An environmental scientist who survived more than three weeks alone in the harsh Tasmanian wilderness is coming to Logan to share her experience.
Dr Kate Grarock was one of 10 people in the first season of a 2023 SBS documentary series called Alone Australia.
In winter 2022, Dr Grarock was dropped in the Tasmania wilderness with nothing but camera gear and 10 basic survival items, such as a pot, an axe or a tarp.
The goal was to survive as long as possible, with “no help, no film crew and no idea how anyone else was doing”.
“The opportunity to step away from everything, not even having a mobile phone, audiobooks or podcasts, was really eye-opening,” Dr Grarock said.
“22 days is not that long, but it felt like forever.”
Dr Grarock described her experience on the show as life-changing, surviving three weeks by foraging for food and building her own shelter.
She said escaping the instant gratification one gets in the real world through social media and the internet was relieving.
“Modern day life is one extreme on a spectrum, and being out there was the other extreme – I’d like to live my life somewhere in the middle,” she said.
Dr Grarock said she learned about the impact each person makes on the earth.
“That was really profound, because my print when I was out there was so much smaller than in the real world – it was shocking,” she said
“We’re detached from our impact nowadays, we don’t see the impacts we make as much anymore, and it scares me.”
Dr Grarock will be one of the headline speakers at this year’s Logan Eco Action Festival (LEAF).
She will speak about her experience on the show and how it has impacted her connection to the land.
The festival will be held this Sunday (2 June) at Griffith University’s Meadowbrook campus.
Locals will have the chance to hear from the likes of celebrity gardener Costa Georgiadis about ways to reduce, reuse and recycle to create a more sustainable world.
The free event will run from 9am-3pm and feature demonstrations and workshops, interactive presentations, children’s activities and live music.
