YMMV / Australian Survivor

• Accidental Innuendo: One challenge involved players lobbing balls into baskets held up by members of the other team. Naturally, the commentary about the number of balls a player could hold got unintentionally hilarious, sending Fenella bursting into laughter.
• Broken Base:
  • Brains v Brawn is to Australian Survivor what Gabon is to American Survivor, with one of the most strategically incompetent casts in Survivor history (even the winner, one of the few proper threats, is voted out unanimously shortly after the merge and ends up being saved by a twist) and a mess of twists and advantages that lead to players constantly getting screwed over. As such, viewers who are focused on strategy and game quality tend to look at this season negatively, while it proves popular with those who are just looking for an entertaining trainwreck of a season with fun characters.
  • The massive amount of food that castaways win at the majority of reward challenges: It's a requirement of Australia's broadcast law so the show can't adjust it too much, but fans are divided over whether it improves the show or not. On one hand, ensuring that contestants nearly never get famished means that we get more time dedicated to a more pure social game, and in the more physical challenges Australian Survivor likes it ensures a higher quality of challenge performance. On the other hand, some fans think that the abundance of food robs the game of some of the conflict that should be implied by the show's title, and that it leaves the contestants a little too happy in comparison to American Survivor.
• Designated Villain: Jericho in 2017 tried to designate himself a villain, boasting to the camera that he'd abandon his Christian principles in the game and try to drag down anyone who crossed him into hell. But as the game went on, he just came to care about too many other people, and became known as one of the nicest and most genuine people around camp.
• Elimination Houdini: Almost literally in the 2016 and 2017 seasons due to surprise non-elimination twists:
  • Nick in the 2016 season was voted out of Vavau in the double Tribal Council in Episode 5, but it was revealed that he would actually be swapped to Saanapu (the other tribe attending that Tribal Council) instead. He lasted all the way to 11th place, becoming the first member of the jury.
    • A subversion in the same episode was Conner on the Saanapu side. The twist was revealed just before both votes were read, and the Saanapu vote ended up deadlocked, with Conner volunteering to swap with Nick in order to avoid drawing rocks.
  • Both Anneliese and Tara in Episode 8 of the 2017 season, as a result of the same twist as above. The former finished in 11th place, while the latter made it all the way to second.
  • Michelle in 2017 was constantly targetted during the season for being weak in challenges and being lazy around camp. But every time she was in trouble, she always managed to talk her way out of it and successfully pin the target on someone else. The most notable occasion where she achieved this was when she found herself in the minority after a tribe swap and convinced the rest of Samatau to vote out Ben instead after verbally destroying him at Tribal Council. Her gift of the gab got her as far as the final four, far exceeding all expectations people had of her.
• Fan Nickname: Due to lacking subtitles as well as the 'season one or season three?' confusion, fans like to call the first two seasons of the Network Ten version 2016 and 2017 respectively. Similarly, 2019's Champions v Contenders season is often called Champions v Contenders 2 or CvC 2 to easily differentiate it from the previous year.
• Heartwarming Moments:
  • Kristie, who had finally just won her first Reward Challenge after so long, decides to sacrifice her loved one's letter in order for Matt to get his letter from his fiance, who he was deeply missing.
  • After hearing Jericho's story about how he always wanted to learn to swim but couldn't due to his fear of drowning, Locky decides to take him out on a swimming lesson, and the result is a moment of genuine bonding in a game of cutthroat betrayals and backstabs.
• Hilarious in Hindsight: In the first episode of Champions vs Contenders (2019), one of Pia's confessionals mention her either being the first to go, or she'll win, a joke that Fantastic Fools lampooned on. Guess who ended up winning.
• Memetic Mutation:
  • Sue's Big Move^note Promos for an episode of the 2016 season hyped up a potential "super move" that Sue was planning to make, only for her to fail to make a big move and get voted out that episode. Jokes abound where people claim to still be waiting for her to make the move several years after the season ended.
  • The repetitive editing frequently gets joked about, especially with later seasons. Despite the fact that there is more material to work with due to there being more days of gameplay, they still frequently repeat points in an effort to fill space. Examples include Pia talking about being a "smiling assassin", Mark being in the military and Jordie comparing himself to the Joker.
