Island Life (YouTube Series)

Official Russell Island Adventures on Island Life logo

***Former***

 John Wilkes - Psycho Dad (2020 - 2022)

### Episodes Aired

1317 (YouTube)1317 (TV) (2020 - 2022 episodes, 2023 - 2025 episodes, including missing episodes)

### Locations

Russell Island (primary filming location)Victoria Point (secondary filming location)Redland Bay (secondary filming location)Loganholme (secondary filming location)

### Cameras

OPPO A91 (2020)Xiaomi Redmi Note 8 Pro (2020-)

Panasonic HC-V180 (2020 - 2021)

### Runtime

30 minutes (2020)15 minutes (2020 - 2021)

5-15 minutes (2021 - 2023)

10 minutes (2024-)

15-59 minutes (specials 2020-)

### Distributor

Sam's New VIP Office 2020 (2020 - 2022)Sam's Island Life Office (2022-)

### TV Networks

Austin Network (2020 - 2021)Neon Entertainment (2020 - 2021)

AustinAspen Network (2021 - 2023)

Austin Network (2023-)

### Producers

Sam Wilkes Sr. (2020 - 2023)Maxime Saada (2021) | Sundar Pichai (2021 - 2022) Avishai Abrahami (2022) Perkins Miller (2022 - 2023) Austin Holahan (2023-)

### Picture Format

480i 16:9 (2020)720i 16:9 (2020 - 2021) 1080i 16:9 (2021-)

## Series Lifespan

### Latest Episode

Episode 1146 (YouTube)Episode 1113 (TV)

**Island Life (YouTube Series)** (better known as **Island Life** or **Russell Island Adventures on Island Life** since October 2023) is an Australian YouTube vlogging series showing daily island life on Russell Island (as well as the other islands and mainland visits). Outside YouTube, this series has also aired on Neon Entertainment (ending 28 February 2021), Dailymotion (ending 15 July 2021) and AustinAspen Network (ending 14 July 2023). Today, it is available on YouTube and Austin Network. Austin Network has previously broadcasted Island Life up until September 2021 but has returned two years later. Island Life is a modern 2020 reboot of The Life of TheBrisbaneKid and is primarily filmed at Russell Island (referred as **Canaipa Island/Russell Island** throughout 2020 and most of 2021 though the island name reverted to Russell Island in November 2021 but due to a changing society it is predicted that the Canaipa Island name may return to Island Life in 2023, no similar announcements have been made for Macleay or Lamb Island regarding their traditional island names).

Island Life was originally owned by Austin Network but AustinAspen Network acquired ownership of this series in July 2021. Since July 2021, Island Life has largely been paid for by AustinAspen Network as Sam's New VIP Office 2020 did not have the substantial capital to fund it alone but in May 2022, AustinAspen Network has funded 100% for the series as Sam's Island Life Office can not & did not have funds allocated for Island Life. In May 2023, AustinAspen Network announced they would be dropping Island Life from from their network after deciding to invest in American programming which caused intervention from the co-founder Thomas Blazier and CEO Austin Holahan to reverse AustinAspen's decision but AustinAspen Network stood firm with their decision and have announced at the end of May, they will drop Island Life from the network in the middle of Winter (mid-July). Island Life was surrendered to Austin Network in July 2023 and all the remaining Island Life assets still in possession of AustinAspen Network was surrendered in October 2023 to Austin Network.

As of 2023, Island Life boxsets will be made by request on demand. If Island Life develops a strong cult following and the loyalty of its Islanders demand for DVD boxsets then it will be considered but until then, the boxset will be shelved.

Unlike many of Wilkes Sr.'s programs, unauthorized use of the Island Life logo has been featured in Russell Island candle sales. In November 2023, it was brought to Wilkes Sr.'s attention that someone had noticed that someone had been using his logo in relation with candles. Unfortunately, he was unable to find the post online but had quietly announced that he will be watching out for anyone who uses his program logo, stating that even though he is not surprised and very pleased about the influence the program has on islanders living at the Bay Islands, use of the Island Life logo outside the program is prohibited.

## History and Origins

### Origins & Development

The ideas and themes of Island Life originated from the 2015 adaptation of The Life of TheBrisbaneKid. Some ideas were recycled in Island Life. It wouldn't be until March 2020 when Sam Wilkes Jr. confirmed he was relocating overseas, before extending his stay until June 2020. After the events on April 20, he died on April 21 and his new successor Sam Wilkes Sr. knew the end was in sight, He gone to stay with John Wilkes (who portrays himself as Psycho Dad in Island Life) for a couple weeks in early May and then returned to his mainland home. After running away from the mainland officially on June 4, he hatched an idea to document his survival on the Bay Islands daily (in comparison to The Life of TheBrisbaneKid which documented his survival on most days instead) and while inside Psycho Dad's car, he began filming and named the series Island Life.

