WOMAN: Whoo-hoo!
It's Kate. I'm officially tapping out.
I just craved people.
Oh, you beauty.
So wild to think that just a few days ago I hadn't eaten anything.
Got a system that can work and I can procure food,
which is the game.
MAN: Can't get fishing to work here.
Now is the time to finally head east and see, is there a fishing spot?
Oh, wow, this is really nice.
Dear God, thank you, tomorrow we are moving.
MAN: I haven't gone this long without eating anything.
There's this constant stress.
Gotta get food, gotta get food, gotta get food.
Hey!
How good!
Fortunes have changed. (LAUGHS)
Yes, I'm playing for $250,000 here, people.
We're halfway to the South Pole, we're going to be totally alone.
WOMAN: It's Tasmania, it's cold, it's rain, it's snow.
We're all going to leave changed forever.
Holy shit.
Yeah!
What is this place?
It's like a camp trip from hell.
Mother Nature's kicking my arse.
(GRUNTS)
This experience...
Yes!
..is just as much a mind game...
Oh, my heart.
..as it is a survival game.
Is there another way?
A $250,000 prize would change my life.
It's a once in a lifetime opportunity, but it comes at a cost.
(GRUNTS)
MAN: First glow of the morning is visible over the visual line.
Hopefully might be a clear day.
It's clear to the horizon,
but then grey cloud above.
MIKE: Day 26.
I mean, I've been here nearly a month.
It's good. You know?
We've started.
And psychologically,
for some people that might be where they've picked a line, you know?
So I reckon...I reckon people will be going home in the next few days.
Whilst this makes no difference to me, it helps for me to think
I'm making progress.
I feel like I'm closer, but I need to keep the food coming in
so I can stay out here for a long time.
That's why I'm looking at going swimming in bloody...
..who knows how deep it is, middle of winter, Tasmania,
to try and free up a snag with, I think, something big on it.
Put the lines out and then half an hour later,
one of the ones over there was pulled taut
and locked off on a snag.
Wasn't taut before.
Something with strength has pulled it and then got jammed.
It must have...I think a big eel or a big fish on it.
Been avoiding thinking about the water temperature.
It's going to suck regardless.
I need those eels, I need the hooks. It's hard to find bait.
I can't think of a decent enough reason not to try and swim down
four metres and unfree it.
An eel is a day, maybe even two days longer of being out here, you know?
This is going to be invigorating.
It's going to be completely dark once I get past a metre.
What could be a problem is if I go down and the line's loose above me
and then I come up and it gets caught around my neck.
Alright, so I need to be able to cut the line
in case it tangles around me.
So I've been memorising how to do this blindfolded.
And that's my sharp blade there. Cut.
Because I'm going to be swimming down and I might have line above me.
I'm going to mitigate that risk by tying the line taut above me
so I can follow it down, count the metres down,
and then free it hopefully, and then go up.
Alright.
Dry bag, safety equipment.
(GRUNTS)
(GRUNTS) Shit, that's bloody freezing.
Whoo!
Oh, shit! Ooh! Ooh!
Yeah.
(GRUNTS, HYPERVENTILATES)
That's a bloody joke!
I'll get used to it in a bit and I'll stop faffing about whingeing.
Oh, man. (GRUNTS)
Happy thoughts, happy thoughts.
(GRUNTS)
Alright, stop pissing and moaning.
I need this bloody eel, man.
It could be a big trout, I can't afford to miss it.
If I get it, it's going to taste even bloody better, I'll tell ya.
(GRUNTS)
So I want this line to be vertical.
Cool, now I've got a guide,
and I'm just going to slowly go down a metre.
I'm too buoyant. Go down head first.
GINA: Fishy, fishy, fishy, fishy, fishy, fishy, fishy, fishy.
Fishy, fishy, fishy, fishy, fishy, fishy, fishy, fishy.
Day 26, I believe.
Singing a fish calling song.
I had a little dance, had a little fishy dance,
all kind of like fishy, fishy on a log.
Fishy, fishy, fishy, fishy...
I've had a pretty good run.
I've had six fish in like four days. That's pretty epic.
But my goal is not just to survive in the wild,
but to thrive.
I absolutely want to be the last woman standing.
I want to win this, I really want to win this.
I think the tide might be starting to rise.
At high tide, it is impossible to fish without getting my lines
caught and losing hooks.
And every hook's precious.
Which means I need to do a really concerted push
to clear out the mudflats of as much debris as possible
so that when the tide's high, I've got some fishable areas
that aren't going to snag.
Oh, I don't want to go in the mud.
