Winning $250,000 by being the last one standing on Alone Australia was a dream come true for Trent, but he tells New Idea that initially, he didn’t believe he deserved it.
The Navy veteran withstood the harshness of the Arctic Circle in Sápmi, Finland, and spent 52 days there before he was declared the winner.
Going into the experience, he wanted to stay for 101 days and beat Roland Welker’s 100-day record, which he set in Canada.
When his wife, Emma, tapped him on the shoulder, he was beside himself. But watching it all back and seeing everyone else’s struggles, he felt like he didn’t earn it.
“I just felt like I didn’t deserve that because I hadn’t gone through enough pain and suffering,” the former Navy chef tells us.
Reflecting on his time on the show, he said he never reached his “breaking point”, or anything close to it. Not staying as long as he hoped, he wonders how much longer it would have taken for him to reach that moment.
“I don’t know, there’s a bit of there’s a bit of a hole there,” he says about what could’ve been.
“I mean, every other contestant on Alone on that series knew that they were either breaking down physically or mentally and where their breaking point was, and I didn’t get to that point, so that’s one thing that I didn’t get out of it.”
Despite challenges and frustrations day-to-day, such as moving his entire shelter a kilometre away, he said he was “lucky”.
His extensive knowledge of trout fishing helped sustain him, and he caught 44 fish overall – the most of any contestant on the Aussie show.
Having been a fan of the show for years, he saw many survivalists leave because of starvation. But for him, tapping out was not an option, so he made the most of it, constructed lures, and even made a smoker.
Watching at home, he saw how unlucky his competitors were, whether it was struggling to get food, challenges with their shelters, or even their physical health.
When it came to watching his own journey back, he says he wished the show showed more of his “failures”. For instance, his gumboot split, and the esky he made to preserve his berries didn’t work.
But throughout his journey, he never felt the need to tap out. With his family, who he says are all competitive, in the back of his mind, he didn’t want to be forced to leave, and didn’t want to break down and leave.
However, he did cry when he embraced his wife, admitting that in the 11 years they’ve been married, he’s never cried in front of her.
So he set goals for himself – by day 27, which marked his daughter’s birthday, he looked at his family photo for the first time. Determined not to get consumed by his emotions, he told himself he’d look at it again after 50 days, and then every 10 days after that.
Being a hands-on dad, it was hard to stay away from his children, but it was worth it, knowing he was setting up their futures with his prize money.
He also plans to put it towards his mortgage and help two of this year’s contestants.
As he watched everyone’s journey, he admired Sia’s decision to do a 1,032-kilometre run to raise funds and awareness for Hagar Australia – a charity fighting against trafficking, slavery and abuse.
He was also moved by Dylan’s story of spending thousands to welcome his first child, Jensen, into the world via IVF with his wife. If he had won, Dylan hoped to use the prize money to help give his son a sibling.
“That’s something that really choked me up watching it back, and thinking he’s a returned serviceman, he’s a search and rescue guy, she’s a paramedic…If I’m going to get behind anyone, it’s someone like him, cause everyone deserves one or two children, and it’d be nothing better for him and Jem to get their second child,” Trent says about donating a portion of his winnings to his competitor.
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