It’s no secret that Australian Survivor has probably THE most fucked-up challenges in the global Survivor franchise. And with crazy physical feats come even more insane injuries, believe it or not.
Fans of the show from around the world tend to agree that our version of Survivor is the most bonkers when it comes to the challenges that contestants are put through, with one Redditor lamenting that “US [Survivor] has gotten way too soft on challenges”. How many times has the US production been sued by an injured contestant? Not sure, but for us it’s twice (more on that later).
Every challenge on Australian Survivor seems to be tough, whether it’s to win some food in a reward challenge or score that coveted individual immunity necklace. And for us viewers, it also brings a sick thrill of wondering whether you’re going to see someone’s limb get entirely torn from their body as they attempt to win their team a chicken parmigiana.
The latest edition of the reality series, Australian Survivor: Brains V Brawn II, has been particularly cooked. We’ve seen one contestant medevaced (medically evacuated), another one soldier on after a nauseatingly graphic injury during a challenge, and another one tap out in mysterious circumstances.
Feeling all nostalgic, I decided to hobble down memory lane and recall some of the most fucked-up things that have happened to contestants on Australian Survivor. Read at your own risk… and maybe don’t try any of this at home.
Peter’s untreated gastro (Australian Survivor, 2016)
When Australian Survivor first relaunched on Channel 10, more than 15,000 people applied to be contestants on the show — and one successful applicant quickly had some regrets.
Peter Fiegehen, who at the time of filming was in his early 60s, became the first person to quit Survivor Australia after he became seriously concerned about his health.
According to news.com.au, Peter was struck down by a bout of gastroenteritis two days before filming began. He then went into the show and didn’t eat for 10 days, which meant he clocked up 12 days of no solid food. He became weak and opted to tap out of the show on Day 10, telling news.com.au: “I’m disappointed I didn’t finish, but when I got back [home] I found after 14 days of not eating you could have a heart attack, and after 40 days you could be dead. Survivor is 55 days, that’s going out in a box in a big way.”
Peter did cop some trolling for quitting the show, but I dunno, I reckon I’d rather leave on my feet than in a coffin?
Kate’s infected armpit (Australian Survivor, 2016)
On of the most cooked afflictions on Australian Survivor history didn’t occur in a challenge. No, it was simply a hair follicle that woke up and chose violence.
After Peter left the show on Day 10, fellow contestant Kate Campbell was almost taken out by her own armpit when a hair follicle became irritated, then inflamed, then infected, then swollen to the size of a 50-cent piece.
“It was so painful that I couldn’t put my arm down by my side, so I realised I had to bite the bullet … and tell someone about it,” Kate, who at the time of filming was 28, told the Sydney Morning Herald.
Australian Survivor medics attended the scene, and while cameras were rolling they PIERCED THE BOIL AND DRAINED IT ON NATIONAL TV.
However, out of respect for those viewers eating dinner they cut to an ad break as the needle went in, which seriously aggravated several PEDESTRIAN.TV writers at the time. Some people get off on pus being drained — I am not one of them. The footage was later released by Channel 10 for those sickos who like to watch.
A wall falls on Jenna (Champions V Contenders, 2018)
In the very first episode of Australian Survivor‘s first Champions V Contenders edition saw Contender Jenna Austin suffer a painful injury at the first Immunity Challenge.
After battering down a literal concrete wall, some of the bricks fell on her lower leg and she tripped over them, leaving her with a nasty gash and weakened ankle.
Jenna, who was 28 at the time of filming, opted to stay in the competition (which kinda makes sense considering it was literally the first few days). However, she re-injured the same ankle in a subsequent challenge which led host Jonathan LaPaglia to call in the chopper to have her properly examined by medics.
The ever-determined Jenna returned to camp in a leg brace but was voted out on Day 13 due to her tribemates seeing her as a liability in future physical challenges.
Ross falls from broken rope (Champions V Contenders II, 2019)
One of the most infamous Australian Survivor injuries of all time occurred on the second edition of Champions V Contenders, when contestant Ross “Mad Dog” Clarke-Jones snapped his ankle in a horror accident.
The professional big wave surfer, who was 53 at the time, was the third person to attempt a rope swing over a pit in the Immunity Challenge when the rope snapped and sent him crashing into a wooden deck. As he writhed and screamed in agony, the challenge was stopped and medics immediately came to his aid, pulling him out of the playing field.
