh?
They're so old and ancient.
They're all covered in moss.
Plenty of wallaby scat around here...
(LAUGHS)
Yeah.
..which is good.
Hopefully, there'll be some food hopping around here later.
GINA: OK. Shelter o'clock.
Alright, no pissing about.
Time to get to work.
I've definitely got a sense of working against the clock
and feeling that
the walk that I had and playing around by the shore
was a kind of drop shock.
Feeling a little bit, I don't know...stunned by being out here.
Because I don't have a sleeping bag,
I really need to have a warm shelter and a fire tonight.
Losing daylight. Need to get a wriggle on.
VOICEOVER: Alone Australia is brought to you by Kia.
Experience the ultimate human endurance
as 10 contestants battle to survive alone in the Tasmanian wilderness,
with the winner taking home a prize worth $250,000.
GINA: I'm under the pump.
Probably the thing that I like the least in survival is rain,
and this place rains 255 days a year.
Fabulous wind break.
(GRUNTS)
My family think I'm bonkers,
but they're not at all surprised that I'm doing something like this.
I've spent my whole life deepening into ancestral skills
and learning how to be at home in the wild.
It's not the prettiest shelter in the history of shelters,
but it's going to keep me dry, and that's all I really want.
I live in an off-grid shack.
It's so off-grid, it doesn't even have power or running water.
I run camps and experiences that help people connect with nature.
You've got little fishies. You're going to love this.
Actually, it's not just fish.
This is really good for eels.
How to make shelter, how to make fire,
how to weave baskets, how to make tools, how to track animals.
That is so, so beautiful, Jodes.
If I was sitting down, I can tuck my feet in.
See, that keeps me warm. Yeah.
I will be taking in a possum skin coat.
I have been making this possum coat with Jodi Edwards, my friend,
and a lineage holder for possum skin cloaks.
Sharing will help that continuation
of knowledge and culture to go on.
I've been training for something like this my whole life.
I want to win this. I really want to win this.
$250,000 prize would change my life.
The only way I'm coming out of this is if they pull me out.
So, there's this pretty cool trick...
..if you're in a situation like I'm in right now
where I'm running out of light.
So, I'm going to use my T-shirt, part of a sleeve,
and the cotton...
..will take a spark.
And then the sparks going into...
..the bit of T-shirt.
Catch it on fire.
And then from there I can catch my tinder.
From there...
..I can start my fire.
Cool. Huh?
Fire is probably one of my strongest skills,
and the number one law of survival for me is conservation of energy.
Everything else comes from that.
And it's a simple equation.
I need to stay warm. I need to stay dry.
And simple shivering is going to burn calories
that I would then need to go out and find.
I don't like doing the T-shirt thing,
and partly it's a matter of pride and ego.
However, when you're in a true survival situation,
conservation of energy is pretty important.
And also, having everything done before dark...
..is also pretty important.
Oh. Big bubbles.
Yeah. (LAUGHS)
Ah, big bubbles, no troubles.
That's what I wanted.
I'll just let that roll on the boil like that for a few minutes.
I'm from a hot climate, in red dirt country in the Mallee,
where it's quite a lot warmer than it is here in lutruwita,
so it's that cold climate that worries me the most.
Oh.
Night number one. I'm just about to have a sip of this drink.
Oh.
This well-earned drink.
Oh, look at the steam coming off it.
Oh, my God.
Oh, that's boiling hot.
Burned my lips a little bit. I don't even care.
(LAUGHS) Oh...
Oh, that's so good.
We have a story about Bullimah,
which is the place that we go after we die.
And so that Milky Way there, that's the Bullimah,
that's the big river in the sky,
and all them stars, they're the camp fires of our ancestors along there.
So, you know, if you feel alone,
whether you're in the big city
or if you're out in the middle of the bush, in the middle of nowhere,
you can always look up at them stars and see those camp fires,
you know, and...you know, the story of Bullimah
is one that I'll pass to my kids and, you know, to my daughter
and just want to tell her that, you know, long after I'm gone,
if she ever needs me,
all she has to do is go outside, look up at the stars,
and that brightest star that's shining that night,
that'll be my fire.