• Older Than They Think: While Network Ten would take their sixth season to film a series in Australia (mainly due to the pandemic), Nine was the first network to actually film their Australian Survivor in Australia, nearly 20 years ago.
• Retroactive Recognition: Wrestling fans will recognise CvC 2's Matt as the future Grayson Waller in WWE.
• The Scrappy: Tara was this for a lot of fans during the 2017 season because she was saved by a surprise non-elimination twist, and then proceeded to finish second above a lot of fan favourite characters.
• Sequel Displacement: The 2016 version of the show is the third attempt at creating an Australian version of Survivor, and by far the most acclaimed and successful.
• Shocking Elimination:
  • Some keen-eyed fans were shocked when Odette was blindsided just before the merge in the 2017 season, mainly because despite her very under-the-radar edit, she was conspicuously leading the Sportsbet odds - very similar to what happened with Kristie the previous year.
  • The Gogglebox Australia watchers were very displeased when Mat, a very well-liked player who is considered a national rugby legend, was sent home instead of Benji - and due to one more blatantly false lie of Benji's as well.
• Star Trek Movie Curse: Australian Survivor fans tend to claim that the even seasons (2017, CvC 2, Brains v Brawn and Heroes v Villains) represent the best of the show, while the odd seasons are far more controversial. This curse was officially broken with "Titans v Rebels" with people agreeing that it is a great season and worthy addition.
• Tear Jerker:
  • In the 2016 finale, the Final Immunity Challenge is "Hands on a Hard Idol". Kristie, knowing she is by far the underdog against challenge-competent couple Lee and El, begs Lee tearfully to take her to the Final Two. While she does so, she dissolves into sobs, and eventually tells Lee that he reminds her of her dad, who she promised as an eight year old watching the first season that she would make the show to. Lee falls shortly after on his own accord, and Kristie wins. As she can't walk on her own, she begs her father to carry her, crying the entire way.
  Kristie: If I could get this immunity, you are making a young, eight-year-old girl's dream come true.
  Lee: ...I'm so proud of you. *falls*
  • Jenna's elimination in Champions vs. Contenders (2018). Early in the season she picked up a serious ankle injury during a challenge, but was cleared by medical to continue. Despite her determination to stay in the game, the rest of the Contenders tribe couldn't bring it in them to keep someone who had to use crutches to walk, and they very reluctantly vote her out unanimously. In the uncut voting confessionals on TenPlay, the other women on the tribe are in floods of tears as they cast their votes.
  • Luke's elimination in Champions vs. Contenders (2019). Already a fan favourite player from his first season, he becomes the first returning player in the Australian series and has a heartwarming story about wanting to win to pay for his sick children's medical expenses. During his time in the game, he becomes beloved by the rest of the cast, but by the end, his threat level is too big to ignore. When he finally loses an immunity challenge, he can't stop the inevitable, and even in this cutthroat game, the rest of the tribe took no pleasure in having to vote him out.
  • Lee's departure from the All Stars season. Shortly after the merge, production took him aside and informed him that his mother was gravely ill and he needed to return home immediately. The whole tribe was inconsolable not only because they were losing a good friend in the game, but also that he had this personal tragedy. At the end of the episode, it was revealed that his mother passed away.
  • On Day 34 of Brains v Brawn, Flick Palmateer would get the news from production that her mother passed away from frontotemporal dementia. The whole tribe was quick to offer her their support, no matter what alliance they were in. Unlike Lee above, Flick's family encouraged her to stay in the game, allowing her to keep competing and eventually reach the Final 3.
  • On Day 27 of Titans vs. Rebels, following the tribes merging, an interesting Tribal Council vote was going to go down presumably between Kitty and Raymond, until Scott – likely due to the severe weather taking down the Tasi tribal tarp earlier and clouding his decisions – chose to quit, feeling that his mind wasn’t in the game at that point. The tribemates are supportive of Scott’s decision, with Kirby backing him regardless, and Eden acknowledging that Scott is putting his mental health first with this decision. The episode even closes out with a Lifeline phone message after a preview of the next episode.