### Sam's New VIP Office 2020 era (June 2020 - May 2022)

#### Sam's New VIP Office 2020/Austin Network era (June 2020 - September 2021)

##### Early History & First YouTube Run (June 2020 - December 2020)

###### Before the Problems - Early Start

Island Life began on June 4, 2020 by Sam Wilkes Sr. and John Wilkes. Island Life experienced a progressive and successful start. Episodes have been recorded and uploaded daily. In the first episode, he has said he "ran away" from his family on the mainland. Each night, he uploaded the episode recorded that day. He managed to upload each episode before the end of each day at first.

###### Disaster Struck

On June 17, 2 weeks after recording and uploading began, Sam Wilkes Sr. began experiencing upload problems. His weak 4G connection prompted him to end uploading until he was connected to the NBN. This made him put video editing on hiatus as he continued with regular recording each day. Earlier in June, Sam preordered NBN under Psycho Dad's name and the two got the new NBN modem and FTTC modem on July 1.[1] Despite having the NBN-capable modems, the NBN was still not switched on at the premises up until July 10.

###### Sponsorship Beginnings

Three days later, the series began allowing 1 individual business to sponsor the series on a contract and the first one unofficially signed on for 1 year from that day.[2]

###### New Video Uploading Website Search & Renewals

He announced that Island Life is likely to continue until 2022 but will be finding an alternate website to distribute the videos in 2021 before the end of the 2020 deadline. This will mean that episodes recorded after January 1, 2021 were moved to a new website. On 29 August 2020, it was announced that Island Life is likely to end soon since one of the actors is likely to pass away in the next few months but this did not happen and Island Life kept going. Island Life had renewed for October and had also made a new carriage deal with Austin Network. Due to expiring contracts and Sam's willingness to exit YouTube by the end of 2020, the contract for the YouTube platform was not renewed for 2021. The YouTube uploads ended on 31 December 2020 as directed by Austin Network, with the 31 December episode of Island Life to be the last ever episode on the YouTube platform.

###### Slicing Broadcast Time in Half

In September, it was announced on Episode 91 that Island Life will be reducing its broadcast time from 30 minutes to just 15 minutes from Episode 96 onwards due to the slow laptop.[3]

##### Dailymotion Run (January 2021 - July 2021)

Uploads on YouTube ended on the deadline day of December 31, 2020. The final episode uploaded was a cliffhanger episode, near the end of the video, directing viewers (Islanders) to watch the remainder of the episode and series at Dailymotion.

Due to the low demand to use a camcorder due to the Redmi Note 8 Pro, on 17 January 2021, Sam Wilkes Sr. announced that the use of the Panasonic Camcorder is going to be discontinued and in February, the camcorder will be removed from the end credits.

In Episode 234, it was revealed the cameraman had been rushed to hospital after he collapsed in the front yard while clearing bark, sticks, twigs and other tree droppings.[4] He was discharged from hospital the next day and continued filming Island Life.

Coming in to February 2021, many of his viewers had seen that despite Sam's healthy appearance on the surface, his health was an entire different story. Even one of his viewers have seen his diet and lifestyle is not very good at all. He defends this by saying that all this predated from his teen and early adult years. His fatigue was from 2012, his deteriorating memory loss was from 2020 after putting abuse, stress and strain on it for several years (he later found out it was triggered from his autism). He had a depressing mood ever since 2001 combined with the aforementioned Autism Spectrum thus explains the easily triggered tantrums. He also announced that there is nothing he can do to fix his lifestyle as it was "5 years too late".

Later on, just days before the NBN disconnection in February, Sam Wilkes Sr. had announced that Island Life will no longer broadcast on Neon Entertainment after February 28, 2021, which left Austin Network as the only original network to broadcast Island Life since its debut.

On 9 March, some of his islanders (viewers) had trouble viewing episodes on Dailymotion stating that the platform was too laggy and slow. To counter the problem, he began uploading on BitChute but after two uploads, he had experienced problems with BitChute so he went back to uploading at Dailymotion instead, which he would do so until July 2021.

