So you want to survive the outback

I guess it depends on why you need to be there. No matter if your on an adventure holiday or the so called Situation-X you need to be prepared.

Overseas visitors come for the adventure but wherever the reason, you do need a good reason to be in the outback. Somewhere around 40 people a year die in the outback. Sure some are simply the result of bad driving, some due to vehicle brake down but mostly they are bad decisions.


Headlines, radio and television regularly report of massive searches in bushland or in remote Outback regions for one or more people who have been lost or stranded. Most of the time, these searches end in success. Sometimes they don't. So before leaving on a journey through remote areas always notify someone of your estimated time of departure, your proposed and alternate routes and your estimated time of arrival and don't forget to notify those concerned once you have safely completed the journey. The outback can be so remote that you may need to take an emergency beacon with you. If Australians, who should know their country better, can get stranded, get lost, starve, die in the Australian Outback, non-Australians should really take heed of the real dangers that exist in the country's desolate inland reaches.

If we could just start with three rules

1) The single most important thing, the only one that really matters in the outback is water. Don't calculate two or three litres per day, take ten hell take as much as possible. As long as you have water you will live if you don't have water you will die. You can never have too much water, you can't survive without water. Any bush skills you have like catching a wild pig or finding witchety grubs won't do you any good if you run out of water. You will DIE - Got it now

2) If you brake down a vehicle is much easier to find in the bush than a person. More people are found dead only a few clicks away from there vehicle. All the water you can carry will last a few hours, and that's the end of of you. You will DIE - Stay with your vehicle got it.

3) Know your vehicle and know what it can and can't do. There are real four wheel drives, and then there are the toy four wheel drives for city slickers. Most farmers who live on the outback stations (ranch) will use the faithful Toyota Landcruiser. Choose a vehicle with real chassis, real axles and levers that select gears forget the autos. If your vehicle doesn't brake down or run out of fuel and you have water you can stay alive

the best thing to have would be a Personal Locator Beacon (PLB)
www.sarsat.noaa.gov...
www.equipped.org...
www.pilotshop.com...

This will save a lot of time for the searchers.
Get you rescued faster.
And most likely save your life.

and you can buy one for as little as $149

Always carry a tarp to...well I usually do

Its a decent way of catching dew which can help keep you hydrated when low on water.

Great thread by the way, people really dont realise how harsh a climate we have out here

Thanks OzWeatherman – There is lots that can be said about this issue. Well just see how interested people are in learning about the Oz Outback. Stick around

Also remember that the expanse of land is generally a piece of someones farm....it is not rare to have a few hundred thousand square kilometres of farmland....the largest holding I think is something like a million square km....anyway if the worst happens and you have plenty of water stay with the vehicle.....pull the wheels off and set fire to the tyres....these burn for a few days each and can be seen for 100km or better....a cocky will spot the dense smoke and investigate....I thank jack absalom for this little piece of information

Yep that’s a great one Sopwith also you can use mirrors to flash a commercial airplane the trick is to keep flashing it as long as possible because a pilot will know its not natural like a reflection from water – if he sees it he will mark it and report it. If you want to mark in the sand or dirt make a triangle it’s the most unnatural shape in nature and will draw attention if seen

Outback Survival Tip # 7: Stick to the coasts. There's nothing in the middle but dust, rocks, roos, and blokes named Jonno and Mick who have nothing to talk about but outback survival.

I hear Melbourne's nice.








[edit on 2008-11-7 by wecomeinpeace]

we have large areas in the deserts of Calif and Nevada that maybe see one person a year travel through. and during the summer the temperatures can reach 125° and 50 mile away the temperatures can go as low as -20° in the winter.

we have the same problem in death valley Calif except he's a gold miner called ballerat bob and he has not had any companionship in years and need some loving

Originally posted by ANNED
we have large areas in the deserts of Calif and Nevada that maybe see one person a year travel through. and during the summer the temperatures can reach 125° and 50 mile away the temperatures can go as low as -20° in the winter.

we have the same problem in death valley Calif except he's a gold miner called ballerat bob and he has not had any companionship in years and need some loving

ANNED, I am sure you do and even if the area is not as large it can still be dangerous and kill. I was trying to draw attention to the dangers, to many visitors die because they just don't understand what the bush is.

Please note that I talk about normal visitors and travellers. Hiring a camper and disappearing into even medium bush can be risky. Come on holiday stick to the roads have fun you will be fine.

Bush survival is a completely different skill