Later, the rest of the contestants learned Ross had been medically evacuated from the competition on Day 28 due to “syndesmosis disruption” to his right ankle — basically, his ankle joint snapped.
In 2020, a year after the series was filmed, Ross filed a lawsuit against Australian Survivor‘s production company Endemol Shine claiming damages for his ongoing medical expenses as well as loss of earnings in his surfing career. He reached an undisclosed settlement with the company in 2022.
David’s infected ass (All Stars, 2020)
Eventual Australian Survivor: All Stars winner David Genat didn’t have an easy run to landing the title of Sole Survivor. The Golden God told PEDESTRIAN.TV after his huge win that he almost quit the show in the first week after suffering a cut that needed 10 stitches, and it only got worse from there.
Later on during filming, David copped a spider bite to his butt that, while not life-threatening, was way more serious than the cameras let on. In fact, the bite turned into an abscess and required daily draining by medics. Ew, yuck, gross.
I will say, that ass-biting spider does have mighty good taste though.
Alex’s back injury (Blood V Water, 2021)
In some kind of weird nepo-sibling arrangement, former Bachelorette star Sam Frost‘s brother Alex Frost appeared in the Blood V Water season of Australian Survivor, but not for long. Alex hurt his back in the most innocuous way as he bent to pick up his bag on the way to the first Immunity Challenge, and rocked up being supported by tribemates, unable to even walk.
Sleeping on the ground and participating in more challenges only made his disc injury worse as the series went on, so at Tribal Council on Day 12 of the competition, Alex begged his Water tribemates to vote him out. When they refused, he made the tough decision to quit the show, becoming just the second person in Australian Survivor history to do so.
“I was always managing the pain, some days were better than others and I’d think yeah, I could do this,” he told Channel 10 after leaving. “Some days I’d wake up or it would be in the middle of the night and the pain would just be too much… it all just compounded.”
Nina slides her way out of the show (Blood V Water, 2021)
Nina Twine, the daughter of US Survivor powerhouse Sandra Diaz-Twine, was all set to follow in her mum’s winning footsteps… until one of her feet let her down.
Nina was cruising down a slide during a challenge when her foot caught at a strange angle, leaving her in visible pain. She was carried out of the challenge by her tribemates and rocked up at the next one in a moon boot and on crutches. As Jonathan explained: “The medical team have assessed you and they’ve diagnosed an avulsion fracture. While that injury by itself is not a huge deal, it could become an issue down the road if you don’t get the right treatment – which is kind of impossible out here.”
A tearful Nina was pulled from the game and became the third contestant medically evacuated in Australian Survivor history. At the time, Nina said “I can’t decide if this is worse than being blindsided. It’s just frustrating that this is how I have to go out.”
Nina did return to the show the following season, making it all the way to the Australian Survivor: Heroes V Villains jury. We love a redemption arc.
Georgia and Chelsea’s mystery illnesses (Brains V Brawn, 2021)
The first iteration of Brains V Brawn saw two badass women felled by illness. First up was Brains tribe member Georgia Ray, who suffered severe abdominal pain while filming in what she later described as “the most painful night of my life”. She was attended to by medics and received a 24-hour medical exemption before returning to the game.
Georgia explained that she believed the pain was bowel-related, and God knows after eating nothing but beans and rice for a couple of weeks my bowels would be up to all sorts of mischief. However, after being voted out on Day 21 Georgia suffered another episode and got properly checked out.
As reported by PEDESTRIAN.TV at the time, Georgia took to the Australian Survivor Instagram account to reveal that she actually suffered an ectopic pregnancy while competing on the show, which is when a fertilised egg implants in the fallopian tube instead of the uterus. So yep, not just incredibly painful, but heartbreaking as well. The fact Georgia soldiered on just proves women can do fucking anything.
Later on in that same season, Brawn tribe member Chelsea Hackett was medically evacuated due to illness. Strangely, the MMA fighter wasn’t given a lot of air time during the season and we didn’t even see her complain of being ill.
“I was just worried. I wasn’t feeling well at all,” she later told The Courier-Mail. “I felt like I was losing weight really quickly. I knew my body would probably not react very well to that and it didn’t. It started shutting down.”
She was taken to hospital after being medevaced, where doctors diagnosed an ear infection and extreme dehydration — so bad, in fact, the doctors couldn’t even take enough blood for testing. Chelsea was put on an IV and make a quick recovery.