By July 2021, after Sam Wilkes Sr. noticed some episodes were deleted from Dailymotion, he contacted Austin Network and said to cut ties from Dailymotion and to also remove Island Life from their portfolio (Austin Network had a disagreement with YouTube in 2019 after the decision was finalized to cut ties with YouTube at the end of 2020). However, due to an existing agreement, Austin Network is still allowed to broadcast Island Life until their contract expires, which expired at the end of September 2021.

##### Return to YouTube & Austin Network Broadcast Sunset (July 2021 - September 2021)

Island Life then returned to YouTube. The cameraman will find out how long it will last with YouTube until the videos start ending up deleted from history. Sam Wilkes Sr. then decided to transfer sponsorship to AustinAspen Network after the one year sponsorship deal was completed and his internal health had crumbled further on top of that.

Coming in to August, almost no new uploads were made. The cameraman later disclosed that he has been unwell for several days and that uploads were on hiatus. This was again another announcement that his internal health had worsened even more. By September, his health hit a massive downhill slope. He and his co-star actor were involved in a car crash along Russell Island.[5][6] He later announced that the car crash nearly cost him his life. He had a near death experience but survived. On the broadcasting side, the sun had set for Austin Network broadcasting rights at the end of September as Island Life would move to AustinAspen Network in October. This would ultimately end the original network broadcasting era.

#### Sam's New VIP Office 2020/AustinAspen Network era (October 2021 - May 2022)

##### AustinAspen Network & 2nd YouTube Run (October 2021 - January 2022)

Following the launch of AustinAspen Network, new Island Life episodes were moved to the channel on October 1, 2021 after broadcasting on Austin Network since June 2020. By November, following further health problems from both the Cameraman and Psycho Dad, it was announced that Psycho Dad would be written out of the series in a few months. Sam Wilkes Sr. however, continues to film Island Life with his co-actor Thomas Blazier. In December, Psycho Dad's health had improved by a tiny amount but Sam's health didn't. Sam said that he will live with his own health problems after making a conclusion that trying to fix them did not work as it was "too little too late".

##### The End for Psycho Dad/Post-Departure (January 2022 - April 2022)

It was announced that Psycho Dad will be written out of the series on January 25, 2022. In February, Island Life had a total revision by adding Uncle Thomas as a full-time character, replacing Psycho Dad with Uncle Thomas. In April 2022, Sam announced that Island Life is ending real soon. In addition, Sam's New VIP Office 2020 productions have also pulled out.

##### The New Limelight/The end for Sam's New VIP Office 2020 (April 2022 - May 2022)

On 19 April, Sam announced that from June 4, 2022 his fleet of subscribers will be migrated to Island Nation and also announced that Sam's New VIP Office 2020 to a new office name to better reflect it's main YouTube series Island Life. In addition, Sam's VIP Office 2020 productions would also adapt to the name change on the same day. However, he later reflected that he would instead lay off the entire production team of Sam's New VIP Office 2020 and hand production over to his new team, Island Life productions, with the office name Sam's Island Life Office.

### Sam's Island Life Office era (May 2022 - Present Day)

#### Sam's Island Life Office/AustinAspen Network era (May 2022 - July 2023)

##### The New Start (May 2022 - July 2022)

The new production team began on 20 May 2022, replacing Sam's New VIP Office 2020 productions with the new office name and production team name to be announced on June 4, 2022. However, the crew and selected outsiders within Russell Island had an earlier sneak peek on May 19 and some earlier updates. Viewers watching on AustinAspen Network had seen the new name on May 20, 2022. Due to slow internet speeds, uploads are on an indefinite hiatus. The new production team name was announced alongside some updates on June 4 for the YouTube platform & general public despite the aforementioned slow internet. He also mentioned that an NBN application had been filed but it could take three months or more to process the application. He uploaded further episodes and after uploading episode 725, he decided to place uploads on hiatus until he connected to NBN, which he had done so in early August 2022 and began an array of uploads since then.

##### Island Life - Living in Poverty/The end of 2022 (August 2022 - December 2022)

On July 30, Wilkes Sr. confirmed a new subtitle for Island Life "Living in Poverty" relating to the financial recession, the latest recession since 2009. This format has been retained since albeit with various updates over time. In October, AustinAspen Network broadcasted a marathon of Island Life episodes due to lack of programming from the Aspen side of the network. The Island Life marathon was also in response to the PAW Patrol episode marathon on Nick Jr. in Australia.

