Hello, and welcome to the Alone Australia season three reunion.
I'm Kumi Taguchi, here tonight for a different kind of insight.
Tonight we're going to be bringing you an exclusive deep dive
into the experiences of the 10 remarkable individuals
of this record-shattering season of Alone.
They are all here in the studio together for the first time
since they were dropped onto the land.
Also with us here is Auslan interpreter Leah.
Leah, welcome.
Over 76 days,
6,000 hours of footage was shot
and then condensed down to 12 episodes.
So that leaves a lot of never-before-seen footage
to unpack tonight.
Shall we begin?
(APPLAUSE)
It is actually crazy to see all you guys here tonight.
I've been following you obsessively,
so it's sort of strange to see you all in person.
Thank you so much for being here.
To me, you're all winners. But there could only be one.
Shay, that was you. Congratulations.
(APPLAUSE)
(LAUGHS)
You watched the final episodes with all these participants.
What was that like
seeing it unfold with everyone else in the room with you?
Yeah, pretty special because we all understand this thing
better than anyone else,
because we've all done it and we know the things you don't see.
So it's pretty special to share that with everyone.
A lot of people might not know that before you all went on to the land,
you were at a one-week intensive boot camp.
This is where you figured out filmmaking
and how to use the cameras.
But more importantly, I reckon
you were probably sizing each other up as well.
Um, Shay, at that boot camp,
you left a really lasting impression on one person there.
Take a look at this.
This is the most extraordinary experience
I think I could have in my life.
This is just an incredible opportunity.
And to win it would be just... incomprehensible.
But it's a long shot for me.
Before launch day...
..the ten contestants all get together,
and we went to this room for a meeting.
And then this guy walked in.
And I kid you not, I stopped breathing.
(LAUGHTER)
This guy I've been following on the internet for over four years,
and he's a fucking legend.
He's an amazing bushman.
His knowledge of flora and fauna is just unbelievable.
He's out here.
That's why I believe I've got very, very little chance of winning it.
(LAUGHTER) Because of him.
If he wins it, and he probably will,
I'm so happy for him.
Shae, what's your reaction to that?
Oh, it's pretty humbling.
Like, it's such a huge compliment.
Um, I don't think I deserve it.
Coming from Muzza too, like...
Obviously that was the first time I met Muzza at boot camp,
and I was thinking a similar thing, to be honest.
Like, I was thinking, "Man, he's going to be a bit of a problem."
Um...
And we come from similar worlds, I think.
Like, he was a roo shooter for years
and I've been a possum trapper for years.
So we kind of come from different countries but a similar background.
And so I think we understood each other quite well.
And, yeah, we both knew we weren't going to go home
unless we were pulled out and dragged away, basically.
Muzza, emotional watching that back.
What made Shay such a winner in your eyes so early on?
Um, yeah, we share a common bond,
but, you know, Shay is, uh, the next level.
Yeah. No, he's, uh, one of the most amazing, um,
and skilled bushmen I've ever...ever known of.
Was anyone else betting on Shay?
(LAUGHTER)
Show of hands. Pretty much unanimous.
Wow. Um. Why? What was it?
Shay and I both flew into Melbourne together, right?
Before going down to Tassie.
And I'd never seen the dude in my life.
I wasn't following him on YouTube or anything like that.
But I saw this bloke from 50 metres away
and there was just this aura about him.
He was a man on a mission, and I said to myself,
"I bet you that bloke is going where I'm going,
"and I bet you he goes far."
He just had this steely kind of look of determination in his eye.
76 days, Shay.
You hold the record for the longest,
breaking the previous one by nine days.
How will that prize money change your family's life?
Oh, it'll be massive for us. Yeah.
Just takes the pressure off, um, you know, the daily grind,
trying to get ahead and pay a mortgage.
It'll allow us to spend more time with the kids
and less time stressing about money.
So it's an amazing gift.
Like, I feel so lucky to have just had the opportunity.
Shay officially took the crown on day 76,
but that was only decided
when the penultimate person departed the arena.
Safe to say our runner-up this year was an absolute warrior.
Hearts broke around the country when this happened.
MUZZA: I will not tap.
Any pain down there?
Oh! You're quite sore there.
Alright. Stand up for me.
Are you, like, dizziness, Muzza?
I'm good.
Was that a head spin just then? Mm-hm.
Alright, Muzza.
I'm sorry. It's not medically safe for you to stay.
And we're going to have to extract you.
(RAIN FALLS)
(CRIES)
That was pretty hard to watch.
What was it like for you in that moment?
Um, out there... Yeah. It was... It was tough. Uh...
You know, I've...
My head was still in the game. You know?
I was aiming for 80 days, for a start.
But, you know, I was a realist.
I knew my body was, uh, not keeping up with my head.
It was a hard pill to swallow, I said that out there,
but my body was done.
It hit me like a ton of bricks. It came from nowhere.
The decision to extract someone based on physical wellbeing
is not made lightly,
especially as this is a series
that pushes the human body to its absolute breaking point.
BEN: Alright.
Have a quick look at how I'm going in terms of weight loss.