I don't want to go in the mud.
I have to go in the mud, OK.
I've been dreading this job for days.
Get snags on snags on snags, and there's a bit of urgency with it
because tide's coming back in now.
And I think when the tide comes in,
it comes in just quickly over a couple of days.
And I'm kind of mapping the terrain, so when it's underwater,
I kind of have an idea of where the snags are
so I can put my lines where they're not.
Such a balance between the doing and conserving calories.
Oh, fuck me sideways.
I need to spend the calories to get calories. It's a dance.
Yeah, I'm going in. Oh, you prick, just fucking come out.
Alright.
Come on. Come on.
Just for fuck's sake, come out, please.
Here we go. Oh! Got it.
I tell you what, I'm getting pretty bloody knackered.
I mean, look at this. That's just...
Mudder.
I've got to say I'm a little disconcerted by how exhausted I am.
It just means that I'm having to recalibrate what's possible,
what I'm actually capable of.
I'm hungry, my belly's definitely switched on
because I've had food for four days.
Yeah, it's got to that point of going, alright,
I expect food now.
Where is it?
Nah.
The line goes down in a deep bloody tangle of logs.
I felt the line go through the fork and I reached down
and I just...I couldn't reach any further.
There's no way I was going to get under all that
because it's black down there.
Bugger, that sucks.
I was kind of hoping...
Oh, shit, that sucks. No way I'm going to get that line off.
It's really snaggy out there.
I don't think I'm going to fish there anymore.
It's just crap everywhere.
So I'm just going to snap it off, there's nothing else I can do.
I'm feeling tired.
That swim, it took the energy out of me, that whole process.
I mean, there's a fair bit of effort involved.
And really there was no result, unfortunately.
But it was the right decision to try
because I get taken out of here on weight grounds,
I want to know that I did absolutely everything I could.
Good morning.
(FARTS)
What was that noise?
If the rain stops today on day 26, we are moving camp.
We're going to the Bay of Plenty in the land of the wide grey cloud.
We're going to love it there.
The other day, we decided to explore the eastern boundary finally,
and it's beautiful.
So many wallaby prints all around us, little hooks of their toes.
Lots of wildlife around.
They must love the fresh water. Look at that. Oh, glorious.
Because that just looks like a eel paradise up there.
Setting up a new camp site - fair bit of risk,
lots of energy involved.
But you really need some meat.
Okie-dokie, hooks off the bank line and roll it up.
I've been surviving off greens like sawsedge and water even
for the past 26 days,
but I haven't caught a single fish or critter.
Plant only is not quite balanced enough diet.
Time to pack up the possum trap.
For the sake of energy to move camp and be able to keep going and going.
I think it's worth it.
We just need those proteins to start coming in
so that we can stay out here as...hopefully the longest.
I think it's better than the chances of sitting here
and then just going...time for the doctors to take me away.
I didn't realise packing would burn up so much energy.
Just keep stuffing.
(GRUNTS)
It's not waterproof but it's in.
I might only be able to carry a third of it at a time,
so if that's three shuttles, that's the whole trip six times.
OK, trip one, here we go.
Let's see how far we get.
Oh, the knee's sore already, that's a bad start.
It's exciting to be moving.
I just have to take it slowly. We'll get there.
It's a huge investment. Huge. I can only hope it pays off.
OK, just another half kay of rock rubble.
Oh, wow, that's going to be tricky to drag on past.
We'll work it out, we always do.
Take camera out.
Ow.
(GRUNTS)
It's the pelican case, the big camera case,
so bulky, so difficult to handle.
Don't go into the creek, please.
Can already feel it in the right knee. I'm burning heaps of energy.
It's hard to know if I'm wasting time.
Just relying on me being more resilient than the others.
Well, we made it. Just need to repeat that trip two more times.
Oh, wow.
Time to start heading back, make my bed for the night.
I'm totally exhausted after that big journey,
and to only be a fraction of the way there.
A sense of impending doom.
Have I done the right thing?
In the past, my faith has helped me get through hard times.
I'm going to have to lean on God to carry me further.
We are committed.
I think that's it for the day.
Tomorrow, I hope for sunshine and we'll push on.
I'm pretty much just waiting for dark at this point
to pull my lines.
Normally I'd have them pulled by now, but I'm just leaving it
as late as possible tonight just in case.
Here's the rain, which means I'm going to be slopping around
in the mud, pulling my lines in the rain.
Bugger.
Back in the mud. Back in the mud.
Let's do one last check.
Wait, hang on.
There you are. I see you, there's a fish.
No, come on, here we go, gotcha.
