Original subtitles

Already this place feels like it's where I'm going to be.

That goes there.

I need to gather food to feed my body.

The kayak is the only way to solve it. It's got a feel, I think.

Yeah, maybe.

It's pressing down.

Oh, dear.

I have not seen a single thing alive.

This is really getting on my nerves.

No way!

No!

I've got a bloody fish!

It's my first try out too.

I'm officially tapping out. Come and grab me.

We're halfway to the South Pole. We're going to be totally alone.

It's Tasmania. It's cold. It's rain. It's snow.

We're all going to leave changed forever.

Holy fuck. Yeah!

What is this place?

It's like a camp here from hell.

I don't know, just kicking my ass.

Oh, stinking.

This experience... Oh, you fucker! ...is just as much a mind game... Oh, my

heart. ...as it is a survival game.

Check it out.

To another way.

$250,000 prize would change my life. Yum.

I'm over it. Fucking over it.

It's the middle of the night.

Bodies remember anniversaries.

Exactly 12 years ago, right about now,

I woke up with a weird pain in my very, very pregnant belly.

Blaze's birthday.

Happy birthday, Blaze.

This fire is your candle, little chicken.

Looks like I'm having a vigil tonight for you.

My little spark.

My only cub.

When I was 38,

I discovered I was pregnant.

And then four days later, I found out I had breast cancer.

I was told that I had to terminate the pregnancy or I'd die.

And I said, no, I will not.

This wild wolf mama inside me just said, no.

And I just had this clarity inside of knowing what I needed to do.

Chemo babies are usually time.

When Blaze arrived, she was four and a half kilos.

She was enormous.

Getting her here healthily and being in remission taught me that I could trust

that part of myself.

And then three years later, Blaze got cancer.

For any parent, the most terrifying...

thing to think ever is that your child can die.

It's the biggest fear of a parent. It's like as long as they're breathing,

you're afraid.

Spent nine days in the ICU and then she died.

It's like her absence is a presence.

And it's an ache I carry close.

Because it reminds me that she existed.

Happy birthday, babe.

I've been to the bottom of the bottom of the bottom of the bottom of the pit.

And I've mapped every millimetre on the way down and on the way back.

Having gone through that and come out the other side, not broken,

for me means I can handle anything.

I am under no illusion that it's going to be easy.

In every possible way, This experience is going to push me to my edges.

But for me, this isn't a struggle. It's a challenge.

And one I'm up for.

I feel like I popped the grief bubble last night.

And now I just feel gratitude that today's her birthday.

And I can just think about her running around with...

her fairy wings and her tutu, barefoot in the dirt, eating witchetty grubs.

It just makes me smile.

I'm super grateful that I've had the experience of birthing and being a mum.

Oh, my black cockatoos are back.

Hello, cockatoo.

They're just probably the same as me. They're just enjoying the blue sky.

I reckon he copied me then.

Oh, yeah. See you later.

Woo.

Back to the silence.

Back to work.

This one's got a nice natural bend.

It's day four.

I am going to keep going on my kayak.

The kayak is going to solve my set line fishing needs, my ability to put out a

gill net when I make one, allow me to find water and do my wrecking.

That looks a lot raw.

Satisfying. I really haven't eaten anything since I got here,

which I'm okay with because the way I'm playing it is I'll probably be hungry

for maybe 20, 30 days with nothing much coming in.

But around that mark, I'll start having some serious food gathering systems in

place. Probably be a little whiter, you know.

I'm just grabbing one more straight sapling.

So the quicker I get this bloody thing together, the quicker I can eat.

Something's been climbing up there.

There's just scrape marks.

There's a good one coming up.

About there.

So I assume that's like a possum or something trying to climb up this tree.

That's a good sign. I know that there's at least some bloody animals around

here. I'm going to set these trail cams and see if I can see what wildlife is

around.

All right.