I've never seen that before. That's a fair hole.
Whoa.
I've not seen my legs like this ever.
I've definitely lost weight. I was... Bluh.
I couldn't see me old fella.
(LAUGHTER)
I've lost my overhang.
My ribs are protruding,
my hips are protruding.
That's changed quite a lot.
Wow.
Fuck!
Oh, shit.
Oh! (GRUNTS)
(GROANS) Bugger.
I know for a lot of people,
the shock to the system gives them the runs.
(GROANS)
(COUGHS)
Stomach is turning. She's not feeling good.
My stump is frozen. That's all numb from about there down.
Burning. Hope it's not a UTI or an infection.
Ceilidh,
when you were being medically extracted
and they said it's time to go,
was there any part of you that was tempted to kind of try
and argue the doctor's decision in that moment?
Um, looking back, I'm grateful that I did get extracted at the time,
because I was actually worse than I thought I was.
Looking back, I could have maybe...
I was, like, tossing up whether to let them know
or just, you know, see if I can get better.
And, um, I'm glad I let them know,
because I actually got worse really quickly.
And I'm really glad that I actually had to go and get,
you know, the treatment that I needed to get better
because I did not want any damage to my kidneys.
And, yeah, I just wanted to stay healthy for,
you know, my next adventure.
Yeah. I think I would rather go out walking than
to be out on a stretcher.
If you hadn't have become unwell,
how long do you think you would have stayed out there?
Oh, I think mentally, I don't know physically,
but mentally I felt very happy, content,
being out there alone in the wild.
I was having a great time and there was so much I wanted to do.
There was no way I was going to tap out.
Karla, you were really sick.
How hard was it to sort of keep filming and going on
when you were feeling so awful?
Yeah, it's concerning because
you don't know how much it's going to affect you and how long for.
Like, I knew it was the fiddleheads that had made me feel sick.
Um, it only really knocked me around for a day,
but I remember sitting there with a sat phone in my hand thinking,
do I need to call someone?
Like, how much have I poisoned myself right now?
Do I need some serious help right here
or do I just wait it out and hopefully it leaves my system?
And thankfully it did and I was OK the next day,
but that was it for me.
I did not eat any more vegetation after that.
I was like, it's protein or nothing. Protein or nothing.
Tom, you looked like you were in real pain out there
and really feeling the cold.
Going in, how willing were you to put your body on the line?
Did you have some boundaries or end points?
Oh, I mean, I was...I was willing to go as hard as I possibly could.
I know I was talking... I said before going out there,
if I lose another one of my vestigial fingers.
I'd be OK with that because it'd be a great story.
But I also knew I had limits.
My partner and I, we decided that go as hard as you can,
but also you've got to come home
and you've got to take care of your family as well.
And that's really important to me.
Ben, you pushed your body as far as you could.
How significant was the amount of weight you lost out there,
and how did you kind of recover?
Yeah, I lost about 25, 26 kilos while I was out there.
Um, it was tricky, you know.
You get a lot weaker as you go along.
I mean, mentally and emotionally, I was feeling good,
but physically, I was so depleted, so, so weak.
But I recovered really quickly afterwards.
I was eating like I was eating for Australia,
and I was putting on a kilo of weight a day for over two weeks.
You know, every day.
So a couple of weeks later, I'd put on 15kg.
Muzza, you stared down the challenge of gout out there.
You still wanted to push on.
Those scenes of you trying to kind of get shoes on
and the pain of that glassy feeling just...
They were really hard to watch.
Oh, come on.
Ow, ow, ow.
Oh.
It's a big lump.
I'd rather a broken ankle than gout.
How did you rate your chances of staying at that point?
Uh, look, when I... It was scary getting gout.
Um, because, you know, I've had it that bad
where I can't even get out of bed.
Well, when I got it, I thought, "Jeez, how could I get it out here?"
But mentally I thought,
"Yeah, well, you know,
"I can...I can crawl around in the...in the mud for another month,
"you know, if I have to."
It would have been incredibly horrible.
But, yeah, I was... I was ready for it.
Wow. That's incredible.
Well, thank you so much to you all
for putting your bodies on the line for us.
Being alone on the land is incredibly isolating,
and the only conversation is often just with the camera.
Unless you are Corinne.
Here are some magical moments
from our first-ever Alone love story.
CORINNE: (WHISPERS) It's a quoll.
Oh, did you go into my cabin?
We've got a love/hate relationship.
Ha!
Holy shit. There's Quentin. He's everywhere.
Oh, fuck off, Quentin!
You better run. (LAUGHTER)
I know that if he stops visiting me, I'll be worried.
Quoll kept me up.
Nothing's sacred with him around.
So I slept well last night.
Despite the midnight interruption
from Quentin coming in for a snuggle.
Like consent, Quentin. Consent.
(LAUGHTER)
This experience would be a lot less exciting if it weren't for Quentin.
I think it's hilarious that he was...
..in my bed with me.
Ah...
Quentin.
That's not how you get a girl. (LAUGHTER)
I love seeing Quentin pop into the back of your footage
and, like, there he is again.
Do you miss him? Yes.
Yeah, he was great.
