Australian Outback Veterans

**Highest Ranked**: Karleigh (4/18)

The Australian Outback Veterans Alliance was an alliance from Survivor: China.

After competing on Survivor: The Australian Outback, many castaways then returned for *China* and agreed to take each other to the end. However, the sheer number of this group proved to be a fatal issue during the merge and caused the veterans to form two factions.

## History

### Origins

The red Fei Long tribe was formed on Day 1 of *Survivor: China*. Six castaways on the tribe of nine competed on the previous season, Survivor: The Australian Outback; Ashleigh, Bailey, Bella, Karleigh, Trey and Winston. In *The Australian Outback*, both Bella and Trey were early targets after being on a tribe with Bailey, Karleigh and Winston. Additionally, Ashleigh worked with Karleigh and Winston, but was also their adversary for quite some time because they also worked with Bailey. Despite the conflict amongst this group of six, the veterans agreed to work with each other in order to target newbies Adrian, Chord and Fawn. After winning the first immunity challenge, The Australian Outback Women formed a smaller alliance but agreed to only vote out the boys if Fei Long was reduced to their core alliance. This did not occur as the tribe also won another challenge before losing on Day 9.

The Australian Outback Veterans wanted to target Adrian, but were concerned that he could be in possession of a Hidden Immunity Idol. Both Trey and Winston agreed that they would change their vote to another newbie, but ended up separately voting for Chord and Fawn respectively. The newbies voted for Winston because he was the only former winner on the tribe, but the Australian Outback Women had the majority on Fei Long at Adrian was voted out.

### The Switch: Fei Long

At the tribe switch, Bailey, Bella, Trey and Winston remained on Fei Long along with newbie Chord. They were joined by Isobel, Jade and Jase from the rival Zhan Hu tribe. Jase, despite also being a veteran from *The Australian Outback*, remained loyal to his original Zhan Hu tribe members because he didn't have a strong relationship with any of the other veterans. At the new Fei Long tribes first loss on Day 14, the original Fei Long castaways voted for Jase whilst the original Zhan Hu and outsider Chord voted for Bailey. At the revote, original Zhan Hu member Isobel feared the tribe would be forced to draw rocks and switched her vote in order to eliminate Jase. Despite saving them, the Australian Outback Veterans felt like they couldn't fully trust Isobel and she was voted out when Fei Long lost the following immunity challenge.

### The Switch: Zhan Hu

Meanwhile, Ashleigh and Karleigh were switched to the gold Zhan Hu tribe along with outsider Fawn. They joined original Zhan Hu members Aida, Caroline, Cherry and Dion. Karleigh and Ashleigh attempted to join forces with their former allies Dion and Aida in order to form the majority. However, Aida was aligned with Caroline whereas Dion aligned with Cherry. Aida and Caroline aligned with Ashleigh and Karleigh, though Cherry had some reluctance joining forces with Aida and Ashleigh because they eliminated him on Ogakor back on *The Australian Outback*. Cherry forced Dion to pick a side, and Dion flipped on Cherry to stay with the numbers. The new majority of five now consisted of Aida, Ashleigh, Caroline, Dion and Karleigh. At Zhan Hu's first loss, Cherry was disappointed Dion wouldn't work with him and he was able to convince Fawn to vote with him for Dion. The majority split the votes between Cherry and Fawn in case an idol was played, but neither did and Fawn was voted out. The Zhan Hu tribe then won the remaining two immunity challenges they had together until they merged with Fei Long on Day 18.

### The Merge Betrayal

At the merge, Ashleigh and Karleigh reunited with Bailey, Bella, Trey and Winston. Both groups shared information about the dynamics of their switched tribes, and decided to bring in Aida, Caroline and Dion in order to form the majority alliance on the black Hae Da Fung tribe. At the first merged vote, the alliance agreed to target Chord but split the votes between him and Jade in case an idol was in circulation. However, Bailey, Bella, Trey and Winston (who remained on Fei Long through the switch) realised that they were in the minority within their nine person alliance and were concerned that someone like Caroline would fly under the radar compared to the group of veterans. At tribal council, Chord received the most votes but played an idol on himself. With the second highest number of votes from the Fei Long Four, Caroline was blindsided and made the first member of the jury.

### The Fractured Veterans

The *Australian Outback* veterans crumbled following this betrayal, with a clear divide between the post switch Fei Long veterans and the post switch Zhan Hu castaways. The Fei Long Four were approached by outsider Cherry and, having never worked with him in the past, readily agreed in order to gather numbers for themselves. This group of five agreed to vote for Aida, whom they didn't have a strong relationship with. At tribal however, she played her idol and Winston was voted out with the second highest number of votes. Despite having lost one of their own, the remaining Fei Long Veterans received reassurance from Cherry that he would work with them in order to get rid of Karleigh. Unfortunately for them, outsider Chord had begun working with the Zhan Hu veterans and they had the numbers to eliminate Trey.

Now only a pair and Cherry, Bailey and Bella were hoping that someone would flip with them and vote for Karleigh. The girls tried scrambling and reconnecting with Ashleigh and Karleigh because they previously had an all women alliance, but the girls didn't budge and Bella was their next target. Bailey was the last remaining member who was loyal to the Fei Long Alliance and she readily agreed when Cherry proposed he work with him, Chord and Jade in order to get rid of Aida. With a group of four on a tribe of eight however, Cherry manipulated Dion's mistrust of Aida and convinced him to flip and successfully blindside her.

### Outplayed

Upon personal reflection at the Final Seven, Bailey began to notice that Cherry, Chord and Jade were a tight trio who were flipping between the two groups of veterans. She managed to speak with Ashleigh, Dion and Karleigh and exposed this trio. At tribal council, the four voted for Cherry but he played an idol. With the only votes that counted, Bailey was voted out and the core of the Australian Outback Veterans alliance was disbanded. In quick succession, Dion, Ashleigh and Karleigh who were affiliated with the alliance, were also voted out by Cherry's Secret Trio