If I was walking through here, which way would I go?

and to be honest i'd go this way so this is probably the way that the animals

would go as well

there's

a bit of a fork here actually once again i think most traffic is going to be

coming down here and doing that so i'm probably better off having it here

looking that way

Alright, that should do it.

Alright, just going to mark where that is.

I'm looking forward to seeing if there's anything on them in the morning.

I hope everyone else's shelter is better than mine.

I've woken up like this and I need to get out of this wormhole.

Yeah, I need to get under some decent shelter, especially with this wind

picking up.

So today is chop more wood day for my permanent shelter.

Let's go.

I want it to be spacey. I want to be able to fit my bed.

I want it to be so comfortable that I can withstand any storm, any amount of

rain, any wind.

I want to be out here for a long time, so I need to do it.

OK.

I need more trees.

As an Aboriginal man... This experience will give me the chance to connect to

country on a deeper level, and that's really important to me for self-growth.

OK, let's go finish this wall.

Using way too much energy carrying these large logs around.

Oh, yeah, it got me.

Ha-ha, there's my first slip.

I've just got to take it slow and get this done.

Ooh, that was fucking close.

Jesus Christ.

This experience is just as much a mind game as it is a survival game.

Please work.

I haven't eaten and I've...

Probably dehydrated and my mind's starting to break down.

I need to just switch back on because one slip up here, I'm going home.

No way.

No fucking way.

Didn't get done as much as I really wanted to get done today.

I've still got half a wall to go.

The amount of cutting I've done is just far out, non-stop.

One more night in that bloody thing and then I'll move into here.

It looks foggy but I think it's okay now.

Day four.

I was just doing my morning water collection.

It looks like there's plenty there but there's also a little turd of some kind

of arboreal critter.

We'll just pretend we didn't see that.

Fresh water.

Standing for the camera, please.

My name's Michael Wallace. I'm 44.

I'm a country vet and a bush regenerator from the Oaks, New South Wales.

I'm a Bible-believing Christian.

My faith in God is very important to me. It's pretty much the anchor.

It just makes my life easy and simple to have Jesus to follow.

Don't miss us. We're not going anywhere. We'll still be here when you get back. I

would definitely describe myself as a family man.

My kids are important to me. My church family is important to me.

How do you think I'm going to go, Samuel?

You're nice and stubborn. I reckon you'll last a good amount of time. You

might even make the whole way.

My everyday life is a bit like a balloon.

G'day. I've got my own bushland.

I can trap.

I can fish.

I can hunt.

I can make fire.

My strongest skill set is problem solving and just having a non-quick

personality.

I know it's going to be hard, but I'm not fearful.

I'm doing this to represent the Christians out there and to show how I

can be resilient in that struggle.

In the past, my faith has helped me get through hard times.

Being a Christian out there is going to be my secret weapon.

Today, We're going to go exploring up the hill to expand my diet because I'm

not catching fish yet.

So I'm actually feeling hungry.

Here we go.

There's the trail.

Up and away.

As we get further up the hill, it looks a bit less dense, which is nice.

And I think I'm up to my lunchtime lemandra.

There you are.

From the roots.

Mmm.

Kind of watery and juicy, but with a touch of sweetness.

You know what? If you forgot about its shape, it could be corn on the cob.

Let's push on.

I think I'm heading south.

Better do a quick check.

Yes, it is south.

Excellent.

There's proper bush bashing now.

Hmm, starting to close in a bit.

Making the walk a bit more of a zigzag than a straight line, which is when it's

easy to get lost.

It takes this

long to go one metre, it's not a good sign.

Just trying to not break the do not sweat rule.

Do not sweat in cold climates.

Oh, crawling through the jungle.

Is there another way?

No.

Really enclosed here.

I'm ready to be back at camp now.

Burning up too much energy.

Direction check.

Heading not north.

Heading slightly west, northwest.

Better straighten up.

The goal is to get home by nightfall.

I'm exhausted.

Can't quite stand yet.

Oh no.