Over on the editing side since October, the episode edits and uploads have been slow but that's because of the cameraman being busy and also because of his ongoing health issues including his lifelong amnesia (he self-diagnosed himself in 2020 with it) and more recently has been tired at the end of every day. He hopes to edit ALL Island Life episodes and upload them before the New Year party at Russell Island, which he has done so.

##### Island Life - Living in Poverty/The Boxset Creation (January 2023)

AustinAspen Network has not aired episodes from January 10, 2023 for two weeks but the network has later apologized for their actions.

Towards the end of January 2023, Wilkes Sr. announced that Island Life will become available as boxset collections. He has already got June 2020 - November 2020 completed with the remainder of episodes from 2020 to be added to DVD by the end of March or April 2023. However, in April 2023, he has paused the boxset production indefinitely, later shelving the idea and fulfilling the boxset by "request on demand".

##### Island Life - The Road to 1K (February 2023)

In mid-February, Wilkes Sr. agreed to re-subtitle the month of February 2023 as "The Road to 1K" but on TV, the TV EPG and documentation, it is still labeled "Living in Poverty".

##### Island Life - Living in Poverty/New Updates (March 2023 - April 2023)

At the start of March 2023, Island Life reverted the subtitle back to "Living in Poverty". This is after reaching 1,000 episodes. Viewership of Island Life began to decline on AustinAspen Network by mid-March but on YouTube, it was the exact opposite. Viewership on the Island Life YouTube channel had exploded, gaining subscribers and hundreds of views every day (particularly the February episodes overtook the older episodes, making February 2023 becoming the holder of the most views, interest and subscriber gain). AustinAspen Network reversed the Uncle Thomas return following the big views of three different "The Road to 1K" episodes. In April 2023, he has slowed down video editing indefinitely with no timeframe of when this will be rectified. He also decided to label the newer episodes with the month and year under the Island Life name (abandoning the Living in Poverty subtitle) in a last ditch effort to bring in more views, like what he had done with the Island Life "The Road to 1K" episodes. However, the Living in Poverty format was retained.

##### Lease Renewal Doubts and Sponsorship Deal Sunset (April 2023 - July 2023)

On 24 April, Wilkes Sr. has announced that the series will soon come to an end due to the upcoming meeting regarding if the lease is to be renewed or not. This came as a shock as he is certain that the lease will NOT be renewed and is unwilling to open a new office at Russell Island that has to have a unique office name as has been the case with Sam's Island Life Office, Sam's New VIP Office 2020 and Wilkes Jr.'s Sam's VIP Office. In addition, AustinAspen Network have decided to discontinue it's funding for Island Life in July 2023, if for some reason Island Life is still going by then. AustinAspen Network have said that viewership had started to roll downhill after the February episodes had aired. A representative at AustinAspen Network has said "All TV shows come to an end – even the likes of long-time legends such as *Home and Away* will eventually cease. Survival of these shows is in the viewers' [or Islanders' in the case of Island Life] hands". AustinAspen Network have also stated that they prefer to invest in more American programming. Wilkes Sr. and Island Life Productions are going to be securing with another media company to continue Island Life and started the search in June 2023. In a surprise turn of events, the lease is expected to be renewed but AustinAspen Network are standing firm with their decision to exit but are willing to continue to maintain ownership of the program. In June, Island Life Productions have entered in to talks with an alternative media network, namely a subsidiary of Austin Network. With the new sponsorship program, AustinAspen Network will end its sponsorship but will still have co-ownership of the program with Wilkes Sr. with the new sponsor funding the program. The sponsorship was finalized on June 23, 2023 and will begin on July 14, 2023. To bring a happy ending to the sponsorship, the remaining surviving actors (at this point, those two were Wayne and Thomas) were invited to join Wilkes Sr. on Island Life during the recording of Episode 1136 to give their thoughts about Island Life during their time on the program but they never made an appearance. Wilkes Sr, announced their thoughts in episode 1136.

#### Sam's Island Life Office/Islanders Viewing Partners era (July 2023 - Present Day)

##### Behind the Scenes Breakdown & New Sponsorship Deal (July 2023 - December 2023)

Two weeks before the start of the new sponsorship, the video editor used to create Island Life episodes had one of it's features cease working with newer episodes (and could also apply for existing episodes). As a consequence, the episode production began to dwindle. The new sponsorship began July 14, 2023 with Islanders Viewing Partners & Austin Network Trust Fund taking hold of the sponsorship. They then set their own regulations for the program, modifying the program but with much of the main cast staying on board. The episodes were exclusively on YouTube for a brief period of time until Austin Network began broadcasting them in September 2023, after both Holahan and Wilkes Sr. granted the network permission to broadcast the new episodes on TV.