The challenge from hell (Heroes V Villains, 2023)
Australian Survivor: Heroes V Villains came in hot with two people getting absolutely poleaxed in the very first Immunity Challenge. Viewers were amused when Australian Survivor fan fave and Villain George Mladenov ate shit on a giant revolving box (which sent him face first into a shallow mud pit), but fellow Villains tribe member Jackie Glazier‘s shit-eating was less of a laugh.
@survivorau Fingers crossed that these two will be fit to return! 🤞 #SurvivorAU ♬ original sound – SurvivorAU
Medics were called over immediately to examine the professional poker player, who first appeared in the 2018 Champions V Contenders season, and she was eventually medivaced after docs diagnosed a broken collarbone. When you look back at the footage, it’s a wonder no one broke their neck on that challenge.
Jackie became the second former Australian Survivor contestant to sue Endemol Shine, seeking damages, loss of past and future earnings and medical expenses in a 2024 lawsuit lodged in the Victorian Supreme Court.
Aussie writer Benjamin Law was a welcome addition to the Australian Survivor family when he competed in Heroes V Villains in 2023. After being voted off on Day 22, Ben wrote a piece for The Guardian Australia in which he detailed all the gross stuff that happens to Australian Survivor contestants’ bodies that isn’t shown on TV.
Probably the most stomach-turning part of Ben’s story is when he developed trench foot, a condition that struck down thousands of soldiers during World War I.
“I ripped off my sneakers, stripped off my soaked socks and realised I felt … weird underfoot. Or, rather, I felt something missing. Then I looked down,” he wrote. “The hole in the sole of my foot was red raw, at least a human knuckle deep, all narrow and gaping – like the well Bart Simpson fell down, but dug out of me. Part of my foot was simply gone. I felt grossed out even just looking at it.”
I’ll say it: disgoostang!
Zen gets caught in mesh bridge (Brains V Brawn II, 2025)
Queensland hip hop artist Zen Heaton was shaping up to be our favourite himbo of this year’s Australian Survivor, until a tussle with Brains contestant Kaelan Lockhart took him out of the competition.
The show’s producers decided to hold a wrestling on a mesh platform which seems like a recipe for disaster if you ask me, especially given that the holes in the mesh were perfectly finger-sized.
Surprise surprise, Zen’s finger got caught in the mesh during his bout with Kaelan, but he initially brushed it off saying it was just jarred.
However, when Zen’s finger still hurt hours later and his hand had swollen to roughly the size of a small Volkswagen, the medics were called in. Zen showed up to the Immunity Challenge with his arm in a cast and explained that his finger was fractured, resulting in docs pulling him from the competition. And just like that, Zen became the fifth person to be medevaced from Australian Survivor.
PD’s bicep snaps (Brains V Brawn II, 2025)
If Kaelan wasn’t so damn sweet, we’d be concerned that he was deliberately knocking off the competition in these Brains V Brawn II challenges. Having (accidentally) taken Zen out of the series, Kaelan’s next (accidental) victim was Paul “PD” Dee, an unassuming soccer coach from Sydney.
During another wrestling challenge — the producers are clearly ON ONE this season — Kaelan and PD were throwing down on the ground when a horrific snap was heard, followed by PD screaming in agony.
We’re not sure who looked like they were going to pass out first — PD from pain or Kaelan from guilt.
“I thought it was a bone break as soon as I did it. My initial thought was, that’s it, the game is over. Your dream has just been shattered in a split second,” he later told Channel 10.
However, the eventual diagnosis was a ruptured bicep. Still sucks, but PD was given the option to continue on in the game, which he did until he was voted out on Day 29. A valiant effort!
Ben’s laundry list of ailments (Brains V Brawn II, 2025)
Stonemason Ben Bylett departed the show under a cloud of mystery this season. While Jonathan simply said Ben had “decided to leave the game” without going into detail, Ben took to Instagram to claim that a torn calf, pneumonia, and Ross River fever had contributed to him tapping out.
However, none of this was shown or mentioned in the show — so the jury’s still out on this one!
Paulie cops a torch to the face (Brains V Brawn II, 2025)
It’s been a rough trot for Paulie Michael on this season of Australian Survivor. I won’t go into all the ups and downs of his journey so far, but will simply end with this:
Nearly getting taken out by Laura Darras‘ flailing torch on the way to Tribal Council. Sums it all up, really.
