Australian Survivor (2002)

Australian Survivor (2002) is the first season of the Nine Network incarnation of the Australian reality show, Australian Survivor. Filming took place in Eyre Peninsula, Australia. The premiere aired on Wednesday, February 13, 2002.

In the end, 37 year-old Rob Dickson from Victoria claimed the title of Sole Survivor. He defeated Sciona Browne by a 5-2 vote, winning the AUD$500,000 prize.

Production[]

Australian television network Nine, which had originally aired the flagship American version, made an agreement with CBS, the network that produces the latter, and Castaway Television Productions, the company the owns the international Survivor.

Around 8,500 people applied for the show by sending audition tapes. The producers chose 16 contestants to participate between May 3-10, 2001. This season was hosted by Lincoln Howes. Filming took place locally in Port Lincoln, South Australia.^[1]

Format[]

• Tribe Composition: The sixteen castaways were divided into two tribes of eight.
• Self-Vote: Unlike the American version of the show, castaways are able to vote against themselves.
• Camps with Pros and Cons: After the marooning, the host asked the youngest castaway to flip a coin to determine which camp the tribe would be living on. The tribe that won got the choice between a camp with a closer water source and a camp with a better food source.
• Merge: The merged tribe was composed of ten members.
• Verbal Vote: Immediately after the Final Immunity Challenge, the winner had to verbally eliminate someone.
• Final Tribal Council Format: Two finalists faced a jury of seven. The jurors individually addressed the finalists.

Castaways[]

Contestant		Tribe Affiliation		Finish	Votes Against
		Original Tribe	Merged Tribe
	Lucinda Allen-Rhodes 43, Byron Bay, NSW Mother of Three	Kadina		1st Voted Out Day 3	8
	Tim Dugan 51, Green Point, NSW Contract Painter	Kadina		2nd Voted Out Day 6	4
	David Haas 34, Sydney, NSW IT Consultant	Kadina		3rd Voted Out Day 9	6
	Jeff Brown 52, Canberra, ACT Federal Police Superintendent	Tipara		4th Voted Out Day 12	5
	Deborah Peart 26, Sydney, NSW Media Professional	Kadina		5th Voted Out Day 15	4
	Sylvan Dorney 25, Sydney, NSW Author	Kadina		6th Voted Out Day 18	3
	Caren Shaw 28, Darwin, NT Radio Show Co-host	Kadina	Aurora	7th Voted Out Day 21	10
	Naomi Knight 22, Melbourne, VIC School Teacher	Kadina		8th Voted Out 1st Jury Member Day 24	8
	Craig Abbot 27, Point Lonsdale, VIC Electrician	Kadina		9th Voted Out 2nd Jury Member Day 27	8
	Lance Brooks 39, Sydney, NSW Marketing Consultant	Tipara		10th Voted Out 3rd Jury Member Day 30	8
	Jane Dalton 18, Newcastle, NSW Student	Tipara		11th Voted Out 4th Jury Member Day 33	9
	Sophie Woods 30, Sydney, NSW Mother	Tipara		12th Voted Out 5th Jury Member Day 35	3
	Katie Gold 24, Melbourne, VIC Professional Athlete	Tipara		13th Voted Out 6th Jury Member Day 37	3
	Joel Betts 22, Sydney, NSW Personal Trainer	Tipara		14th Voted Out 7th Jury Member Day 38	7
	Sciona Browne 49, Perth, WA Test Pilot	Tipara		Runner-Up	1
	Rob Dickson 37, Melbourne, VIC Ex-AFL Footballer	Tipara		Sole Survivor	5

Season Summary[]

Episode		Air Date	Challenges		Eliminated (vote)	Finish
			Reward	Immunity
1	"Journey to Whaler's Way"	February 13, 2002	Kadina	Tipara	Lucinda (8-0)	1st Voted Out Day 3
2	"Violent Weather and Violent People"	February 20, 2002	Kadina	Tipara	Tim (4-1-1-1)	2nd Voted Out Day 6
3	"The Losing Streak"	February 27, 2002	Kadina	Tipara	David (5-1)	3rd Voted Out Day 9
4	"The Struggle of Both Tribes"	March 6, 2002	Tipara	Kadina	Jeff (5-3)	4th Voted Out Day 12
			[Sylvan]1
5	"It's Just Too Hard!"	March 13, 2002	Kadina	Tipara	Deborah (3-2)	5th Voted Out Day 15
6	"This Game is Way Different Than It Looks"	March 20, 2002	Tipara	Tipara	Sylvan (3-1)	6th Voted Out Day 18
7	"It's Time to Merge"	April 3, 2002	None	Craig	Caren (7-2-1)	7th Voted Out Day 21
8	"Pick Off"	April 10, 2002	Naomi [Craig]	Craig	Naomi (7-1-1)	8th Voted Out 1st Jury Member Day 24
9	"I Just Feel So Bad"	April 17, 2002	Lance [Everyone]	Sophie	Craig (7-1)	9th Voted Out 2nd Jury Member Day 27
10	"He's a Threat, She's a Threat, We're all Threats!"	April 24, 2002	Jane	Joel	Lance (5-1-1)	10th Voted Out 3rd Jury Member Day 30
11	"Cockiness Comes to an End"	May 1, 2002	Joel	Sciona	Jane (3-3; 2-2; Tiebreaker)2	11th Voted Out 4th Jury Member Day 33
12	"Who's the Odd Man Out?"	May 8, 2002	Katie [Everyone]	Katie	Sophie (3-2)	12th Voted Out 5th Jury Member Day 35
13	"Finale/Reunion"	May 15, 2002	Katie [Everyone]	Rob	Katie (3-1)	13th Voted Out 6th Jury Member Day 37
			None	Rob	Joel (1-0)	14th Voted Out 7th Jury Member Day 38
			Jury Vote		Sciona (5-2)	Runner-Up
					Rob (5-2)	Sole Survivor
Notes: ^1 One member of the winning tribe on the Day 12 immunity challenge won the car driven in the challenge. Sylvan won the car via random draw. ^2 With a deadlock tie between Jane and Joel, Jane's past votes were taken into account, eliminating her.

