On Wednesday night, Trent Felton, a 40-year-old former Navy chef from Tasmania, won the fourth season of Alone Australia after outlasting his last two challengers, Clint, a 57-year-old farmer from New Zealand, and Jasper, a 24-year-old permaculture teacher from WA.
asserted
Felton → win → WA
Trent had survived in the wilderness of Sapmi, in northern Finland, for 52 days, setting a record for the number of fish caught in a single season, and bursting into tears (just as he’d predicted he would) when he received the surprise tap on his shoulder from wife Emma, who flew from the other end of the world to be the one to break the news that he’d seen off the nine others in the competition, and would be $250,000 richer for doing so.
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he → survive → competition
Trent opens up to senior culture writer Karl Quinn about what he missed, what he learnt, and what he couldn’t wait to eat when he got home.
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he → open → what
Well, Trent, let me start by saying congratulations and well done.
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me → let → congratulations
How does it feel to have won such a tough and lonely endurance test?
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it → feel → test
Oh, mate, it’s just amazing.
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it → ’ → ?
It was one of the best feelings of my life, something I’ll never forget, and to be honest, I’d love to do it all over again.
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I → forget → it
It was an amazing adventure, better than I ever thought it would be.
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it → think → ?
Like I could just do what I wanted to do.
uncertain
I → do → what
You know, life at home is pretty hectic when you’ve got three young kids [Jack, 11, Stella, 9, and Leo, 6] and your own business [he works as a chef and as a landscaper], so it was a bloody good parenting break, to be honest.
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it → know → landscaper
Let’s talk about food.
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’s → let → food
What was the first thing you ate when you got back?
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you → eat → ?
My wife cooked me a chicken parmy with chips, eggs, and some fresh bread, and that was so good.
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that → cook → chips
How much of your brain space out there is taken up with thoughts of food?
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much → take → food
[Before I went to Sapmi] I was eating up to eight meals a day, trying to pack weight on, so by the time I got there I was sick of food.
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I → go → food
I’d been eating that many eggs I nearly didn’t want to go down to feed my chickens.
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I → eat → chickens
But a couple of weeks in, my love for food started coming back.
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love → come → food
You start thinking about food, and then you literally start dreaming about food.
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you → start → food
It’s crazy.
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It → ’ → ?
Every single night you’re laying in your sleeping bag – you’re in bed early because it was dark and if you stay up you’re just burning calories – and I’d just lay there, sometimes for four or five hours before I went to sleep, and you just can’t help but think about food.
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you → lay → food
Was the chicken parmigiana the thing you fantasised about most?
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you → fantasise → ?
I still remember the order: it was a homemade pizza, then it went to a chicken burger, and then it went to aeroplane food.
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it → remember → food
I could hear aeroplanes in my area, and I kept thinking, “Just drop me out a meal”.
uncertain
I → hear → meal
It’s kind of inspired me to get that love for food back, and I’ve been writing a cookbook that’ll be ready in another month.
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that → inspire → month
It’s not Michelin-star kind of food, just food that people can make for their families, easy, nice food.
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people → ’ → families
Speaking of which, you had enormous success with your smokehouse, which you used to preserve fish.
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you → speak → fish
But you had a lot less success with your efforts to build a fireplace inside your shelter.
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you → have → shelter
For a while there, as your home filled with smoke, it looked like you were going to turn yourself into jerky.
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you → fill → jerky
I definitely didn’t prioritise fire before going onto the land, which was a rookie mistake.
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which → prioritise → land
I did see on the US series a guy do a fire in his shelter like my first one, I did a bit of research on it, but I couldn’t find exactly how he did it, so it was a bit of a gamble out there.
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it → see → gamble
I was like, “She’ll be right, I’ll just cut a hole in the top of my shelter”.
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I → cut → shelter
And then that didn’t work, so I cut a bigger hole, and I was like, “OK, now I’ve got to fix that”.
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I → work → that
But it was funny to watch.
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it → watch → ?
How much stuff were you able to try out before you went?
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you → try → ?
I’d made gill nets and a fishing rod and lures and did a lot of research on clothing and food that I could eat over that side of the world.
uncertain
I → make → world
But I’m in Tassie, so you’re lucky to be able to cut down one tree, let alone go somewhere and cut down 50, so [making a shelter] was something that I thought, I’m just going to try it when I’m out there.
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I → ’m → it
Even the smoker – that’s the first smoker I’ve ever made.
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I → ’ → ?
I was working until a week before we left, because obviously the bills still come in and you’re trying to get as much money as you can in the bank before you go away.
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you → work → bank
I wasn’t really in a position to take a month or two off work and practice all these things.
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I → take → things
I was talking to a few of the other contestants the other night, and they were in the same kind of boat.
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they → talk → boat
…and 33 more, not listed.