Ha! Look, I got another fish!
That's seven.
Lake has given me seven fish.
This fish!
That is just so much abundance.
Thank you, fish.
I'm going to hang this beauty up and have him for breakfast.
I mean, I kind of want him now,
but I've got through today with a hungry belly.
I can get through the night with a hungry belly and then wake up
and then have this special treat in the morning.
Like, oh, my goodness, I can cook him up and salt him
and eat him in deliciousness.
Whereas now I'd be stumbling around in the dark with a head torch
and it's just not quite the same.
But I'm so very, very thankful to have a fish,
very, very, very thankful.
I think this place is a rubbish fishing spot.
It's a mud slippery dip, there's logs everywhere,
you get snagged.
So today I'm going to kayak to the west river
and see if I can find something there.
I mean, fish is it as far as meat goes here,
so I've got to do everything.
What I don't want to do is paddle there and then get hit by rain
in a front, get wet, cold, and have nothing to show for it
when I get back.
Wind's picking up a bit, clouds coming from the north-west.
It's just got a bit of an ominous feel.
Gust of wind in a kayak is... in a really unstable kayak
is enough to send you over.
But there's no weather forecast here.
I know if I get to lunchtime or mid-afternoon
and it stayed acceptable, I'll be like, "Oh, I should have gone,
"I should have gone."
Hasn't got worse over the last hour.
I think I'm just going to take the risk and go.
Yeah, I'm just going to take the risk and do it.
It's make or break. I have to try everything I can.
If I don't, I will just starve out here.
So I'm going to get stuck into it, get going as quick as I can.
It is easy to just want to get out of here.
This desolate, food-less environment I've been dropped in.
But I don't want to be in that state of mind.
I still want to be looking forward, OK, what's the next move?
How can I get the bait? When are the fish coming on?
How can I get the trap? What am I doing wrong?
(SIGHS)
I'm going to get ready to cast here.
Because everyone else out here that's still here must be hurting,
and that difference in frame of mind between,
"Oh, hurry up and take me out,"
as opposed to, "Nah, I'm staying here. What can I do?"
That honestly could be the difference.
So I've got to stay in that frame of mind.
Ooh, yeah, cold breeze in the face. Yeah. Love it.
Yeah. Bare legs, wet feet - love it, love it, mmmm, yeah!
Give me more.
Maybe there.
Alright, that went pretty well, really.
Now I'm just going to get some dry clothes on my legs
and do what I came here to do in the first place,
which was to catch a fish.
Man, it's strange.
I dreamt it, I was sleeping at home, my king size bed
with my wife next to me.
It was Saturday, my wife got up before me. That's strange.
And was talking to me as she walked down the hallway
and I heard my daughter Charlotte from the next room say,
"What was that, Mum?"
And then I think I went to move to get up and realised
I was still here.
Ahh.
My poor wife is just going four whole weeks,
six without her husband, running the farm, running the house.
She's giving up a lot for me to be here.
But I said I'll be persistent and give it all that I've got.
So we'll see it through to the end and we'll be successful,
or we would've done our best.
Time to move everything out.
I think it's better to do a few light trips
rather than a really heavy one.
Yep, that's not too bad.
Ridge line's gone.
Cool, it's happening.
There's no going back now,
we just have to do it.
Take it easy, Michael. Slow it down some.
We've got all day, nearly.
It's kinda corners.
The magnitude of this move is starting to dawn on me.
Oh, man, my old home. It's nothing.
OK, here we go to the new land.
The big investment to hopefully have fish.
I'm so glad I did not eat this fish last night.
Amazing to wake up knowing that I have a fish ready to eat.
I was feeling my body in the night
and feeling how much fat has come off it.
I want the fat that I have to last me two more months.
It won't, there's no way.
It's shredding off me.
Like, playing with my belly,
going, "Come on, be more!"
For the first time in my life, I'm going,
"I need more fat on my belly!"
instead of, "Oh, no, I've got a fat belly."
I am never going to look at fat on a human the same way again.
So it's good to have a fish.
It's probably putting back a 10th of what I need.
I'll probably need 10 of these fish, but it's something.
So the fishing is great.
Knowing that I can catch fish
and knowing I'll get better at catching fish,
this is good.
But the fish, the calories in a fish aren't enough.
I need, like... I need an animal.
I need to be able to, like, hoof down a half kilo of protein.
A day.
(LAUGHS)
Probably got about another month before I'm skinny.
It's not enough days.
So I think that's the only thing that would take me out,
is if I got too skinny.
MIKE: I've made it to the west river with no rain.