Yeah, it was definitely a love/hate thing.
Um, once my food was secured and he couldn't get at it,
he would still come and visit for scraps.
Well, we didn't want you to be apart for too long,
so we have a very special guest here for you all tonight.
Please welcome to the studio Quentin the quoll.
(LAUGHTER)
There he is! Sniffing around.
Do you feel emotional seeing him again?
I don't think I realised how much I missed him until he left.
It just made the place a little greyer.
He left around the time that the floods and the storms came,
and all the animals left.
The wallabies, the birds, everything disappeared.
Did anyone else wish they had a buddy like that?
Like, someone keeping them company?
TOM: I had a little Bassian thrush I saw every day.
A little bird. Oh, how sweet.
And I had a full relationship with it,
but I was definitely going to eat it if I caught it.
Oh, really? Did you chat to it?
I did. It'd be the first thing I'd see in the morning.
Oh, I can relate with that.
I had one hoary-headed grebe
that was my best friend from the get-go,
and I got really attached to my little grebe out there as well.
Corinne, you not only gave us our first Alone love story -
thank you so much -
you also lasted a phenomenal 70 days and tapped out on your own terms.
You looked so content out there most of the time.
That was one of the things that struck me so much.
Like, there could be all this stuff going on.
You're sitting there like meditating and chilling out
and you're so calm out there.
Was the experiences as you expected?
Yeah, it was much better than I expected.
Mentally and physically,
I felt really healthy and I looked healthier.
Like, my hair was better than it has ever been in my life.
And my skin was clear, and I couldn't understand it.
I guess I just went through this massive detox.
You also spoke a lot about not wanting to be alone anymore,
and the lifestyle that you'd been living up until that experience,
and also potentially rekindling something.
So when I get home,
there are some unfinished conversations that I need to have
with those people that, um,
have offered to be sperm donors
and the person who wants to be more than a sperm donor.
Do you mind me asking how that went?
Pretty good. (LAUGHTER)
You don't have to go into massive detail.
Yeah. No.
Being out there offered a lot of clarity
and gives you a chance away from all the noise
and pressures and work stresses,
to just sit and think about what's important in life
and what do you actually want?
And, yeah, I came back. I was like, "Right, this is where I'm at.
"Where are you at?" It's like, yeah, let's go for it.
It's like a real love story.
You had one there and you've got one here.
That's great news. Congratulations.
That's lovely. Yeah.
Karla, you also had sort of similar epiphanies when you were out there.
Can you relate to that idea of having that clarity to make choices?
KARLA: Yeah, definitely.
It's not something I went out there
expecting to have a life-changing moment.
Um, you know, I was pretty content, or so I thought, with my lifestyle.
But my job is really social.
And then when I'm not at work, I do keep to myself,
and I go camping and fishing and just really have that alone time.
And it just really hit me of, why do I do that so much?
Like, it's...I've had to make so many sacrifices
of not seeing family and friends and relationships
for such a long time for my career.
So it just really hit home of, I don't want to do that anymore.
And I've really stuck true to my word,
and I've seen heaps more of my family
and caught up with lots of friends,
and officially dating,
which I haven't done for a long time.
So, um, yeah, it's definitely brought my walls down
and my heart's open, and yeah,
it's...it certainly has changed my outlook on life.
That's so lovely to hear.
Alright, don't go tapping out. We've got loads more to come,
including a catalogue of unseen footage.
We're going to take you on an exclusive tour
inside all those ten incredible shelters.
Plus we've got some very big announcements and surprises
coming your way.
See you after the break.
Welcome back to the Alone Australia season three reunion.
Shay, going in, your biggest fear was your fast metabolism,
but you managed to keep yourself relatively well fed,
by Alone standards anyway.
You also bagged another series record
for the highest-ever individual catch count.
Take a look at this.
SHAY: I'm going to treat myself
and just dig out some little cheesy chips,
which are some sort of larvae.
I don't know what they are,
but I've been frying them up on my pot lid.
Like, they would go so well with some salsa or some guacamole.
Oh.
What's on the menu today, you ask?
Well.
Worms pan fried.
Got some beautiful bat's wing.
Salted fiddleheads.
Salty, delicious smoky trout.
We've also got all of these bracken roots.
The mountain pepper leaves,
tree fern, fiddleheads,
lots of worms floating around in there.
I've got a bit of saw sedge
and some little grass spaces in the pot there.
Mmm. Mmm.
Check that out.
Does that look good or what? Look at that.
That will be eating basically everything off this thing
except for the toenails and the claws.
The testicles. Oh, wow.
Pretty tender, actually.
The other part of the genital, plus some skin.
I'm not expecting this to taste great.
(LAUGHTER)
OK, Shay, I'm just going to run through the little list here.
You got 23 trout, 14 eels, 2 lots of whitebait,
some freshwater shrimp, a whole bunch of grubs,
over a thousand earthworms,
countless cheesy fries you made.
And, of course, that pademelon.
No possums for the possum trapper.
How did that feel?
And when did you kind of reconcile that this mightn't happen?
Yeah. It's not lost on me that it's kind of funny.
