Alone Australia 2024: meet the cast

Season 2 of Alone Australia premieres next week on SBS.

10 more Australians will face punishing conditions in icy conditions in New Zealand armed with the barest of supplies and isolated from one another. There are no camera crews with participants required to document their own experience.

The last person standing wins $250,000.

In addition to its signature ‘factoids’ that offer technical, historical, or scientific insights, this season offers cultural knowledge of Māori practices, focusing on the traditions, language and beliefs of Ngāi Tahu, the iwi, or tribe of the local area.

A+E Media Group VP, Unscripted International Co-Productions Ninder Billing said: “Wherever A+E has premiered Alone around the world, it has resonated with audiences across vastly different cultures because it’s a truly one-of-a-kind format that is the ultimate test of human resilience. We’re thrilled to follow up the record-breaking success of Alone Australia Season 1 with such a strong second season set in the challenging and visually stunning New Zealand terrain, with a new cast of dynamic characters who showcase our relationship with the beauty and danger of the natural environment.”

Andreas, 42
Personal Trainer & Subsistence Hunter, NSW
“I’m confident my body can handle this. I have tested myself in the past, but there’s a big difference between holding your breath for four minutes versus staying out in the bush for three months…”

A Swedish-Australian subsistence hunter who enjoys mountain-biking on weekends, Andreas works full time as an elite personal trainer. For a former model living the inner-city life, it may surprise most to discover that Andreas supplies over 90% of the protein he and his partner consume through wild hunting and fishing. He butchers, processes and stores all parts of the animals he procures for his household’s food supply. While a youth spent in Sweden honed his outdoor and fishing skills, Andreas’ hunting expertise was acquired after moving to Australia. He quickly decided that bow hunting was his preferred method and has since spent years dedicating himself to becoming an educated and skilled ethical hunter. Having grown up in Sweden, he is no stranger to cold weather, but the punishing rain and humidity of a cold rainforest environment is going to present a whole new challenge.

Chace, 27
Defence Force Combat Engineer, QLD
“Being Alone is a dream come true. Growing up, I didn’t watch ‘Bob the Builder’… I’d be out trying to hunt grandpa’s rabbits. I’ve literally been hunting my whole life and I’ve been outdoors since before I can remember.”

Chace’s bushcraft and survival skillset comes as an amalgamation of experiential skills from outdoor adventures on the land with family and trained skills obtained from instruction and practice through the military. As a combat engineer, exploring and surveying unknown environments for strategic assessment are all part of Chace’s regular daily activity, further contributing to his ability to think tactically and pivot quickly – critical skills for adapting to the foreign land he’s about to be dropped into. Chace is a capable and practised big game hunter who is confident about his ability to sustain himself through this experience. He learnt to hunt with a recurve bow early and he successfully hunts both big and small game. This baby-faced reconnaissance soldier is the youngest of the cast. He’ll miss his dogs and his partner Amy.

Jack, 55
Tradesman & Wild Game Hunter, NSW
“I hunt and fish to feed my family. I have been asked if I’m afraid of being out in the bush alone with all the scary things out there… My answer? I am the scary thing.”

A devoted dad with two grown daughters who are both recently independent, Jack can now finally, say yes to a big solo adventure with peace of mind… and he is looking forward to the opportunity to take part in what he considers the ultimate test of a lifetime’s worth of skills. A Chilean-Australian self-employed tradesman, Jack has a wide range of transferable tricks from his workcraft that he’s hoping to put to the test as he improvises and innovates out in the wild. Jack has been hunting and fishing alone since his family first moved to Australia when he was a child, but in recent years, he hasn’t done so without his trusty mate; Lea, his German short-haired pointer.Jack enjoys photography and videography, so he’s very much looking forward to camera time, but remains focused on this as being a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to immerse himself absolutely and uninterruptedly into the experience of living wild in a remote wilderness.