I left my compass back there.

after only a week i kind of get this place a little bit now seems that it

just rains every 10 minutes and then it's then it stops raining and then it

rains again all right yep it comes around

that's okay you just got to manage that and have tasks ready to go inside

i'm working on my idea for a fishing reel and i think that is the

key

While you've got the strength, you need to keep going to get all of your systems

in place to start gathering food and not really take a rest because just resting

burns energy.

All right, let's take a scene for a test run.

Here we go.

Yes.

Beauty.

Come on, fishies.

Being disciplined.

I really think that is the way I'm going to stay out here the longest.

Kneecap. Oh, come on.

Yeah.

There it is. Thank you, Lord.

Black compass.

Let's get some thorough on that before I look at next.

Okay.

Direction check.

The plan is to keep heading south.

We'll be pretty close to the way I came up hopefully.

To get home as quick as we can before we run out of light.

There's got to be a faster way.

I think I see some light at the end of the tunnel.

Oh, thankfully. I think I'm heading downhill.

I think I'm heading down the hill to enter the water.

Faith makes a big difference in getting through things, knowing it's not all

about the comfort that we have in this life, but there is something afterwards

that's greater.

Oh, hallelujah.

Hard times come and hard times go.

I can be uncomfortable and that's okay.

I was worried that I wouldn't be able to get back here tonight.

So I'm really glad that I am.

And I was exhausted.

I did find LaMandra.

But yeah, it wasn't worth going that far for it.

See you guys.

We're gonna do some break in the weather. I'm gonna go check out those

trail cams.

Let's have a look.

Oh yes.

Hello.

Hello little fella.

I see your bottom.

Right under that bush.

That's his happy place.

That's cool.

I've got a definite paddy melon bouncing around back there.

Maybe the smarter move is to stop what I'm doing and make that trap now while

the animal's there.

Okay, got a plan.

I'm gonna just switch to making that trap full time today.

This is definitely my priority because there's dinner out there.

And the quicker I finish this, which could be today, the quicker I could

possibly be eating it.

Check that out.

It's starting to look like a net.

Excuse me.

Please don't put that on telly.

I'm pretty happy that I did not catch another eel today.

I just had eel all over everything. Even my water container still stinks like

eel. Good calories, but yeah, a bit of a trade-off.

You know, I'll try and catch a few fish or eels here and there, but I was super

excited to get some bush foods happening.

A few more food sources in the pot.

As a wildlife biologist, I've spent a career learning about Australia's flora

and fauna, understanding what plant species are there that I can use.

I think that'll be a real asset to me out on the land.

Let's get some berries in your belly.

So this little shrub is...

what's called coffee berry, and it has these little red berries on them that

are edible. They're actually a really good source of vitamin C.

I'm just going to crush it and put it there.

And that's a really sensitive part of my body.

And so I'll know if there's any reaction that I shouldn't eat them.

But what I might do is collect any berries that I can find.

take them back to camp, maybe have some for dinner.

There's this imagined experience of what I'll be like out here, you know, versus

what I'm actually like out here.

I feel connected to the land, but I don't feel any inspiration whatsoever to

hunt and kill, and I think I just need to sit with that and realise that's OK.

Make sure there was no reaction.

It looks great.

Looks fine.

Here they are.

Hmm.

Lots of little seeds in it, kind of like a raspberry.

Hmm. Kind of sweet too.

They're pretty darn good.

Pretty happy with that. That was bloody delicious.

Okay.

Saturated backpack.

This is the moment.

Move my stuff in and put the tarp on.

Today, with this beautiful weather, I've got the chance to stick to the plan of

trying to get a roof over this and move into a bigger space, more room, and be

just a little bit more comfortable.

Like my dad always said...

You've got to have good eaves on a house.

The shack is complete.

I don't know if it's waterproof yet, but we'll find out.

So, we'll go through the front door.

Hello.

Nope, no one's home. Good.

I reckon I'll put the king bed here.

Probably the fridge in the corner.

