Prepping and survival

I’m into this primarily because I enjoy knowing how to survive as a human. We’re animals after all, and being self-sufficient should be part of the wiring — especially with the way the world’s going at the moment.

Australia hands you the conditions for it too: bushfires, floods, long distances, supply chains that stretch when something goes wrong. The point isn’t fear. It’s not having to lean on systems that might fail at the worst time.

Most of what’s below is distilled from the source library I keep. The value is in the curation.

The Rule of Threes

The framework that ranks everything else. You can survive about:

3 seconds without a positive mental attitude — panic kills faster than any environmental threat.
3 minutes without air or with severe bleeding.
3 hours without shelter in extreme conditions — hypothermia onsets faster than most people think.
3 days without water — cognition degrades within 24 hours.
3 weeks without food — performance drops fast, but you live.

Most people prioritise food first. Every credible source says shelter and water come before food. Act on the Rule of Threes, not on hunger.

SURVIVAL — the mindset mnemonic

The first thing taught in military survival schools (US Army FM 21-76):

Size up the situation — surroundings, condition, equipment.
Undue haste makes waste. Don’t panic. Plan before acting.
Remember where you are — orient on a map, note landmarks.
Vanquish fear and panic. Fear is natural; panic is lethal.
Improvise and improve. Every object has more uses than its label.
Value living. The will to live is the single greatest survival asset.
Act like the natives. Observe how local people and animals survive there.
Live by your wits. Knowledge weighs nothing.

The 5Cs

Dave Canterbury’s core framework — the five hardest things to improvise. Carry these and you can build the rest.

Cutting — fixed-blade knife, full tang, 4–5” carbon steel, 90° spine for ferro rod striking.
Combustion — ferro rod first, lighter as backup. Works wet, lasts thousands of strikes.
Cover — tarp, emergency blanket, or poncho.
Container — stainless steel water bottle. Can boil water directly.
Cordage — paracord, 15–30m. Shelter, repairs, lashing, snares.

The 10Cs

Canterbury’s expanded list — the original five plus five more for longer or harder trips:

Candling — headlamp or flashlight. Hands-free illumination.
Cotton — bandana. Filters water before purification, head covering, sling, char-cloth source.
Compass — quality magnetic compass. Phones lie under cloud cover and run flat.
Cargo tape — duct or gorilla tape. Repairs gear and shelter, bandages, blister cover.
Canvas needle — heavy-duty needle plus thread for serious gear repair.

The Urban 10Cs

The Urban Prepper’s modification of Canterbury’s list for evacuation kits and get-home bags in cities. Same categories, different priorities — the obstacles are concrete and steel rather than weather and wildlife.

Cutting — folding knife, folding saw, and small bolt cutters. The bolt cutters open padlocks, fences, and chained gates that you might need to get through.
Combustion — a BIC lighter is enough in most urban scenarios.
Cover — heavy-duty survival blanket, plus a few contractor-grade rubbish bags (improvised poncho, water collection, sanitation, ground sheet) and a wool blanket if you can carry it.
Cordage — 100ft of 550 paracord on a spool tool.
Container — a filtering water bottle (Grayl Geopress or similar) plus a small steel cup that nests with it.
Compass — quality compass, paper map of your area, pace beads. Don’t rely on the phone.
Cloth and repair — a Buff (faster to deploy as a face mask than a bandana) and a small sewing/repair kit.
Candling — Petzl Tikkina or similar headlamp, AAA lithiums.
Cargo tape — gorilla tape, enough length to seal off a door if needed.
Combination tool — the urban substitution for the canvas needle. A 4-way sillcock key opens commercial water spigots; a SEARAT (firefighter-designed) opens commercial doors. Different threat model, different tools.

The five priorities

The order survival sources converge on, derived from the Rule of Threes:

Shelter — core temperature kills first.
Fire — warmth, water purification, signalling, morale.
Water — purify everything you didn’t see fall from the sky.
Signalling — being found beats self-rescue.
Food — last. You can wait weeks.

Shelter

Site selection matters more than shelter design. Avoid flood zones, dead trees overhead, hilltops (wind), and valley bottoms (cold air pools). Insulate from the ground — it conducts body heat 25× faster than air.

Tarp — fastest, lightest, most flexible. A-frame, lean-to, diamond fly, plough point. Each suits different weather.
Lean-to — single-slope roof against a ridgepole, fire reflector wall in front. Quick with what’s around you.
Debris hut — insulated cocoon of leaves and bark over a ridgepole. Warmest natural shelter, but two to three hours of work.
Hammock and tarp — hard to beat in temperate Australian bush. Off the ground means away from snakes, spiders, and ants.