Ready to start exploring.
For these last four weeks,
it's actually gone reasonably quick
because I've been so busy.
I am just going to have a quick cast out here, because I can't resist it.
When it slows down, though, once I've explored every food avenue
and I'm just trying to conserve energy, that's when each day
will take forever.
And that's when you start to think about leaving early.
I got to be careful, though, that I don't do tasks
just for my mental wellbeing.
Anywhere else in Australia that has trout this remote,
this unfished...would... you'd have...you'd see some.
Particularly in a spot like this with a river coming in.
I've got to tough it out mentally
and still be really stingy with energy.
Oh, man, why is there no bloody trout in here? It's ridiculous.
Ridiculous.
Oh, shit, it's raining.
I wanna hurry home and not get smashed.
Ahh!
Fuck sake.
Fuck!
I really don't want to get wet.
I really do not want to get saturated.
I'm going to be shivering, wasting energy.
My metabolism is so slow,
it's going to take forever to warm up.
Fuck sake.
I just need to stay focused and just get home.
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.
Yeah, I've played Russian roulette with the weather on the kayak a lot
and it's just now starting to catch up with me,
I think.
Alright, now the rain's really coming down.
As you get more tired, you get more prone to mistakes.
You end up just trying to force something. I made one then.
I know I want to get out of this rain
before my pants get absolutely saturated.
If I have to walk home in freezing clothes,
it'd set me back a day or two maybe in energy levels.
You know, it's not such a big deal when you got a full energy load,
but when you got low energy, everything is just harder.
Fuck.
What the fuck happened then? It's caught in the crack.
I've got a crack...crack in the plastic. Far out.
I'm just tired, frustrated, and grumpy, to be honest.
I just got to make sure I don't make any stupid mistakes
because one mistake here can just snowball into other mistakes.
I don't want to make this the deciding factor
in a chain of events that takes me out.
(GRUNTS)
Far out.
I don't know how I'm supposed to get these fucking boots off!
Jesus fucking Christ.
(GRUNTS)
(BOOTS SQUEAK) (GRUNTS)
Like I said, I'm tired and I'm over it right now.
Time for me to just take a big chill pill.
When I was a teenager, I made the mistake of thinking that,
yeah, I can do anything.
Lots of things that I aimed for didn't happen.
You know, life goals.
I'd always wanted to fly fighter planes as a little kid
when I watched Top Gun.
So I joined the Army as a pilot, flew army helicopters
for eight years, and from that, opened up an opportunity to go
and fly a fast jet.
First time I applied, didn't get in,
second time, didn't get in,
third time, I finally got in.
So I flew fast jet throughout the fast jet training system.
I had to just keep going at absolutely 100% of my brain power
studying every waking hour for years.
I put a hundred percent effort in and I just didn't pass the course.
I wasn't able to keep up with the other guys on the course.
Whilst it was disappointing from one angle, I felt,
in some ways, it was almost like a relief.
Because when you throw yourself a hundred percent at something,
you don't really have any regrets afterwards.
Day 28, four weeks.
It feels like nothing, and it feels like forever.
Like, I'm getting to the point where I can't really connect
with my life outside of this.
The solitude really isn't getting to me at all.
I have so much company. I mean, the birds come and say hello.
The lake feels like an alive thing.
For me, just because there aren't any humans
doesn't mean I feel alone, it just means there aren't any humans.
I catch myself wondering how everybody else is doing,
how many of them are left.
(SAWING TREE)
While I was harvesting,
I just went into this whole kind of exploration
of why the solitude here isn't bothering me.
I mean, I'm a mammal, I need other mammals,
and started picking at the threads of the question of like,
well, how come?
Like, why?
And I just got to this bit, like a nub.
Which is that when Blaise died, I made a decision that...
..humans are going to die, they're going to leave.
And if you love, you'd love knowing that they're going to leave.
The way I adapted and defend myself now against that kind of pain
is just to not need anyone.
And since she's left, I've loved.
I've loved, and I've loved deeply.
But I haven't let myself need anyone, because if I need them
and they leave me, then I don't know if I could bear the heartbreak again.
Because it nearly killed me the first time losing her.
It's like, to bear the unbearable and to...dance the undanceable.
I made it, I made it through.
There's a part that's like, I don't know if I could do that again.
And I'm only really just seeing it now, in the solitude of this place.
And it means there's just a level of vulnerability that I don't...
..that I don't show the people I love.
And I don't want to hold back, you know?
I don't want to hold...
I don't want to hold back from any part of that expression.
So in that...in that de-armouring and in that shedding...
