Now that a gripping season of Survivor Australia has wrapped, it's time to take a shot of concrete and tackle Alone Australia.
ABC RN's Stop Everything! presenter Beverley Wang describes this docuseries as "one of the most extreme shows on television … this show frankly makes Survivor look like a walk in the park".
Her co-host Benjamin Law, fresh off his own stint on Survivor, says: "You would assume that having done Survivor, I would be up and prepared for something like this. But as soon as I watched this, I'm like: 'No, I would absolutely not do this.'"
After nine US seasons and a number of Scandinavian iterations, Alone has finally taken shelter here in Australia.
How does this work? Are the contestants really alone?
The premise of Alone Australia is simple: 10 participants are dropped off in the wilderness, in locations isolated from each other but close to a water source.
They have to fend for themselves — building a shelter, finding food, avoiding accidents and predators — entirely alone, until they choose to "tap out". The last person standing wins $250,000.
When we say 'alone', we mean alone — because there is no film crew tailing the participants; they must film themselves as they struggle, starve and slowly (or in some cases, immediately) lose their marbles.
So very cool, normal stuff.
US seasons have seen contestants construct some truly impressive structures (including far too many overly ambitious log cabins, one seriously cool underground home and a sweat lodge!), get severely constipated after surviving off a bark diet, and attempt to last 100 days in the Arctic (have you heard of it? It's cold).
So who are the Alone Australia contestants?
Among the Alone Australia cast are an army veteran, a schoolteacher, a farmhand, a wildlife biologist and a vet.
Alone Australia executive producer Riima Daher, who has worked on Love Island Australia, I'm a Celebrity … Get Me Out of Here! and The Voice, told Stop Everything! that first and foremost she looked for contestants who are "people that we know can stay alive".
"Then we want interesting characters; if you're going to look at these people talking to themselves and nobody else the whole time that they're in this experiment, we need people that are going to be engaging … [and] we really wanted them to be representative of a cross-section of who the survival community is in Australia."
Daher says our survival community is different from the one featured in the American seasons of Alone, which includes a fair share of hippies as well as macho ex-military men.
"I think COVID did something to our survival interest," she says.
"So [in this cast] there are a lot more everyday people who aren't necessarily preppers, who aren't necessarily military-based, who aren't formally trained, [but] who are gravitating towards survival skills … who have gone to bushcraft schools, who have gone to Indigenous communities to try and find out different ways that they can survive."
What can they take with them into the wilderness?
This is not glamping. Other than clothes and safety equipment, participants can pick only 10 items from a list of 41 permitted bits of gear. That list does not include toilet paper.
It's always interesting to see what people pick: Do they go with a saw or an axe? Can they make do without fishing hooks? Also what's the point of surviving without salt? Over the course of the season, these choices can make or break contestants' time out there.
Oh and they also have to lug 70 kilograms of camera equipment around so that we, at home, can be privy to all their suffering.
Where was Alone Australia filmed?
While US seasons have seen participants navigate the harsh terrains of remote Canada, Mongolia and Patagonia, the Australian series is set in west coast Tasmania/lutruwita.
Some people may be disappointed that Alone Australia's setting isn't the outback, but Daher says: "When you look at all the various landscapes in Australia, if you want the most challenging wilderness, and you want a proper equaliser, then you go cold and you go rough and you go tough.
"It doesn't come much rougher, tougher or colder than west coast Tasmania."
The Alone cast are dropped in an area that's pretty darn close to Antarctica, in the middle of winter, to face relentless rain and roaring forties winds.
It's not for the faint of heart, nor for me, who will instead be making strident pronouncements about why their shelters aren't going to cut it from the warmth of my famously comfy couch.
The US seasons have (mountain) lions and tigers (OK, wolverines) and bears — does Australia have anything like that?
Related: Will a season without a big apex predator feel scary enough?
There are no bears in Tasmania, but Daher points out: "We still have quite dangerous animals out there; everything's just a bit smaller in Australia."
You wouldn't want to face down a hungry Tasmanian devil or a quoll, or come across the tiny yet aggressive ants called jack jumpers, whose bites can result in life-threatening anaphylaxis. Plus there's all the usual terrifying Australian snakes and spiders. Straya.
"So in terms of that fear, in terms of the danger, I think it's just as strong and it's just as big [as other seasons of Alone]," says Daher.
Let's talk business: How the heck did the producers insure this show?
By managing safety risks, my dear reader. That includes having a safety team — including a doctor, a paramedic, a safety officer, a survival officer and a coxswain familiar with the area's waterways — on stand-by 24/7.
The only time that the participants aren't alone is during routine medical checks. (Many participants in other seasons have been extracted by the medical team, mostly because they've become dangerously underweight.)
"It's a robust safety system in place," says Daher.
"But the risk is there for everyone: The risk is there that you're not going to get enough footage to make a series, [or] that someone could very literally die out there — and it's terrifying. But that's what draws you to the show, isn't it?"
How were First Nations peoples and knowledges involved in Alone Australia?
The Australian season appears to centre and integrate First Nations knowledges in a way that sets it apart from the US seasons.
The cast includes Māori planning and environmental manager Rob, Wiradjuri grandmother and schoolteacher Beck, and wildlife and environmental officer Duane, whose family roots are in Murrurundi on Wanaruah Country (in the Upper Hunter region of New South Wales).
Duane told ABC RN's Awaye!: "From the very get-go, they've done really well with the cultural awareness around the Country we're on."
He also says they've picked the location well: "It is actually really inhospitable land. The Palawa mob, they read Mother Earth and they knew: Don't live there [during the winter]. Because it's very hard to sustain yourself."
Palawa teachers were part of the crew from the outset, and remained with the show until post- production.
Daher says: "[Palawa teachers] informed our cultural, historical, and very practical awareness of how to be on that land … [with] bushcraft and edibles advice.
"We've got probably the world's ultimate survival experts in this country. Isn't that amazing? So to be able to draw on that was just a privilege, really."
Before filming began, the cast undertook a week-long boot camp where they learned about the rules and regulations of living on Palawa land, and how to film themselves.
How long does the winner end up out there, all alone?
There is no time limit so we won't know until the 11-part series concludes.
Interestingly, the participants don't know either — as they struggle on, they aren't told how many others are still out there.
"When you're trying to work out whether it's time to tap out, you can't even assess whether it's worth hanging in for one more day because it might mean that you win," says Daher.
"To this day, they [the cast] still don't know their order [of exit] … apart from the winner, of course."
OK, I am ready, where can I watch Alone Australia?
The first two episodes are already out and you can catch up on SBS on Demand. The season continues on Wednesday at 7:30pm on SBS and SBS on Demand.
Also if you're crazy enough to think this sounds like something that might be for you, casting for season two closes midnight April 2.