Jason, 36
Youth Worker and Jungai, NSW
“I’m an adventurous spirit. There’s no room to hide in a challenge like this; the only person to blame is yourself if something goes wrong. This is the ultimate challenge a human can experience.”

Jason is a strongly connected and respected community leader. A youth worker, former rugby player and coach, he’s spent his entire adult life immersed in strength, support and resilience work – affording him some key foundational tools for the emotional and mental challenge the Alone experience can often present. Jason grew up camping, hunting and fishing regularly with his dad from as early as he can remember. Early adulthood saw him connect with family and community on his mother’s country of Borroloola where he spends time learning from Elders and family members and practicing traditional methods of hunting, fishing and foraging. A proud Yanyuwa, Waanyi/Garawa man and Jungai, Jason hunts using a range of both modern and traditional hunting methods and equipment. Currently settled in regional NSW with his wife and much-loved dogs, Jason has lived across Australia in regional and rural locations ranging from the hot, red dirt deserts of the Northern Territory to the cold alpine highlands of Tasmania. The isolated wilds of Te Waipounamu, Aotearoa are about to put him to a whole new test.

Krzystof, 39
Aquaculturalist, VIC
“My strongest trait is going to be my stubbornness: I’m going to sit in the cold, I’m going to sit in the rain, I’m going to push through this. I’m going to wait until my loved one taps me on the shoulder and tells me I’ve won.”

This Polish-Australian aquaculturalist is a jack of all trades – and master of quite a few. Raised in a Polish refugee family with a rich history of rebellion and resilience in his genes, Krzysztof has always enjoyed thinking outside of the box and cultivating niche interests, like stone, metal and leatherwork as well as medieval combat. Krzysztof lives with his partner in a home that is largely self-sufficient; achieved through a series of first-try DIY projects, each well researched, studied and then executed. This project-obsessed gentle giant is eager to flex his crafting skills, his understanding of fish behaviour as well as his recurve bow hunting abilities.

Leanne, 41
World Heritage Aboriginal Programs Officer, VIC
“I’ve spent my whole life going out bush. Growing up on Country you learn to be self-reliant. Learning to read Country, animals and the way they move helps you hunt them. I know a bit… and using all of that will get me through this.”

Leanne’s love of the bush is a direct result of an upbringing spent largely in Barkandji practice living on Country and fishing and foraging with family. A proud Barkandji woman who works as a World Heritage Aboriginal Officer, she is passionate about her work and her community, preserving culture and artefacts and documenting archaeology and history. A woman whose identity and movements have been occupied by motherhood for more than a decade now, Leanne wants this opportunity to test and reconnect with herself and to find clarity about what’s important and what lies ahead for her. She says, “this is my time to go out, explore, adventure and in a way… find myself again.” She makes no apology for having the prize money in her sights. Winning means an opportunity to buy land on her traditional Country. Leanne’s outdoor skills have been tested on dry, open, red dirt bush. The wild west of Aotearoa’s South Island is about to test her mettle for the exact opposite: a wet, dense and
dark rainforest.

Mike, 60
Resilience Coach, NSW
“I’m really confident I’ve got what it takes to win. The ability to handle pain and discomfort is my superpower. Testing myself and finding my limits is all part of resilience training and I live a life where I practice what I preach.”

The eldest of the cast, this former Waratahs player and rugby union coach turned his later focus to outdoor resilience coaching and mental toughness programming; running training workshops for boys, men and elite sporting teams. A deer hunter living and working in a regional coastal town, this father of three adult children looks forward to putting his mind, body and skills to the test in the ultimate mental and physical challenge. Over the last 30 years, he has taken regular ‘reconnection time’ to immerse himself in nature and live self-sustainably off the land. Mike is at home in the outdoors and confident that his bow and arrow skills, coupled with his fishing skills will keep him well-nourished. He sees his greatest strength as his stubborn tenacity and a resilience forged from a life’s list of mixed experience with traumas and triumphs. Winning, for Mike, would be an affirmation of what he does for a living, and he would love to make his children proud.