Fire

Tinder, kindling, fuel — in that order, in increasing thickness. Most failures aren’t about ignition; they’re about skipping kindling. Feather sticks bridge the gap between tinder and kindling.

Australian bush gives you good natural tinder: paperbark (Melaleuca), stringybark, dry grass, banksia cones. A ferro rod in the pack means you don’t lose your fire to a wet lighter or empty matches. Carry two ignition methods.

Water

The body loses 2–3 litres a day in temperate conditions, more in heat or under load. Always purify water you didn’t see fall from the sky. Four methods worth knowing — each fails differently, which is why redundancy matters:

Boil — rolling boil for 1 minute (3 minutes above 2000m). Most reliable.
Chemical — iodine or chlorine dioxide tablets. Lightweight, long shelf life, 30-minute wait.
Filter — Sawyer or LifeStraw for parasites and bacteria. Doesn’t kill viruses on its own.
UV — SteriPEN or SODIS (clear PET bottle in sun for 6 hours). Free option, needs clear water.

In a pinch: a transpiration bag (clear plastic over a leafy non-toxic branch in sun) gets 100–500ml a day. A solar still works for contaminated sources. Morning dew dragged out of grass with a cloth is surprisingly effective in temperate Australia.

Signalling

Being found ends the situation. Carry two methods.

Visual — signal mirror (visible 50+ km in clear conditions), bright fabric, fire (smoke by day, flame by night).
Audible — whistle. Three blasts is the international distress signal. Carries further than voice for less effort.
Ground-to-air — large geometric shapes built from rocks, logs, or trampled snow. SOS, X, V.
Electronic — a PLB (personal locator beacon) is the gold standard for serious bush trips.

Food

The last priority. Three weeks is the runway. The principle to keep in mind: caloric expenditure of procuring food must not exceed caloric gain.

Insects are the most reliable emergency protein source worldwide. Termites in mounds, beetle larvae, grasshoppers.
Plants — learn local edibles before you need them. Australian options: warrigal greens, lemon myrtle, finger lime, pigface, native mint, kangaroo grass seeds, macadamia.
Trapping is more energy-efficient than hunting. Snares, deadfalls, fish traps.
Never eat wild plants without positive identification from multiple sources.

First aid — DRSABCD

The Australian sequence taught by St John and the Australian Resuscitation Council:

Danger — to yourself, bystanders, casualty, in that order.
Response — tap shoulders firmly, “Can you hear me?”
Send for help — call 000 (mobile 112). Speaker on, keep working.
Airway — head tilt, chin lift. Jaw thrust if spinal injury suspected.
Breathing — look, listen, feel for 10 seconds. Recovery position if breathing; CPR if not.
CPR — 30 compressions to 2 breaths, 100–120/min, 5–6cm deep. Compression-only if you can’t or won’t give breaths.
Defibrillate — AEDs are designed for untrained users. Turn it on, follow the prompts.

Do the St John course. The difference between knowing this and being able to perform CPR under pressure is huge.

Beyond first aid — austere medicine

For situations where help isn’t coming soon. Drawn mostly from Werner’s Where There Is No Doctor.

ORS — Oral Rehydration Solution: 1L clean water, 6–8 tsp sugar, 1 tsp salt. Optional half cup of orange juice for potassium. Has saved more lives than any surgical procedure ever has. Small, frequent sips.
Wound care — irrigate with clean water under pressure, remove debris, only close clean wounds less than 6–8 hours old. Dirty or older wounds heal from the inside out.
Infection signs — increasing pain after day 1–2, redness spreading from wound edges, pus, red streaks toward the heart, fever, foul smell. Any of these means antibiotics if you have them, evacuation if you don’t.
The 5 killers in the field — massive haemorrhage, airway obstruction, tension pneumothorax, hypothermia, shock. Treat in that order.

Snake bite — Australian protocol

Pressure immobilisation bandage for any Australian snake bite. Firm — as for a sprained ankle. Bandage over the bite site, then the entire limb toward the heart, then splint to prevent movement. Keep the person still and calm. Don’t wash the bite (venom on the skin is used for identification). Don’t cut, suck, or tourniquet. Call 000.

