It’s hard surviving a Canberra winter but even harder enduring Survivor Canberra, a fan-made series based on the hit reality TV show and filmed in the ACT, drawing contestants from around the country and the world.

What started out as a Covid-lockdown project is now the best thing since home-baked sourdough bread. Its first episode on Youtube in 2021 snagged 17,000 viewers and with season three about to air, Survivor Canberra now has 650 subscribers.

This is no backyard home-video, hard-core fans Dan Moore, 32, and his friend Olivia Dyriw, hire professional camera gear (paid for out of their own pocket, entry fees and fundraising to the tune of $3,500 a season) and use replica props such as the immunity idol and tribal council urn.

The theme for season three is “Canberra versus the world”, which pits one tribe of eight Canberrans against a tribe from across Australia and New Zealand. It was filmed amongst the tall ribbon gum eucalypts at Blue Range Campground and its aim was to test the concept of patriotism versus individual goals.  

“I watched season one of US Survivor with my family back in 2000 and it was always one of those closet things,” Dan said. “I would never really admit to people that I was a Survivor fan but starting this, you realise there’s actually a lot of people out there that enjoy the show and want to get involved in a community like this.” 

In the beginning, Survivor Canberra had a volunteer crew of 10 people filming on their iphones. For season four (still in the editing stage), there was a crew of 40. They even have casting agents who carefully screen test 16 contestants each season.

Initially, only 30 people applied for the first Canberra Survivor show. For season four, 110 people applied from Canberra and across the country (one was from America but wasn’t successful). Previous episodes have attracted applicants from Perth, Townsville, Brisbane, Melbourne and Adelaide.

“We try and cast as many Canberrans as possible because they’re the people that are coming back and helping for future seasons, which is always really useful,” Dan said. “But sometimes you just get a gem from another city that you have to have on.”  

Unlike Australian Survivor, with one season lasting 55 days, a single season of Survivor Canberra is filmed over one weekend. The show’s format and mental and physical challenges, however, are like the real thing. The prize money falls a tad short of $500,000, with winners taking home $200.

“For most people it’s not really about the cash prize because the people that play this are either Survivor fans or just someone looking to do something outside of their comfort zone,” Dan said. “A lot of them actually forget that there’s a cash prize at the end.” 

The giant Survivor franchise turns a blind eye to copyright issues, probably because it boosts their fan base.

“They could turn around tomorrow and say, we want this taken off YouTube,” Dan said. “And of course, we would have to but with all of the probably 30 cities that do it in America and the five that do it in Australia, there’s never been an issue.”

The demographic of contestants on Canberra Survivor is varied, in season three the oldest contestant is 60 and the youngest is 21.

“Our theory with casting is that we want a wide variety of people and seeing how they interact,” Dan said. “Survivor‘s meant to be a microcosm of society and how all these strangers come together and what they do with the situation.”

Survivor Canberra is on Facebook and Instagram www.survivorcanberra.com