'Alone' winner lasts 76 days

A 30-year-old professional trapper from New Zealand has won SBS's Alone Australia Season 3 after surviving a record-setting 76 days in the unpredictable and unforgiving wilds of the West Coast Ranges of Tasmania (lutruwita).

 The shy and soft-spoken Shay battled the merciless forces of nature, hunger, and loneliness while stripped of modern possessions, contact and comforts, and outlasted nine other trailblazing participants to win the life-changing prize of $250,000.

 While Shay has trapped possums since he was 16, the Tasmanian wildlife at first proved elusive, forcing him to survive on more creative sources of food: more than 1100 worms, 23 trout, 13 eels, two whitebait and freshwater shrimp, grubs, and ‘cheese fries’ (moth pupae).

 Nothing was off the menu for Shay and his resilience paid off in a final, game-changing twist – his capture of a pademelon.

 For Shay, Alone Australia was more than an adventure or an opportunity to find himself: it was a chance to secure a debt-free future for his young family.

 Coming into the competition, he vowed he’d do whatever it took – even lasting 300 days – to win.

 Living in the bush and off the land has been my life’s passion since I was a kid,” Shay said.

“I built my life around the bush back home and became intimately connected to the land I come from, learning how our ancestors gathered food and lived in nature.

 “I got the opportunity out there to put all that to the test, in a completely foreign environment. Mother Nature’s Colosseum.”

In the double episode finale, after 47 days, three participants remained – Food Safety Consultant, Corinne, Bushman Muzza and Shay.

 They all pushed themselves to their personal limits, with Corinne tapping out on her own terms after 70 days and then on day 73 Muzza was forced home by the medical team due to low blood pressure and an undiagnosed stomach pain.