..I do want someone here.
I want a hug right now. I want a hug.
I don't want to look them in the eyes and say, "I need you."
OK, first year's in the far distance.
So close.
Getting a little slicker every time.
What a journey.
It felt impossible last night when I lay in bed and thought
about everything that could go wrong.
It was a huge effort but we made it through.
No more searching for better places. It's a pick and stick.
Right now, I feel kind of a little elated.
OK, so we're here.
And come and have a look why.
Look at all this...all these goodness
flowing straight out of the forest.
And look how shallow it is.
If there's going to be fish anywhere, it's here.
And grass, have you seen grass before?
There's hope now.
We'd like to have a shelter in here somewhere.
It looks super sheltered. Let's have a look.
Man, it doesn't look too bad at all.
OK, so levelled ground somewhere around here,
three and a half metres by three and a half, say.
1, 2, 3.
Do I cut down that tree?
(TREE CRACKS)
Oh!
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.
(TREE CRACKS)
Oh!
Ow.
Ouch. I wasn't expecting that.
The top half of the tree broke off.
Let's do a quick look.
Man, these mini deadfalls are a killer. Or a bruiser.
Just time, so time critical today.
And just started to get a bit cold,
and haven't had shelter done yet.
OK, over we go.
The move, that was really hard work.
Man, how many calories did I burn?
I probably lost another kilo or so.
Have I done the right thing?
I'm exhausted, I'm hungry, I'm cold.
Be nice to be fishing right now or tonight,
but I think we just got to focus on getting through today.
(WATER SLOSHES)
Oh, what's that?
I just heard a slosh down here.
That's my line in here.
Yes, I've got a very small trout on, very small brown trout.
He's in the net, but the net... I can't pull this line out.
Same bloody problem.
Mmm!
Ah, shit!
Oh, come on, come on, come on.
Ahh. Far out.
(GRUNTS)
Alright, head in the net, now the tail.
Yes!
Yes! Yes!
I got a brown trout.
Let's go up the bank,
let's get him well away from the bloody water's edge.
Oh, how bloody great is that?
Lovely pan-sized brown trout!
Yes!
Man, that is so good.
Hello, Southern Cross, you're looking down on me.
Thanks, mate. You did a good job.
Ah, man, it feels so bloody good, man.
Like...
When you're relying on food to survive, like, it just...
It is amazing when you get it.
Alright, there he is, look at him, beautiful.
He's one of the most beautiful trout I've ever seen in my life.
Even though he's certainly not the biggest,
but he's the one that I need to eat the most.
I can't wait to get home, give my wife a big, long cuddle.
See the kids.
Man, they're the coolest little dudes.
It would just be really nice to show them this place,
just show them around.
This is my bed and this is the pademelon trap.
You got to be very careful thinking about that kind of thing
because that shifts your focus from what it should be.
My focus should be, how am I going to survive this thing?
Oh, man, life is good.
Life's good, man.
You got to enjoy it, you got to enjoy what you work for.
Yes.
We're at the new home.
It's still raining. It's rained since I got here.
The shelter's working pretty well.
It does get a little breeze in this way, so we'll just chuck that tarp
up against that and make a wall there.
This one around here.
Legs are a bit sore after yesterday.
It's a good day to be laying in bed for the whole day.
It's just taking it all easy now, conserving energy, finding food,
and getting through to the end.
This is the most extreme thing I've ever done.
It's a once in a lifetime opportunity, but it comes at a cost.
Cost to me, cost to my family.
Day 29, it continues, day by day by day by day by day.
So just sitting in here, it's pretty easy to snuggle up
under the blanket, under the dry part of the sleeping bag
and just have the time go by,
as long as you don't think about what you're missing out on.
(RAIN PATTERS ON TARP)
Good morning, family.
Look where we're up to - one, two, three, four weeks.
(CRIES)
Five weeks really, isn't it?
I miss you guys so much.
I'm doing well out here, really.
Each day, I just potter on and get through.
But when I think of you guys, oh, my heart.
Oh, I haven't cried before now, but I'm crying now.
This move might have been a big mistake.
I've been starving since day one.
I haven't caught any fish,
so I've been doing it tough.
I'm not going to be well soon,
and I'm only getting worse.
It's not much fun out here. It's getting harder.
So much riding on this.
Just doing everything I can.
(GRUNTS)
Nobody breathe. I need the meat.
The amount of weight that I'm losing is a concern.
All my waking thoughts are about how to get food.
If I don't get an animal, I'm done here.
Holy shit, holy shit.
Captions by Red Bee Media (c) SBS Australia 2023