On July 25, Wilkes Sr. announced he is ending Island Life and leaving Russell Island within a year due to a disagreement with a sibling of his extended family and he has decided to leave his extended family in phases leading up to Wilkes Sr.'s departure in mid-2024. Until then, he says "It's business as usual". He has announced that he is leaving Russell Island by November 2025, hopefully before Episode 2,000 comes around.

In December 2023, Island Life episodes were mass uploaded throughout the month, eventually uploading the final episode of the year, uploaded on December 31, 2023 (as has been the case with all the episodes from the three years prior). Island Life Productions also came to an end, the remainder of the team disbanded at the end of 2023, with Sam's Island Life Office taking over production.

##### New Logo and Format (January 2024 - Present Day)

In December, the cameraman had kept the new logo and format hidden until January 1, 2024. A new opening title and logo was revealed. The flyeye transition was added as well as a new font in the outro and the subscribe to Island Life video clip was removed, replaced with a new Subscribe to Island Life notification displayed in the end credits. Filmora 11 then had another feature stop working altogether, the discontinuation of adding transitions. As a consequence of this move, Wilkes Sr. had to depressingly upgrade to Filmora 13 to bypass this barrier but nonetheless, he has gone ahead and uploaded the additional episodes.

### Spinoffs (2021 - 2023)

In March 2021, Wilkes Sr. announced a spinoff based on Island Life under the working name "Island Exploration" but soon after renamed the series as "Island Life Postcards". Island Life Postcards premiered in April 2021 and the program ran for one year and production ended in October 2021 with the last episode broadcasting in March 2022. In March 2023, another spinoff was announced, a miniseries focusing on the unknown extended family that was mentioned a number of times in Island Life. Recording of the series begins in late March 2023, alongside the main Island Life program. The premiere date of the miniseries is yet to be announced. Since April 2023, there have been no further updates about the spinoff miniseries but Wilkes Sr. is determined to give an update in the future about the new miniseries though this never happened. There has not been any work on the miniseries since April 2023.

## Theme Song

The theme song to *Island Life* was created by Albis. There have been five different versions of the theme song used throughout the years. The lyrics remained the same since the show's inception, but a number of verses were gradually cut back over time due to time restrictions. The original version was sung by Sam Wilkes Sr, and was used from June 2020 until early-mid December 2020. An updated version debuted in December 2020 and the opening theme was shortened in January 2021; this version remained until April of the same year. From May 2021 to August 2021, the theme song to *Island Life* was performed by Sam Wilkes Sr. and it was in use later once Uncle Thomas (portrayed by Thomas Blazier) was added to Island Life. Sam Wilkes Sr. again recorded a shorter version of the theme song in September 2021. A shorter, 5-second version sung by Wilkes Sr. debuted in February 2022. From March to September 2022, the titles were not shown for the first time in its history and the theme was replaced with a short instrumental version. A new 6-second opening title returned in October 2022 after a seven month absence. The lyrics in the new opening is "All Oysters Underwater".

### Opening Titles

The *Island Life* opening titles sequence was initially used to introduce the regular characters in the show. The sequences often featured the characters individually, and showed them in familiar settings around Russell Island such as the beach, or around the property. The titles for the show's earlier years featured exclusive video footage of the characters, that was not in use otherwise in regular episodes. September 2021 saw *Island Life* introduce new chroma-key background stills of characters shown above the animated sea. In December 2021, the show debuted new opening titles along with a new version of the theme song. Video footage had returned but the Uncle Thomas character was not featured, despite being a regular in the series. In February 2022, the opening was reduced to 5 seconds and the characters were removed from the titles for the first time in *Island Life* history. The decision to remove the cast and shorten the titles was due to time restrictions with Austin Network and later on, AustinAspen Network. Since then, many viewers in wanted the full-length title sequence with the cast to return. The opening theme has not been played since the end of February 2022 season. For the 6 second opening titles that have been in use in March - September 2022, short versions of the theme have been in use. In October 2022, a new six-second title was introduced along with the return of the show's theme song.