Voting History[]

		Original Tribes						Merged Tribe
Episode		1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9	10	11			12	13
Voted Out		Lucinda	Tim	David	Jeff	Deborah	Sylvan	Caren	Naomi	Craig	Lance	Tie	Deadlock	Jane	Sophie	Katie	Joel	Sciona	Rob
Vote		8-0	4-1-1-1	5-1	5-3	3-2	3-1	7-2-1	7-1-1	7-1	5-1-1	3-31	2-22	Past votes3	3-2	3-1	1-04	5-2
►	Rob	—	—	—	Jeff	—	—	Caren	Naomi	Craig	Lance	Jane	Jane	—	Sophie	Katie	Joel	Jury Vote
►	Sciona	—	—	—	Jane	—	—	Caren	Naomi	Craig	Lance	Jane	Jane	—	Sophie	Katie	None
►	Joel	—	—	—	Jeff	—	—	Caren	Naomi	Craig	Jane	Jane	None	—	Sophie	Katie	None		Rob
►	Katie	—	—	—	Jane	—	—	Caren	Naomi	Craig	Lance	Joel	Joel	—	Rob	Joel		Sciona
►	Sophie	—	—	—	Jeff	—	—	Caren	Naomi	Craig	Lance	Joel	Joel	—	Rob				Rob
►	Jane	—	—	—	Jeff	—	—	Caren	Naomi	Craig	Lance	Joel	None	Eliminated					Rob
►	Lance	—	—	—	Jeff	—	—	Caren	Naomi	Craig	Sciona								Rob
►	Craig	Lucinda	David	David	—	Deborah	Sylvan	Rob	Rob	Rob								Sciona
►	Naomi	Lucinda	Tim	David	—	Deborah	Sylvan	Lance	Lance										Rob
►	Caren	Lucinda	Tim	David	—	Deborah	Sylvan	Lance
	Sylvan	Lucinda	Tim	David	—	Caren	Naomi
	Deborah	Lucinda	Tim	David	—	Caren
	Jeff	—	—	—	Jane
	David	Lucinda	Caren	Craig
	Tim	Lucinda	Deborah
	Lucinda	Lucinda
Notes: ^1 Tribal Council resulted in a tie. Per the rules, a second vote was held where the castaways involved in the tie would not vote and the remaining castaways could only vote for those involved in the tie. ^2 Per the rules at the time, in case of a deadlock tie, past votes were taken into account. The player with more past votes got eliminated. ^3 Jane had more past votes than Joel, eliminating her from the game. ^4 Joel and Sciona did not vote as they could only vote for each other. By virtue of winning the final Immunity Challenge, only Rob voted.

Trivia[]

• This season features the first time in the Survivor franchise that a castaway has voted against themselves.
• This season aired on the Nine Network in place of Survivor: Marquesas, which was never shown on Australian television.
• The winner of this season, Rob Dickson, died on April 11, 2009. Rob and his two sons perished in a car accident while on a holiday in South Africa. Rob is the first Sole Survivor to pass away.
• Australian Survivor had no slogan because other foreign networks owned the phrases 'Outwit, Outplay, Outlast' (U.S.) and 'Trust No One' (UK)
• In 2021, the host of the season Lincoln Howes was inducted into the Australian Survivor Hall of Fame.

References[]

1. ↑ https://www.smh.com.au/entertainment/tv-and-radio/survival-of-the-fittest-20021015-gdfq58.html

Australian Survivor Seasons
Nine Network	Seven Network
2002	Celebrity
Network Ten
2016 • 2017 • Champions v Contenders (2018) • Champions v Contenders (2019) • All Stars • Brains v Brawn (2021) • Blood v Water • Heroes v Villains • Titans v Rebels