The microwave on top of the fridge.

Yeah, I reckon that will do me for now anyway.

You don't know how good I feel to have this done.

It's been such a journey the last five days.

It's given me great energy all of a sudden now that it's done.

And I really look forward to the time ahead here where I can start to go

fishing finally.

Just start enjoying this beautiful area.

Oh, here's the rain.

I really wanted to collect firewood, but it's way too wet. Like, I don't even

know where to start.

Did make that door too big whenever that northerly wind comes through

Freezing

My great-grandmother

she's a big part of the reason why I'm out here

Doing this it was part of the stolen generations

If she can go through what she went through, I can go through this.

She was stolen at the age of five from her mother.

She was just taken for her looks, whatever, the assimilation policy, and

bang, off they go.

We don't know what happened to her father.

Her brother was dropped down a water well and drowned, obviously.

And her mother was stolen and sent to a mental institution in Wiradjuri country

in Orange.

For 45 years, they thought each other were dead.

And yet they were four hours away.

You know, but yet she never complained about the world whatsoever.

She was so strong.

I'll tell you what, you want to talk about resilience?

You put 100 of my ancestors lined up in a row.

Within the first 50 years of colonisation or whatever you want to

call it in this country, it came down to three being left alive from either being

murdered or died from disease.

So I'm a living...

member of one of those three members.

And that I'm proud of.

And that is what will help keep me out of here.

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.

That's the happy sunshine song.

Today I am making my bed.

And when I say making my bed, I don't mean like putting my fine Egyptian

cotton sheets on it, fluffing up the doona.

No, when I say making my bed, I mean making my bed.

My strategy is still not to even worry about food, just to work on this

shelter.

So I have a home because I want to be out here for 90 days.

My body is 52 and there are things that my body can no longer do.

And it just requires a complete adaptation of the way I go about things.

I just have to be slow.

It's taking my weight.

That feels good.

That's one.

Now I've got to do the other one.

I have to just keep dropping into earth time.

This takes as long as it takes.

Just keep going, even when it's snowing. Just keep

going till you get there.

I have a bed and it's just the beginning of being actually at home

rather than sleeping rough.

So I'm very, very happy right now.

My house is looking a bit like a house.

Look at that.

It's a very dishevelled house, but it's kind of a house at the moment.

What is that?

There it is.

That's a platypus.

That's so exciting.

It all feels very doable right now.

And I'm very glad to be here.

Lots of knots, tying knots, never ends, just knotty knots.

Oh no, we've had a hiccup here.

It's boring.

I don't want to do you anymore.

Just be finished.

Let's go hunting.

Let's go for a little hunt.

What do you reckon?

Can't fault this place at all. It's beautiful.

The only one thing I'm missing is food. That's it.

Let's go possum hunting.

I just haven't seen much. Can't even see a set of eyes.

I'm gonna need to get some meat.

Come out and sacrifice thyself young possum.

That doesn't work either.

I'll be happy with a snake. Just give me a snake. Give me something!

Righto, let's crack on.

I'm talking too much crap.

I reckon, without a doubt, there's a possum in this tree.

Wait, this is so creepy.

It goes so far.

I can't even see.

What if it's a snake?

Bloody hell, I'm on edge.

That's crazy.

I reckon there's definitely a possum in there, but...

There's no way he's going to be down here.

You live another day, my friend.

Everyone's gone home. Like, I'm literally alone.

Like, it's like Noah's brought his ark down here and gone, hey, everyone jump

on, let's piss off for a bit while Chris hangs out here for a...

Well, as long as it takes him to go nuts.

Probably won't be too long.

And then they'll all come back.

Nice one, Noah.

You and your stupid bloody ark.

Alright, let's go fishing.

I feel like I've got Buckley's chance of catching a, um, rodent possum.

So, I'm just going to concentrate on the water.

Oh, sunshine.

Oh, thank you, baby Jesus.