The possum trapper couldn't catch a possum.
And then I was kind of hoping, you know,
at least I'd be able to trap a wallaby,
but I just cocked that up repeatedly as well.
Um, and then Corinne made me look bad as well, so, you know,
because she made it look so easy.
Um... She did.
And she's the one who was kind of
not really wanting to even kill a bug at the beginning, so...
You did redeem yourself massively.
You caught a pademelon, and it actually seemed nearly too easy.
It's just sort of there and then it's there.
It's done. Like... Yeah. I know.
I worked out early on that in the rain,
the wallabies and the pademelons were a lot easier to sneak up on
because the ears got pinned down and they weren't as alert,
but that one was pretty lucky, really.
It was stuck on the island with me.
So, yeah, just grabbed it.
It was luck. Yeah. I got lucky there.
Eva, Shay had some good luck there.
Your fishing hunting experience was very different to Shay's.
Does it come down to skill, or is some of it luck?
I think it's absolutely both.
I think that every single location is going to be different as well.
But I was going out there every day fishing, using different bait,
different times of the day, different locations on that lake.
And I didn't actually even see an eel or a fish.
Yonke, you too?
YONKE: Oh, yeah. I didn't catch anything.
Um, and again, I tried, you know, I tried leeches for a whole week,
I tried worms, I tried grubs, I tried many different places.
But it also comes down to skill,
and the skill, um, that Muzza and Shay have,
that innate, uh, hunting skill, that observation
that made them really fine-tune everything.
Made me realise that in reality,
I don't have that kind of fishing skill.
Ceilidh, you figured out how to do away with bait
and built this incredible trout trap.
Was that something that you'd had in mind?
It wasn't. Um...
I took fishing hooks and lines out thinking, you know,
I'll do my normal... what I'm good at, go fishing,
and caught nothing on the hooks.
I grew up in Bundaberg,
so I kind of had an understanding of how fish traps were made
using rocks from, you know, First Nations people.
So I thought, well, I'm going to build a rock wall and a funnel
to see if these fish would swim back down and get caught in this funnel.
And, um, yeah, I didn't know if it would work or not,
but surprisingly, it did.
It was amazing to watch and to watch it work,
and your excitement when you saw the fish.
It's really exciting. "Oh, my God, this actually happened!"
Yeah.
I got a brown trout in my funnel.
Look! Fuck, yes!
MUZZA: I'd said to my family,
"There's no way she's going to catch a fish with that."
And my wife made a bet with me.
"If she does, you're doing the dishes for a week."
And I did the dishes for a week.
(LAUGHTER)
Well, of course, when you were out there, you had to live somewhere.
When I think of building a shelter,
all I kind of want is something, I don't know,
that keeps the rain out and I can go to sleep and...
But you guys took it to the next level.
Like, seriously, you've set the bar super high.
We're talking about things like stone fireplaces,
alfresco dining, even a jetty.
Thanks, Muzza.
You've kind of really put the bar high there.
Here are some of your constructions.
Hello, friends.
Come with me as I take you through my multi-million-dollar mansion.
As you come in, there's your beautiful duck-feathered bed,
a beautiful wall there with plenty of sticks poking out
to hang things on.
It also comes with a built-in fireplace.
It doesn't work...
..but for aesthetics, it's quite good.
Oh!
That is sensational. Look at that.
Look, Bronwyn, how organised am I?
This is even better than when we go camping at home.
I've got a little bloody nest happening up here.
All over this camping shit, hey.
I'm thinking about basically making up a frame,
cladding it in paperbark, and going with that for a door.
Yes!
Yay!
Oh, wow.
That's pretty cool.
I think I'll work inside the shelter today
and build a little tunnel
to bring some air to my fireplace,
and then put slate over the top.
OK. There you go.
That's better fire.
Alright. Sort out this floor.
Liking this little cobblestone floor here.
Cool. It's looking good.
I created a smoker.
It's all sealed up on the inside.
This is going to be a nice fire. Nice dinner.
I think it'll be worth it.
Let's start in the sunroom.
I can sit here and whittle.
The fireplace works when the wind's blowing in the right direction,
which is half the time.
So that's my shelter.
And it does feel like home.
This...is my shelter.
As you can see, no door. It's nice and cosy.
That's my bed behind me there.
That's the start of it where you can see that blue tarp.
So that's probably the most unusual thing about my shelter
is that I have firewood above my bed.
The ultimate energy conserver.
So here is my shelter.
And I have a window
and my beautiful little fireplace that's kept me toasty and warm.
And my stretcher that I made.
And the best of all is...
..my chimney.
I've really loved living in my shack.
I'm so proud of what I built.
Did anyone have, uh, shelter envy, watching that?
Karla wins it, hands down. Like what an un-unbelievable thing.
Thanks Muzza. I had no idea what I was doing.
Really?
Uh, yeah I just knew that I wanted something solid,
that was gonna keep me warm.
I'm from tropical Australia, I don't like the cold.
And that was gonna send me home.
And I wanted something big enough
that if it was raining for days and days on end,
I wouldn't feel confined, and I could build things,
and do things inside there.
