Sandford father of three Trent Fenton has won the fourth season of Alone Australia, surviving 52 days in the Arctic Circle in Finland to claim the $250,000 prize.
The 40-year-old former Navy chef outlasted nine other contestants in the frozen wilderness of Sápmi, battling sub-zero temperatures, food scarcity and complete isolation.
His wife Emma was flown from Tasmania to his camp to deliver the news.
“I turned around and there was Em standing there and I just started wailing… it was pure emotion,” Fenton said.
He said he had assumed three or four people were still competing when Emma tapped him on the shoulder.
Fenton’s survival strategy centred on fishing, with one producer telling him no contestant in the show’s history had put in as much time fishing or making fishing gear.
The approach kept him well fed for most of the competition, though losing a handmade lure that had caught more than 30 fish was a major setback.
“If someone said to me, ‘Mate, you give me your car at home and I’ll give that lure back to you’, I would have done it in a heartbeat,” he said.
The toughest stretch came when the lake began to freeze but the ice was too thin to walk on, leaving him unable to fish or forage.
“When I got back to Tassie, my first meal was something that I’d thought about so many nights – homemade chicken parmi with chips, eggs and some fresh bread,” he said.
Runners-up were 57-year-old farmer Clint, who pulled out after 47 days and 24-year-old permaculture educator Jasper, who was medically removed after 48 days due to an infection in his hand.
Fenton, who grew up in Hobart before his family moved to the Tasmanian Midlands, said he plans to pay down his mortgage and invest for his children.
He also intends to donate to fellow contestants, including Dylan Hyatt-Jacobson’s IVF fundraiser and Sia Kindberg’s charity run from Sydney to Melbourne supporting survivors of human trafficking.
“I’m a lot more mellow now and nothing seems to weigh on me anywhere near as much,” Fenton said.
