Gina Chick: ‘I am currently single, and it’s a weird thing for me’

Gina Chick, a “rewilding” facilitator and writer, spent two months in the wilderness to win the reality TV show Alone Australia. Here, the 55-year-old reveals how her grandfather instilled in her a love of nature, and how the death of her daughter affected her romantic relationship.

Gina Chick inherited a love of nature from her grandfather.Credit: Tim Bauer

My paternal grandfather, Bruce, started planting trees in his 30s and never stopped. He might single-handedly have re-forested NSW’s upper Tweed Valley.

My mum, Suzanne, my dad, Doug, and my two younger sisters, Danni and Kristie, would go for bushwalks. Suddenly, Pop would climb a giant rainforest tree to get a seed that only came out every six years. For a kid, it was incredibly boring when he wouldn’t shut up about trees, but he taught us about birds and the forest and that was amazing.

Pop died in 2007 at 96 years old. He used to climb Mt Warning [in NSW] every birthday, and still did so at 90. In 1988, Pop received an Order of Australia for conservation. He was a legend in land care.

I count myself blessed every day to have the father that I have. Dad, a scientist and a teacher, is a gentle and kind human who listens. I’ve always felt Dad was this rock with a lighthouse on it, and his family was the waves that crashed against it.

Dad had Mum – an artist and teacher and an incredibly intelligent, flamboyant and expressive woman – as well as three daughters, born within three years of each other. He has always been like the steady horizon, not just for me, but for all of us.

I share Dad’s view that the world is an amazing place and everything will be OK. We both also like solving challenges. I also share Dad’s love of adventure.

My first boyfriend was Jesse in grade 4. He was like a Storm Boy, and I was Storm Girl. He was lovely, wild and strange. Growing up, I never wanted to be girl, as I never understood girly stuff. I used to pray I’d never get boobs, but when I didn’t wear a top on the last day of school, Jesse was horrified and dropped me.

I lost my virginity when I was 16; he was 11 years older than me. He was like, “let’s have sex”. I didn’t know how to say no. He didn’t hold that part of my innocence with any care at all, and so the experience was traumatic. The way I lost my virginity probably really affected my relationships with men for a very long time.

In my 20s, as I started to heal, I went down these different trails and discovered that I was attracted to women as well as men. I’ve had relationships with some amazing women.

I was a lesbian when I met Lee Trew at Tracker School in New Jersey. I thought I was done with sausage, but apparently not. There was this magnetism with Lee that was completely irresistible. We have been to the bottom of the pit together – I think he was 28 when I had breast cancer.

Our daughter, Blaise, died when she was three. I couldn’t have any more kids and Lee wanted to be a dad again. I wanted fatherhood for him, too, and so after eight years, we parted. Lee and I still run our wilderness camps together. His partner, Hannah, is a wonderful human being. I love being a godmother to their two daughters.

I am currently single, and it’s a weird thing for me. I don’t even have any lovers. After winning Alone Australia I went overseas for a bit. When I returned, I was known for being this woman who was in the wilderness for 67 days, who ate fried worms and danced around barefoot – that’s probably a bit intimidating.

I am writing my second book, so I feel like the muse is my lover. The muse is very jealous with me. If I am mooning over some hot Viking, the muse will leave for a couple of days.

I’m happy that the muse is here, but can we just get a share situation going, so the muse can have me for five days a week and I can have a fabulous lover for two? The question has been sent out. We’ll see if she releases me into the wild.

Gina Chick will appear at All About Women, at the Sydney Opera House, on March 9.

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