And it was my little safe space, that really felt like a home.
So, I loved it, yeah.
Matt, you also had a fireplace in yours.
And that was just for aesthetics.
Why?
Well, I say aesthetics, but it was more the fact
that it worked but it was kind of, like,
you couldn't be in there when it was going.
Yeah. (LAUGHTER)
You'd just smoke yourself out.
Shay, your coffin bed could not have been comfortable.
Why did you do that? Like, weren't you claustrophobic?
Oh, it was quite cosy actually,
I was disappointed when I had to move
because, yeah, I had about
two or three inches of reeds underneath that,
so, it was actually quite well insulated,
so...it did the trick.
It was...looked like a homeless shelter but it did the trick.
Ben we've not seen a paved floor before.
What made you come up with that idea? Why did you want that?
Just the ground there was so wet.
Just the moisture was coming up from the ground.
So, I thought, if I put in my cobblestone floor,
at least, hopefully, the mud will stay below the cobblestones,
and I'll hopefully be kind of dry.
And it largely worked, so that was good.
Tom, did you have some sort of envy, looking at that paved flooring.
I was calling his Shrek's swamp.
Oh, and it was like Shrek's swamp.
I still think though, if I had paving,
the mud would have swallowed it.
Really? It was that bad? Yeah. It was...
It was up past me ankles in some spots.
Loved it.
(LAUGHTER)
Your shelters were all just amazing.
But we really saw them get tested to their limits
with those floods that really no-one saw coming.
I remember watching it
and feeling that sort of oppression just through the screen,
so I cannot imagine what it was like living through it.
Here's what some of you went through.
(RAIN AND THUNDER)
This is crazy.
It's pissed rain all night.
And it's been raining all this morning.
The lake has come up a significant amount overnight.
Nearly 300mm overnight.
My sitting log is now floating.
Look at that shelter over there, man.
That's our shelter, and that is the water.
(SIGHS)
MUZZA: So, I've gotta pack up and get outta here.
The lake rose by almost seven metres.
At what stage did you realise that this was actually
a...a pretty decent threat?
Oh, yeah, when... when I could hear the waves when I was sleeping,
I knew it was a big threat.
Um, like when we first got there, the lake was so low,
and I thought I'd made a mistake camping so far away from it,
'cause I had to walk to go fishing and everything.
And then it came in and I thought, "Oh, I'm living in paradise now.
"I've got a beach next to me, and I'm catching fish."
And then it was like, "Oh, no."
(LAUGHS) "OK, it's just still coming." Yeah.
It felt quite apocalyptic. Did it?
Yeah. It felt like... Biblical.
"This is a joke, this is... we're really getting tested here.
"Nature is throwing everything it can at us."
Yeah.
Muzza, you moved your entire shelter in a day
and you replicated it exactly.
And this was at a late stage, too, in your adventure out there.
How taxing was moving that shelter
and rebuilding it exactly the same way.
Yeah, it was a big day. Um, but, yeah, I pre-planned it.
And I've had a lot of people say, you know,
"Oh, why did you build your first one below the water line?"
Well, I had anticipated being flooded out from day one.
I just thought, "Well I'm below water line, you're asking for it."
But I chose that if I got 30 to 50 days in that shelter,
I was happy to move.
But the lake went beyond 100%,
and I was at the point that I was thinking,
"Am I going to have to do this a third time?"
Wow.
You know, like, I could not believe
I was metres above the high-water mark,
and it just kept coming.
And I...I was looking, "Where am I going to go next?"
And it was very limited to what I had left.
Karla, you didn't know this but days after you left,
our crew arrived at your site
to find your cabin completely flooded.
And within the week, it was basically underwater.
What is it like, to see that?
It's crazy, like... and I very carefully looked at
where the waterline was,
and I was up on a little island,
and it felt like it was going to be safe there.
Um, I definitely saw the water line come up a fair bit in my time,
but that's wild - that's so much water.
OK, it's time for a quick break.
But please don't leave your shelters.
We're about to reveal some pretty incredible records
our participants achieved,
and also show you that they weren't actually as alone as they thought.
See you back here soon.
Just have a go, at that view.
Bloody beautiful mate.
Come on. The sun's out.
(SINGS) # I'm makin' a home on the river
# Mmm-mmm-mmm-mmm... #
Sun's out, guns out.
# Building my shelter... #
This is Gillnet 1.O.
This is me first one, and I'm pretty stoked.
(SNIFFS) Eugh!
# I'm freezin'!
Rat Trap 3000.
This is me Possum Club 3000.
# Come on...little fishy... #
Whoo!
White Bait Freshwater Shrimp Trap...2000.
Now, one participant who surprised us all when he tapped out
was Matt, on Day 16.
He stayed out there the longest before a first tap
in Alone Australia History.
And he is now the second-longest first tap in the world.
Matt, congratulations on that, that's incredible.
You look like you were really thriving on the survival front.
You're having a great time, you're catching food,
you've got this amazing shelter.
The land was connecting with you as well.
What happened for you?
Um, I was just trying to...
..have as much fun with my experience as I could
and trying to keep a positive mindset.