Rick, 58
Survival Educator & Former SAS Soldier, QLD
“I have a goal of doing epic stuff in my life every year. I may have a few years under my belt, but when it comes to a commitment to keep pushing boundaries, I’m just getting started. This will be the ultimate opportunity to put experience and knowledge to the test!”

A master of survival, Rick knows better than most what it’s like to be in a tough situation. After joining the military at age 17, he later joined the SAS and spent over 8 years learning all forms of extreme survival, including snow and ice mountain warfare in caves and blizzards. He left the military to focus on his family, the unit he holds most valuable; his wife and two sons. Lately, Rick’s a bushcraft survival educator, running a bushcraft and survival school that prioritises bringing fathers and sons together through learning and shared time together. He’s always had a strong interest in ethnobotany; the connection between native plants and their Indigenous cultural uses. He is particularly curious about the fire-lighting, nutritional, medicinal, and crafting qualities of plants. This fascination may have fed into his becoming an unlikely social media star, with a TikTok account amassing over 1.3M likes and 176,000 loyal followers, whom he affectionately refers to as ‘Bushtokkers’.

Suzan, 54
Wilderness Adventure Guide, VIC
“I want to showcase my 40-plus years of survival skills and show that an older woman can use wisdom and experience to compensate for declining physical strength.”

Suzan has loved the comfort of nature since childhood and has always endeavoured to spend more time out than in. Living off-grid with her husband and two dogs, Suzan is a wilderness adventure guide, a deep wilding facilitator and a novice filmmaker, having directed and featured in Suzy and the Simple Man; a documentary about our relationship with each other and nature. For decades, Suzan has lived a nature-based existence by harvesting resources for her lifestyle from the land she lives on. With a broad skill set including hunting and gathering, scavenging, shelter-making and deep plant knowledge, she wants to explore the limits of her connection with the land. Suzan is intrinsically capable and determined to prove that, even if lacking some of the physical strength of some competitors, older women have the life experience, patience and wisdom to survive and thrive beyond expectation.

Tamika, 51
Off-Gridder & Former Police Officer, QLD
“The motivation to survive in the wilderness comes from a feeling I have every day. It’s the inspiration from nature. It’s a yearning to find out what’s around the corner… I’m hoping I can inspire other people to just love the earth as much as I do.”

The daughter of a bushman, hunting, fishing, camping and exploring were the way of life throughout Tamika’s childhood. Now an off-gridder, Tamika has lived sustainably for the past decade, growing or foraging half of the food consumed by her family. She’s giving up the comfort of her gypsy wagon and taking on the Alone challenge with what feels like ten lifetime’s worth of skills gained from an eclectic cross section of occupations and experiences: former Australian bowhunting champion, police officer, scuba diving instructor, disability worker, national parks ranger, fly fishing rod maker, farmer, tattooist and over twenty years practicing permaculture and herbal medicine. A plant-based chef and author, Tamika has been a vegetarian for over eight years, eating plant-based only for the past five. Hunting and killing an animal ‘that looks after it’s young’ will be the toughest test for Tamika – physically and emotionally – but she’s deliberated and resolved to pick up her bow and arrow one more time to wholly embrace the Alone experience. If Tamika can inspire someone to take their first step towards connecting with nature – she’ll count that as her win.

Alone Australia: The Podcast: Hosted by Alone Australia Season 1 winner Gina Chick and SBS Presenter Darren Mara, Alone Australia: The Podcast launches Friday 29 March. Catch the podcast weekly on SBS On Demand, SBS Australia on YouTube, the SBS Audio app or wherever you get your podcasts.

Alone Australia is an A+E Media Group format and ITV Studios Australia production for SBS.

It will also be available with subtitles in five languages: Simplified Chinese, Arabic, Vietnamese, Traditional Chinese and Korean, and with audio description for blind or vision-impaired audiences.

7:30pm Wednesday 27 March on SBS.