A winner has been crowned on the groundbreaking SBS series Alone, which sees 10 Australians dumped in the Tasmania wilderness to deal with the forces of nature, hunger and loneliness in complete isolation from each other.
After 67 gruelling days battling the elements, Gina Chick has become the first ever winner of Alone Australia, outlasting nine other contestants to take out the title and $250,000 cash prize.
“Coming into this experience, I said the Gina who walked in would not be the Gina that walked out. I left more windswept, more grateful, more in love than I’ve ever been in my life,” the 52-year-old – who is a rewilding specialist from regional NSW – said in a statement.
From the US and various Scandinavian versions of the survival program, she is the oldest ever participant to ever win the series and only the second female to take out the title.
In the US edition, all nine seasons have been won by men.
Gina beat out NSW vet and bush regenerator Michael, 43, who survived for 30 days, and fellow NSW solo adventurist Mike, 45, who tapped out after 64 days when his falling blood pressure became a worry after a medical check.
“For me, it was never about winning the competition. My focus was on solving my needs every day,” Gina said. “I’m not an expert survivalist, but what I’ve found is that I can let my instincts and the land teach me what I needed to know. I really wanted to show that there is a way of being at home in the wild.”
Gina said it wasn’t about “dominating nature” or having “whistles and tricks” up her sleeve, but rather “connecting” with her remote surroundings in an “ancestral way”.
The series saw Gina and her fellow participants dropped in the wilderness alone in middle of winter. They were each stripped of their possessions and were completely isolated from the world and each other.
There were no beds, kitchens and other modern-day comforts for them to use – they had to simply survive on the food they found in nature and the shelters they built in their merciless surroundings.
Alone was a ratings hit for SBS, with five of its 11 episodes surpassing the one million viewer mark.