(RAIN FALLS) (CHRIS YAWNS)
Ah, here comes the rai-ai-ai-ain.
No, he's already dead.
(THUNDER RUMBLES)
I've got a feeling this rain is going to set in.
(RAINFALL CONTINUES)
She's raining cats and dogs down here.
It's relentless.
You are relentless!
Go home, rain. You're drunk.
(THUNDER RUMBLES)
Fuck.
Do I have enough firewood inside?
Yep.
Is there anything I need to do?
Well, I'll see... how the shelter holds up.
(THUNDER RUMBLES, RAINFALL CONTINUES)
(RAINFALL CONTINUES)
Heard something moving past.
(SIGHS)
(DISTANT SNARLING)
(SIGHS)
(SNARLING CONTINUES)
(SIGHS)
I don't like... Man, this is crazy.
Absolutely crazy.
VOICEOVER: Alone Australia is brought to you by Kia.
Experience the ultimate human endurance
as 10 contestants battle to survive alone in the Tasmanian wilderness,
with the winner taking home a prize worth $250,000.
(BIRDS CHIRP)
All the wood outside is soaked.
So, um...
Yeah, I got Buckley's.
I got no chance of recovering that fire,
which is a bummer...
..which means I can't stay warm.
It was cold. It was cold last night, that's for sure.
It was, like, freezing cold.
Like, I've never felt cold like that before.
And, um...
..I also have another problem.
I woke up this morning and saw this.
Uh...yeah, a bit of a fault in the roof of my shelter.
But, well, one good thing is that I've got drinking water.
No fire to purify water, but I've got this.
(BIRDS SQUAWK)
The palawa, when they were out here, they learned to love this place
and love Mother Earth and all that she provides for them.
And Mother Earth, country, would be telling them
this time of year, midwinter, is not the time to be here.
"I have warmer places for you to be.
"I have more food and resources in abundance in other places
"and move accordingly,
"and come back here
"when conditions are more welcoming and more hospitable."
This is my family here.
Leanne, my partner here, she's everything to me.
She's a...
She's a really strong black woman, and...
..I owe her everything for giving me this beautiful son
and this beautiful little girl.
And this here, this is my little... my little Coralie bird,
my little apostlebird.
Ah. Huh.
I brought this photo with me, eh, and... (CHUCKLES)
..I look at it and it's, um...
Ah! It makes you choke up a bit.
(BIRD SQUAWKS)
So, attempt to get a fire going.
(SIGHS)
Actually feeling... (SIGHS)
(SIGHS)
(SIGHS HEAVILY)
(SIGHS)
(TEARFULLY) I'm feeling a bit shit today...
..probably because...
..I had a rough sleep.
Um... It's wet. Um...
(SIGHS)
(TEARFULLY) ..and I miss my family a lot.
(SIGHS)
Fuck.
This is so wet.
ROB: Sitting out here with no fire, not able to stay warm,
in the middle of a Tasmanian winter
is, um, is not an easy thing to do.
I'm just thinking about tapping.
It's not lost on me that chances like this
don't come along very often.
And sometimes, you can overthink, like, when you're by yourself a lot.
But time to look within, and maybe I'll last a bit longer.
BECK: I've come from a place where, you know, I love my life.
And you know what?
Hands down I'd much prefer being there than here.
But, you know, this is my journey,
and this is about me...
..and how far I can go.
There we go.
In every possible way,
this experience is going to push me to my edges.
Don't you wish you were me?
I can feel it already. There's just this wind coming, the snow wind.
It's pissing down!
MAN: It's like a camp trip from hell where you just can't leave.
MAN: That fucking hurt. (GROANS)
MAN: Take away a human's food
and a lot happens to the mind.
I'm losing my fucking shit, eh?
WOMAN: What's the point in life when there's no-one to share it with?
Whoo-hoo! (EXCLAIMS)
Captions by Red Bee Media (c) SBS Australia 2023