Because I knew family would come into a bit of play for me.
So, I was just trying to keep myself distracted
and be as positive as I could.
The...yeah, what changed was when I caught my first eel.
Like, knowing that I had that ability to get more food
and stay there longer.
And the thought of staying an extended time away from the kids,
it just...it just rattled me.
And then I was tossing it up,
whether I should stay or go, or whatever.
And, yeah, when I made my decision to leave,
I was well and truly emotionally spent.
It seemed like you were really wrestling with that...
Yeah, definitely. ..with that choice.
Yeah definitely.
Did it surprise you...?
It surprises lots of people, time and again,
that that was the thing that really felt...
..that yearning inside that, "Actually, no, I wanna be back home"?
Yeah, coming into it, I came in with a pretty staunch opinion on myself
for not tapping out for that reason.
And then for it to hit me the way it did,
it was pretty humbling, to be honest.
And, yeah. I'm grateful for that experience,
to have shown me that that is my reason to go home.
And it's one of those things that I don't think
many people would ever understand, unless you've been in it yourself.
Yonke, can you relate to that sense of yearning for family?
I can relate to it, but I actually had the opposite experience,
which surprised me.
See, I've got twin boys who are 17,
and it suddenly hit me, for 17 years,
that I'd actually not had time to myself
because of the nature of my relationships.
And I was thoroughly enjoying myself,
to a degree that I actually felt guilty
that I wasn't thinking about my children or missing them at all.
Might need to wipe that. (LAUGHS)
I'm sure there's a lot of parents
who might agree with some of the things you've said, Yonke.
So, thank you.
Um, these 10 participants were truly living in isolation.
Completely alone.
But if you count all of the creepies and the crawlies
and all the things that go bump in the night,
it might make you wonder if they really felt alone.
There's some sign of pademelon's here.
Saw a spotted quoll, just ran past my shelter.
Oh, it is, it's a leech.
There's a little leech on my gum.
Ah!
What is that? That's a Tassie devil.
A spider. There's a wallaby.
There's a possum up there, in that tree.
Delicious-looking specimen.
Look at that. Little crayfish.
Oh, my God, yellow-tail black cockatoos.
Holy shit, there's a wombat.
Are wombat's edible?
Hello? See them?
They're not termites but they're something similar.
Protein's protein.
Pretty sure it's a little potoroo.
So, I might have a crack at making a trap and catching that.
And there you have it -
my first ever wee little rat trap.
Yeah, that worked.
(LAUGHTER)
Couldn't see it.
Eva how was it, sleeping at night,
knowing that there were all those other creatures out there?
I've slept a hell of a long time in the bush,
hearing animals around me,
so that part was kind of cool.
But it wasn't until the bush rat
actually started interfering with my things
that it was, like, really unsettling,
and I couldn't really sleep properly,
knowing there's a little critter hanging around,
messing with my stuff.
But it's actually really cool hearing animals out there,
and not knowing really what's going on,
but just knowing that there's all this activity in the night-time,
happening around you.
It's...it's actually a really cool experience.
Ceilidh, you didn't want to turn your cochlear on at times.
Was that a conscious decision to kind of block out the noise for you?
I think, at night-time,
I, um, just wanted to, like, put my mind at peace
and not worry about the animals out there,
Like the Tassie devils.
That's what I normally do at home,
I take my processor off, and everything quiets.
Like I'm completely deaf.
So, I thought, "Well, I'll just go to sleep
"and just hope that they don't come
"and chew on my ear or anything like that."
Well, you all lived with a lot of animals,
but you also caught quite a lot, too.
In fact, the catch count was so huge,
we couldn't include them all in the series.
Here are some of your best and never before seen catches of the season.
What's in there, I don't know if you can see it.
It's a little freshwater shrimp.
Check out that?
I just got me first eel, baby!
My first fish!
(SINGS) # I got an eel! #
Yes!
Oh, yes!
Oh, a little brown trout.
I just got an eel!
What a blessing.
Thank you, Tasmania.
I bet nobody thought
I was gonna catch a wallaby.
That pond's moving.
Ooh Oh, look, we do have one.
The day has only just begun.
Whoo-hoo! I fucking got one!
Trout number two for the day.
Fuckin' look at that?
Another one.
Look at the size of that.
I got another one.
Check that out. Bang!
Another trout. Wow.
How good is that? Got it!
There you go. Look at that eel!
Yes! Another one!
Whoo-hoo-hoo!
(SPLASHING) Got it.
We bagged an eel!
(LAUGHS)
Whoo!
Holy shit.
Look what we've got.
I've got a fuckin' pademelon, man.
I can't believe it!
For context, in Season 1, the total catch count was 36.
Season 2 was 14.
This season, collectively, you all caught 97 creatures.
Shay, you caught the most fish out of everyone,
and you were going in there as the possum trapper.
How did you switch it up,
and did you think you would catch that many fish?
No I'm pretty shit at fishing.
Like, at home, yeah, it's sort of a running joke
that I just can't catch a trout.
So, yeah, it surprised me, yeah,
that I managed to somehow catch quite a few, yeah.
