Alone Australia, which has been heralded as the most brutal and authentic reality series ever, launched on SBS on Wednesday night.
And the two-part premiere did not disappoint, with two contestants dropping out after the first day after not being able to resist the Tasmanian wilderness.
The series sees 10 survivors lying in the middle of the brush, where they must outlast their competition for a chance to win $250,000.
They are completely on their own and must be filmed with their own equipment.
Wednesday’s premiere saw two of the show’s three First Nations contestants walk out in tears due to the harsh environmental conditions and mental strain.
Indigenous environmental manager Rob, 41 (left) and queer First Nations grandmother Beck, 42, were the first two contestants to leave Alone Australia during Wednesday’s two-episode premiere.
Environmental manager Rob, 41, was the first to leave after a stressful first night on Tasmania’s frigid west coast.
The father-of-two woke up after a night of heavy rain to find that all his firewood had been soaked and his tent had pooled water on the roof, threatening to collapse his shelter.
“All the wood outside is soaked,” he said. I have no chance of getting that fire back, which is a nuisance.
Which means I can’t stay warm. It must have been cold last night. It was very cold. I had never felt so cold before.
The father-of-two woke up after a night of heavy rain to find that all his firewood had been soaked and his tent had pooled water on the roof, threatening to collapse his shelter.
Then he began to miss his partner and two children and broke down while looking at a family photo.
Rob referred to his First Nations elders and said that Mother Earth would have been telling his ancestors that the middle of winter was a bad time to be in the area.
Then he began to miss his partner and two children and broke down while looking at a family photo.
Speaking of his little girl, Rob said: “I don’t want to sit there under that shelter, night after night, feeling miserable, when I could be home with her holding her.”
Breaking down in tears, the father said that he was not in the show for the money and that he only cared that his daughter was proud of him.
He then said that the competitive aspect of the series was against his beliefs.
Breaking down in tears, the father said that he was not in the show for the money and that he only cared that his daughter was proud of him.
“That survival mentality, what it does is automatically position Country as the enemy, something to fight against and something to resist,” he explained to the producers.
‘The last person standing is ultimately the person who can resist which country is telling them the longest. So, we have a word “nunya” which means stubborn.
‘Who wants to sit out there cold and wet and miserable any longer? Like, congratulations, you won. It’s just counter-intuitive.
Queer First Nations grandmother Beck, 42, was the second contestant to drop out.
Beck became paranoid shortly after landing in the bush and soon struggled to build a fire after rain drenched their camp.
“I have a good life, I have a happy life and I want to go back to that life,” he told the producers.
She had a rough time shortly after landing in Tasmania and began to get paranoid that Tasmanian devils might be lurking nearby.
“I feel eyeballs on me,” she said nervously. There are so many different noises here. Something really stinks. It could be a Tassie devil’s den.
She became more and more anxious as time went by and then struggled to sleep through the night.
When he woke up, he realized that his fire had been drenched in rain and that he was struggling to get something back on fire.
Without fire, he couldn’t boil water to drink.
The SBS series sees 10 survivors lying in the middle of the brush, where they must outlast their competition for a chance to win $250,000.
It soon became too much for the STEM teacher, who broke down in tears while holding a photo of her family.
“This is probably the stupidest thing I’ve ever raised my hand to do,” he said.
“I don’t need to do this to prove to anyone that I’m a strong woman,” she continued, wiping away tears.
She then sobbed as she called the show’s extraction team to take her home.
“I have a good life, I have a happy life and I want to go back to that life,” he said.
Alone Australia is currently available to stream exclusively on SBS on Demand.