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Alone Australia isn’t for the faint hearted as contestants face all the terrifying forces of nature, but for 2023 winner Gina Chick it wasn’t a challenge but an opportunity.
As the winner, the first ever on Alone Australia, Gina gets to take home the prize money of $250,000 but it was never a competition for her.
Gina Chick is the 2023 winner.
(Image: Instagram)“I live a life where being in nature isn’t a competition. It’s a willingness to have nature as a dance partner,” she told TV WEEK.
“This (the competition) meant that I could spend my time out there enjoying myself playing rather than thinking I need to dominate or win.”
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The news of Gina’s win was so sudden and shocking, she was left speechless and initially thought Lee – the man who greeted her during the finale – was a figment of her imagination and reached out to see if he was real.
After the news settled, Gina was taken away from the wilderness that had been her home for a staggering 67 days. Telling TV WEEK she wondered if she could stay a few more days to truly say goodbye to the wild.
Gina on day one versus day 67 of Alone Australia.
(Image: Instagram)There will always be some part of Gina that resides in Lutruwita – in the shelter made with her own hands using the nature around her and a tarp.
“I absolutely miss my Lutruwita home. My nest out there was [and] is a part of my heart forever. I feel like a part of myself is still out there,” she confessed.
And the one thing she would do differently? Absolutely nothing.
“There isn’t anything I would change about my survival tactics,” she said.
“I was really happy with the attitude that I had out there and the way I brought a willingness to listen to wild nature and listen to country and let country show me how to survive.”
However, perhaps she would reconsider diving three meters down into cold waters to catch a fish that got tangled which left her cold to the bone for a week.
Now, Gina is home resting and planning to use her prize money to help her parents, improve the “rewilding offerings that I can make for people learning to be at home in wild nature.”
“My plans are to let the dust settle and hopefully get outside, spend a few days on my own sleeping in the dirt next to a fire, next to a river, doing some fishing, listening to the song of the moon.
“After all that has replenished my batteries, I have an album that I’ll be releasing later on in the year. I have books that are in the process of being written and I have a rewilding community.”
Plus, she would love to join another season of Alone on any continent not just Australia.
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