And did you have a strategy of how you were going to catch them?
Yeah, I tried lots of different things,
making flies and floats with sinkers and stuff,
and found one way that worked, which was to have a long pole,
with the end of the pole often touching the water,
so when it was choppy,
the water would actually work the pole up and down
and make the...the worm move up and down,
and that seemed to be the only way I could really catch them.
Yonke and Eva, the two of you worked really hard at fishing, with no luck.
How hard was it to maintain patience
or the faith that something would come up and some point?
It is really hard, watching it all back.
Like, I think part of me goes, "Did I not try hard enough?
"Should I have stayed up longer? Should I have observed more?"
Yeah.
I mean, yes. But, also, we tried everything.
Like, I had frog bait, I had worm bait,
I had every kind of little bug bait, in different times,
and if an eel wasn't going to eat a frog, then I don't know,
like, what's gonna catch an eel,
'cause they usually go for anything.
I catch eel all the time, and it's easy as, usually,
but not in this situation.
Tom, you were so happy when you caught your first fish.
What does that first catch do for your sense of game play
and how you're going to do things going forward?
I won't forget that day.
It was pouring rain, I was sitting out there for hours, freezing.
And, uh, I remember looking at the water,
and I saw a fin go past.
And I thought, "I'm seeing stuff."
And then it was about 15 minutes waiting, and I saw it again,
and then I realised my line was taut.
The fish was wrapped around something.
And you pull it in and the wave of endorphins that hit me from that
was just phenomenal.
Ohhh...yeah!
Whoo! I got a trout.
That's why I think I could go 47 days on five fish,
'cause I just kept living for the next high.
Corinne, your wallaby trap was quite an unconventional one.
What was the inspiration for it?
My wallaby nets actually
started off as gillnets.
And the idea was to not scoop them up or confine them,
but more just tangle them.
And I actually didn't think it would work, but I had to do something.
And I guess it didn't really work,
because the wallaby just took off with the net,
and, yeah, I had to go track it down.
I mean what was fascinating was, going in,
you were really concerned about
whether you could actually kill an animal
and take the life of an animal.
I found that just incredible to see that you could do it,
and I'm not going to say easily,
but it was sort of like it's a matter of staying out here or not, right?
Like do you feel like you're a hunter now?
Do you different in that space? Oh, no, definitely not a hunter.
To be honest, it was just an adrenaline-filled blur.
Shay, what are your thoughts on Corinne's method
of getting her wallaby?
I mean, you really were trying so hard to trap one,
and, you know, didn't have as many
kind of kills as you would have liked?
Yeah, oh, I thought it was genius. Yeah. Really cool.
It's something light you can carry around,
whereas my trap was big and stationary.
And I kind of put all my eggs in that one basket.
So, yeah, I thought it was an ingenious idea, yeah.
Yeah, but your trap was such an incredible construction.
Like, every time it didn't work, I'm like, "No!"
You know? Yeah, I caught myself.
MUZZA: Yeah, he caught himself. (LAUGHTER)
Fuck.
And so did Karla, don't forget! Yeah.
Ooh, that's close. Don't do that, Karla.
I thought, "How funny is this gonna be if they have to tap out
"'cause they've trapped themselves in their own trap?"
(LAUGHTER)
OK, we're going to take our final break.
Grab your tissues, because when we come back,
we're going to be looking at
some of the most tough, gut-wrenching, unseen moments.
Plus all of the bush-crafting we never got to see.
See you soon.
When it comes to the Alone experience,
the lack of food, waning energy and physical exhaustion
is enough to break anyone.
But it's not just the physical game that can take its toll.
As the days turn into weeks, and the weeks to months,
being alone on the land can also really take its toll mentally.
Brrrr! I'm having a hard day today.
Ohhh...
This has been tough mentally.
Pick yourself up, Tom.
Fuckin' sick of this. Oh, for God's sake!
I actually rather resent the cameras.
I really do want to be the last person.
God I miss Bron.
I can't wait...to see my family
and have my little man running up to me.
(LAUGHS)
I'm not crying, you are.
(LAUGHTER)
Yonke, camera frustrations became a mental challenge for you.
What did you think the experience would be like,
versus the reality of it?
Um, I thought I'd be able
to move through the landscape
in a more freer way,
a more intuitive way, that I'm used to.
And the cameras, it... it really puts your headspace
in a different realm.
You...you can't quite drop into that space.
It's...it's just a different part of your brain you have to use.
And, also, you know, dragging these camera's through,
the...the weaker you get,
you're still carrying quite a heavy camera.
When you're truly out there trying to survive,
and you're burning so much energy
walking around, trying to fish, building shelters,
whatever you're doing out there,
and then to have to constantly think about the cameras, and the angles,
and "Is the battery charged enough?"
Or you'll be talking to the camera or doing something
and then you go, "I'll just go check the battery," and it's off.
You're like, "How long has it been off for?"
Like, "How much of that story is now missed?"
And, yeah. It definitely takes its toll.
It took a while to get used to the camera.
I did resent it at first.
But once you get the hang of it,
once you kind of accept that it's now part of life,
it does become a... almost like company.