I've got hooks and plenty of line, so might as well get him in the drink, get

him working hard.

It's one thing I can control.

Fishing's what I know.

There we are.

One, two, three, four, five.

Eat. Eat thy bait, thy trout!

No rods are moving.

It's not ideal.

What if anyone else is in like a really different spot where they're just

smashing possums and fish?

Maybe I've been stitched up.

Last night, I finished the big net for this trap today.

If I get this trap set up, I could possibly need paddy melon for dinner.

But I'll have to just do two trips.

Yes, got it.

Paddy melons are active within an hour or two of sunset.

It's going to be about that wide.

I think there's a very good chance they're going to follow the trail that

I'm setting my trap on. All right, here goes my trigger mechanism.

Nine degrees to the tree.

So I'm trying another little trip line toward the top of one of my nunchucks.

So the nunchucks go together.

This piece goes under the fork.

Plenty of weight on there.

Gonna pull it out and it releases.

And just see how much pressure it takes to go through.

Great, good, all right.

So now it's time to set the net up in situ.

Bang that stake in over here.

I think I'm done.

That's finally set.

Obviously the trip wire gets pulled, net goes up all four corners of the net, log

goes down and can't hit the ground and hit anything else just in case there was

something else underneath.

I'm pretty happy with it. But I probably need to get out of here because it's

getting dark and I don't want them to be waking up and hearing me.

It seems like a solid trap.

And I can't wait to go down there and just listen out really carefully and

it's a really quiet night.

So I'm going to be listening out like nothing else.

Right, probably about four hours after dark.

It's probably the time that the paddy mills would have been through.

I don't know whether to be hopeful or not.

Like, it looks pretty good, but I didn't test it, you know.

It's just... I don't know.

I don't want to give my hopes up.

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.

I haven't heard any noises in the bush till now.

But it's faintly quiet, I still would say.

Maybe it's because one of them got trapped.

No, it's still set.

Still set exactly as is.

I might just check the trail cam.

Are you kidding me?

He's standing on the edge of the net.

He's gone around the tripwire.

And he's definitely prodding around everywhere because I've disturbed it.

Wow, that was so close. So close.

It's been a long day but I'm happy I have the chance to walk.

It's just time to start bringing in the bacon and I got quite close.

I have to wait and see what happens.

When I find a weakness I tend to study it a lot to the point where I can almost

consider it a strength.

I'm going to apply myself.

100% to this challenge.

Basically it's going, basically I just can't ignore that.

starting to feel how harsh this place can be.

It's like a camp from hell where you just can't leave.

You'll catch a fish.

Today. That's what's happening.

Man, my brain is just scattered. It needs some nutrients.

It's like fishing in an empty dam.

Starting to lose a bit of hope on my abilities to catch food out here.

I don't know, guys.

Don't know what to do.

It's going to be a long day if I can't shake this feeling.

My body and mind just won't operate on this diet.

This fucking food situation is fucking shit.

I need to fucking eat. That's the problem.

That's it. If I can't fucking eat, I... Stop thinking.

Stop thinking.

I'm losing my shit, eh? I really am.

I've almost had a gutful.

This GoPro can go fuck itself.

You know what? It's all I fucking need on here. You can fucking burn the rest

for all I give a fuck.

Fuck off.

Oh, this is terrible.

I fucking hate feeling like this.

Fuck this. I'm fucking... I'm over it. I'm fucking over it.

This food situation is halting me from achieving what I want to achieve.

And it's now became a challenge of starvation, not a challenge of being out

here alone.

Suddenly going downhill very, very fast.

If I can get that patty melon, I probably won.

Yeah.

It's the self-care that feels so nice and it makes this place feel more

homely. Yeah, baby. I got bush soap.

I came into this.

Yeah. Thinking I was going to win.

Fuck, what am I doing out here? It's not about that. If I can't fuel my brain,

how do I continue this journey?

I've definitely switched over into ketosis.

One press of a button.

You're fucking kidding me.

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