## Location and Sets

*Island Life* is set in Russell Island, an island town in Queensland. Locations within the town include the beach, a school, building supplies, service station, IGA, pharmacy, swimming pool, RSL and a few cafes. Characters in the show live at several locations in Russell Island. Other islands and mainland suburbs are mentioned and sometimes seen in *Island Life* with Victoria Point and Redland Bay as such examples. Russell Island in Queensland's Southern Moreton Bay Islands district has been used as the location for *Island Life* since the series began in 2020. The exterior scenes are filmed mainly at Russell Island and at other suburbs in the South East Queensland. Interior scenes for the show were mostly filmed at Sam's New VIP Office 2020 and Sam's Island Life Office (Sam's New VIP Office 2020 closed in May 2022 with Sam's Island Life Office opening the same day as the shutdown of the old office), both located on Russell Island. There were exceptions with some interior filming however. The grand opening of Woolworths is an example of this as this was filmed on-site inside Redland Bay Village instead of inside the office, the crystal shop was filmed inside a commercial business at Cornubia and some mainland interior scenes are filmed on site at those locations.

Since 2023, Russell Island is undergoing discussions with reverting the island to it's traditional name Kanaipa Island but it will be Russell Island until the traditional name is more recognized.

## What versions are uploaded/broadcasted?

Censored versions are broadcast/uploaded on YouTube, Dailymotion, Austin Network, Neon Entertainment and AustinAspen Network. However, some uncensored video clips (particularly the Psycho Dad freakouts) are uploaded on AustinAspen Network Livestreams & Furry Kupa YouTube channels.

The Neon Entertainment version has "Lights, Camera, Action, Island Life!" as the theme song up until the run on Neon Entertainment had finished, while the remaining versions have "Cameras" instrumental performed by Albis as the theme song for Island Life. There have been various pitch shifts of the instrumental track throughout the series. As of October 2022, the instrumental track has remained largely the same, only with pitch shift differences.

## Logos

When the series first started, the logo was a sunset island design with "Island Life" in IKEA Sans font which remained in use in the series up until July 20 when it was replaced by a better version on July 21, 2020. As of October 2021, the original logo remains in use as a profile picture on all the official Island Life social media pages and channels. As for the series however, a new logo that was for an upcoming video game of the same name was unveiled for Island Life on July 21, 2020 and despite having gone through subtle colour changes over time, it had remained the logo of the show since July 2020. In October 2022, a subtle tweak of the July 2020 logo was revealed, removing the triangular extension, making the letters more readable. After over three years, a new logo was revealed on New Year's Day 2024.

## Milestone Episodes

Island Life celebrated it's 50th episode (first milestone) in July 2020. In preparation for the celebrations, the new iconic Island Life logo was unveiled on July 21, 2020. The 50th episode included a first impressions inspection of the Island Life house (filmed a month prior to the launch of Island Life). The 100th episode followed in September 11, 2020 (ironically 19 years ago on this same day as the 9/11 attacks) and the first 50 episode compilation was featured followed by an express round of some highlight episodes leading up to episode 100. The 200th episode came in December 2020 but it was not much of a celebration as that was just an ordinary episode but the 200th episode milestone was acknowledged. However, on March 30, 2021, Island Life made a mainland episode special for the 300th episode to celebrate Island Life becoming Sam's first and only program to reach 300 episodes. Before filming the 500th episode in October 2021, the cameraman had finished filming the second season of Island Life Postcards and then immediately began the 500th episode which brought in a special title opening. Unfortunately, this would be the last milestone episode up until 2023 and the last milestone episode that Psycho Dad would live long enough to participate. There was no milestone episode releases for 2022. As the most recent milestone episode was closing in with the date confirmed as February 28, the cameraman of the program had a special present for the islanders, a compilation of the 999 episodes from Island Life all to be revealed for the first time since 2020 (eventually only about half of all the planned episodes were revealed instead due to the insane editing time this would have taken, the runtime length and large file size) along with replies with his and Wayne the Islander's thoughts on Island Life rocketing to episode 1000, also with various clips of a mainland excursion across Victoria Point in between every 100 episode compilation. John Wilkes unfortunately did not make it as he died a year before from cancer. Wilkes Sr. later announced that Psycho Dad's thought on the program making it all the way to 1,000 episodes is "nifty". Blazier, although alive at the time, did not appear in Episode 1,000 (other than through archive video) as he has not made contact with the cameraman for his thoughts on Wilkes Sr. continuing Island Life to Episode 1,000. It was also announced that Episode 1,000 is indeed the LAST milestone episode to be made as Wilkes Sr. is not expecting to live on Russell Island for too much longer. He has planned to leave Russell Island in November 2025.