And something to talk to.
SHAY: For me, yeah, I don't talk a lot, normally.
And, so, yeah, having to talk
through every little thing I did
and why I'm doing it,
and...yeah, that... that's very unnatural for me.
So, yeah that took a bit of getting used to.
But after a while, it was almost like
I put myself through therapy out there,
'cause I was talking so much more than usual,
and about, like, my feelings, and why I'm feeling like this.
And, so, that was interesting, yeah.
It took me a while to, uh...
..to realise, you know...
..talk, you know, express your thoughts.
Yeah, and talk to the camera.
Um, and once I got that, I was...
Couldn't shut me up. (LAUGHTER)
I think it's just extraordinary what you guys have all done.
Like, seriously.
And watching you navigate those highs and lows
is what draws us all into Alone.
Another big reason is the bushcraft.
I would love to do a bit of pottery out here.
Definitely not a mug. It will be a bowl.
Ta-da! One bowl. I love it.
Making a knife and fork.
What do you think of that?
And it's only a two-pronged fork.
I found this most beautiful piece of wood.
I think it's going to make a great cup
if I can carve it out a little bit.
Look at this. How cool is that?
I'm gonna see if I can tidy up this love heart
as a gift for Lauren.
Du-dunk, du-dunk. Love you guys.
You better come and have a look. See what I've made.
So, that's the crow trap.
Put the bait down in the bottom here.
What happens is crow comes along and lands on here
'cause he's seen the bait, and he drops in.
But he's got his open his wings to come up
but he won't fit out this hole.
Well, that's the theory.
Bird comes in, eating some worm.
Boom. Comes down.
To codify, it's just a hole where your fire's going to be.
And then a smaller hole that you dig through the dirt leading to it
so the air can come in.
Yes. Come on. Keep going. OK.
Success!
Ah! Toilet paper glen.
Could be used as a, like, make-up sponge. Insulation.
A bit of this I found yesterday as blusher.
I'm booked in to get my facial
at the bush salon.
Wow.
Oh, my gosh, it feels so...
..so supple.
Now, it's not the biggest. It's not the best.
It's not the brightest gillnet you've ever seen.
But this is Gillnet 1.0.
Hopefully, I bloody get something.
Look at it. Should work just fine.
The original carbonated water.
You put...charcoal in your bottle of water.
Shake it up.
And it bubbles away.
Ah!
I had that many projects lately.
Got me table and chairs and build a jetty.
Fucking hell, yeah. That'll do.
What's next? Taj Mahal?
This is a low-energy project which gives me joy.
(STRUMS)
People who know music will appreciate how hard it is
to get a tuning right on a piece of driftwood.
So I'm pretty proud of myself.
And that guitar is in the room with us. Corinne, it's incredible.
How long did it take to build?
Oh, I have no idea. I don't know.
Just... I wasn't even sure what it was going to be.
I just saw a piece of Huon pine and thought,
"I can't just leave it sitting there. I can't burn it."
So, yeah, it just started turning into a guitar at some point.
(LAUGHS) Muzza's just got this smile on his face.
I think he's just like, "What the hell?"
It is unbelievable. When...
The first time I ever heard it,
I thought it was dubbed over, the sound of it, and...
You know, God, what would that be worth on the market?
That's incredible.
Did anyone else think of making a guitar?
(LAUGHTER)
MATT: Not with zucchini fingers.
(LAUGHTER)
Well, you are all very busy out on the land.
And I also promised you that there would be
some surprises and revelations in the last part of this show.
Corinne, during your time on the land,
you decided your one goal was to start a family of your own.
Do you still feel the same way?
Um, it was very healing,
and I needed that time alone
to think about my priorities and what I wanted.
And I came out and I chatted with Mark,
and I was like, "Just checking where you're at in life.
"This is where I'm at."
And he said, "Yeah, let's do this."
So, it's early days yet, but I'm 12 weeks along.
You're 12 weeks pregnant. Yeah.
(LAUGHTER AND APPLAUSE)
You did get busy. (LAUGHTER)
You've been hiding that.
Yay.
Congratulations. Thank you. And Mark is stoked.
And he's, like, yeah.
We're excited about this journey together.
Ah, there he is! (LAUGHS)
Shay, not only did you win Alone Australia,
but I believe you have some even bigger news for us as well?
Yeah. So, our team's getting a little bit bigger.
We've got another baby girl coming in July, so only a month away.
That's amazing. Congratulations. The tribe is bigger.
Yep. Somehow I managed to make a baby as soon as I got out, so...
(LAUGHTER)
Well, congratulations again, Shay, for being the last one standing
in this incredible group of competitors.
I'm going to miss you all very much.
Thanks so much for being part of my company over the last 12 or so weeks.
You had an incredible 76 days on the land.
A huge congratulations to every single one of you,
and thank you so much for putting it all on the line for us.
And a big thanks to Australia
and the wonderful global community of fans
for being with us on this wild ride,
from day one to this very moment.
I'm Kumi Taguchi, and we are officially tapping out.
(APPLAUSE)
Captions by Red Bee Media (c) SBS Australia 2025