Robert Dickson (14 November 1963 – 10 April 2009) was an

Australian rules football Australian football, also called Australian rules football or Aussie rules, or more simply football or footy, is a contact sport played between two teams of 18 players on an Australian rules football playing field, oval field, often a modified ...

er in the

VFL/AFL The Australian Football League (AFL) is the pre-eminent professional sports, professional competition of Australian rules football. It was originally named the Victorian Football League (VFL) and was founded in 1896 as a breakaway competition ...

, a

film director A film director or filmmaker is a person who controls a film's artistic and dramatic aspects and visualizes the screenplay (or script) while guiding the film crew and actors in the fulfillment of that Goal, vision. The director has a key role ...

, and the winner of the

first edition The bibliographical definition of an edition is all copies of a book printed from substantially the same setting of type, including all minor typographical variants. First edition According to the definition of ''edition'' above, a book pr ...

of the

reality game show Reality television is a genre of television programming that documents purportedly unscripted real-life situations, often starring ordinary people rather than professional actors. Reality television emerged as a distinct genre in the early 1990s ...

Australian Survivor ''Australian Survivor'' is an Australian adventure reality game show based on the international ''Survivor'' format. Following the premise of other versions of the ''Survivor'' format, the show features a group of contestants, referred to as " ...

''.

Early life and education

Dickson was born in Box Hill to Rick and Effie Dickson and was one of six children. He attended St Pauls College,

Traralgon Traralgon ( , ) is a city located in the east of the Latrobe Valley in the Gippsland region of Victoria (Australia), Victoria, Australia and the most populous city in the City of Latrobe and the region. The urban population of Traralgon at the ...

, in Victoria, Australia. Dickson learnt to fly a helicopter whilst employed by the

National Safety Council of Australia The National Safety Council of Australia is a nonprofit organisation in Australia promoting safety awareness and offering consulting, auditing and training services. For much of its life, NSCA was a volunteer organisation concerned largely with ...

. He also had a hobby of being an amateur film maker. He took a lot of footage at the Hawthorn Football Club whilst he was on their player list.

Football career

Dickson made his VFL debut with the

Hawthorn Football Club The Hawthorn Football Club, nicknamed the Hawks, is a professional Australian rules football club based in Mulgrave, Victoria, that competes in the Australian Football League (AFL). The club was founded in 1902 in the inner-east suburb of Hawth ...

in 1988 after being recruited from

Morwell, Victoria Morwell is a town in the Latrobe Valley area of Gippsland, in South-Eastern Victoria (Australia), Victoria, Australia approximately 152 km (94 mi) east of Melbourne. Morwell has a population of 14,389 people at the . It is both the ...

. He was a fringe player for the Hawks who played in the midfield (at 180 cm and 75 kg), and spent a lot of time in the reserves side. He was selected as an emergency for the 1989 VFL Grand Final. He went on to play 17 games (kicking 12 goals) for Hawthorn in 3 seasons from 1988–1990. He then moved to the

Brisbane Bears The Brisbane Bears were a professional Australian rules football club based in Brisbane, Queensland, Brisbane, Queensland, now known as the Brisbane Lions. Granted a Australian Football League, Victorian Football League (VFL), licence in 1986, ...

where he played for one season, in 1991. He played in the 1991 reserves premiership side for Brisbane.

Media career

Following his football career, Dickson became a

, directing the

television documentaries Television documentaries are televised media productions that screen documentaries. Television documentaries exist either as a television documentary series or as a television documentary film. * Television documentary series, sometimes called d ...

''The Passion to Play'', ''Shane Crawford Exposed'' and ''The Essence of The Game'', which was commissioned by the AFL to celebrate the 150th anniversary of the birth of Australian rules in 2009.

''Australian Survivor''

Dickson was one of the 16 castaways on the

of ''

'', which aired on the

Nine Network Nine Network (stylised 9Network, and commonly known as Channel Nine or simply Nine) is an Australian commercial free-to-air television network. It is owned by parent company Nine Entertainment and is one of the five main free-to-air television ...

in 2002. He was a member of the Tipara tribe which won all but one tribal immunity challenge, meaning the tribes merged with Tipara having a 7–3 advantage. The Tipara Seven stuck together to vote out the remaining three members of the rival Kadina tribe before having to turn on their own. At the final 6, Dickson formed a new alliance with Sciona Browne and Joel Betts, making a final 3 deal to reach the end of the game. They succeeded, despite Betts facing a tied vote (which he survived due to having less previous votes than another contestant). Dickson secured his place in the Final Two by winning the final immunity challenge and voted out Betts, who had agreed to throw the final challenge so that the pair of allies could make it to the Final Two. Dickson and Browne faced the Final Tribal Council, where he won the A$500,000 grand prize in a 5-2 jury vote. Dickson said at the time that he would use the funds to help his South African mother-in-law emigrate to Australia. In 2020, he was inducted into the inaugural Australian Survivor Hall of Fame.

Death

Dickson and his 5-year-old son Byron died in a car accident whilst on holiday in South Africa on 11 April 2009. Reports at the time said he failed to give way when he performed a u-turn. His oldest son Gabriel, 8, died on 15 April 2009 in the Unitas Hospital due to injuries sustained in the crash. his wife, Dusty, survived. Dickson was the first winner of any ''Survivor'' version to die.

References

External links

*
A Walk to Remember Memorial Website
{{DEFAULTSORT:Dickson, Rob 1963 births 2009 deaths Road incident deaths in South Africa Australian film directors Survivor (franchise) winners Hawthorn Football Club players Brisbane Bears players Morwell Football Club players Australian rules footballers from Victoria (state) Participants in Australian reality television series Australian Survivor