Six knots that cover most situations

Bowline — fixed loop, doesn’t slip. The king of knots.
Clove hitch — quick attachment to a post or pole. Starts most lashings.
Taut-line hitch — adjustable tension. Tarp guy lines, ridgelines.
Trucker’s hitch — 3:1 mechanical advantage for tensioning loads.
Square lashing — joining poles at 90°. Shelter frames, camp furniture.
Prusik — friction hitch that grips under load and slides when unloaded. Ascending rope, hammock adjustments.

Best free reference: animatedknots.com. Tie each one ten times, then tie it in the dark.

Sharp tools, briefly

A dull knife is more dangerous than a sharp one — it needs more force, slips more often. The basic principle of whetstone work: consistency of angle matters more than the angle itself. Start with a 1000/6000 grit combination stone, learn to feel for the burr, finish with a leather strop. Hone before each cooking session. Never use a knife as a pry bar.

Australian-specific

Fire bans — check the RFS Fires Near Me app before lighting anything. Total Fire Ban days mean no open fires at all, including some camp stoves. NSW fines start at $5,500.
Snakes — 880+ reptile species in Australia, and our venomous snakes are all in the Elapidae family. Pressure immobilisation, no exceptions.
Spiders — funnel-web in the Sydney basin (pressure bandage), redback everywhere (ice, seek help).
Ticks — paralysis tick on the east coast. Freeze spray or fine-tipped tweezers, never squeeze the body.
Heat — heat is Australia’s primary weather-related killer. More deaths than floods, storms, and bushfires combined (BOM/CSIRO).
Native materials — paperbark for tinder, water container, and insulation; banksia cones as ember carriers; lomandra for cordage; xanthorrhoea (grass tree) resin as natural adhesive when heated.

Aboriginal Australians have 65,000+ years of bushcraft knowledge — the longest continuous culture on earth. Worth respecting and learning from where authorised cultural programs make that possible.

Stick and shadow — vertical stick in the ground, mark the shadow tip, wait 30 minutes, mark the new tip. The line between them runs east–west; the first mark is west.
Watch method — point 12 at the sun. True north bisects the angle between 12 and the hour hand.
Southern Cross — extend the long axis 4.5× the length of the cross, drop perpendicular to the horizon: that’s south.
Orion’s belt (visible Nov–May) — the top star always rises due east and sets due west.

Self-sufficiency at home — four pillars

Different problem from wilderness survival. The point here is reducing dependence on systems you don’t control: power grid, water mains, supply chains, your own income.

Power — even a 100W foldable solar panel and a small LiFePO4 battery covers a phone, laptop, lights, and a fan during an outage.
Water — Sydney averages 1,213mm of rain a year. A 200L barrel on a balcony is enough to keep a small garden alive through the dry quarter (Aug–Oct).
Food — a one-month rotating reserve of staples (rice, lentils, oats, canned protein, oil, long-life milk) costs little and changes nothing about how you eat day to day. Plus a small balcony garden for fresh produce.
Skills — basic electrical, basic plumbing, seed saving, food preservation, first aid. No gear replaces knowing how to use it.

Gardening principles

Drawn from Lowenfels (Teaming with Microbes), Solomon (Gardening When It Counts), Seymour, and Mollison.

Soil is everything. A teaspoon of healthy soil holds more microorganisms than there are people on earth. Feed the biology with compost; chemical fertilisers bypass and destroy it.
Wider spacing equals deeper roots equals less watering. Most gardening advice assumes irrigation you may not have.
A 10cm layer of organic mulch reduces water loss by 50–70%.
Water deeply and infrequently. Shallow watering keeps roots near the surface where they dry out fast.
Open-pollinated seeds breed true; F1 hybrids don’t. Saving seed from the best plants ends the cost line forever.
Crop rotation — legumes, then brassicas, then root crops, then alliums. Never the same family twice.

DIY and the case for traditional skills

From John Seymour’s The New Complete Book of Self-Sufficiency: “We can do things for ourselves or we can pay others to do them for us. The former tends to breed self-reliant men and women; the latter tends to produce organisation men and women.”

Every skill — woodworking, basic electrical, basic plumbing, basic welding, knot tying, knife sharpening — reduces dependence on paid contractors and gives you the ability to solve problems when professional help isn’t available. Start with one project, not a workshop full of tools. Buy tools as projects demand them.

Future-proofing — the 2026 angle

The traditional survival list (shelter, fire, water) covers acute crises. Slow-moving threats — supply-chain pressure, AI labour disruption, climate volatility — need different thinking.

Physical — Zone 2 aerobic base, joint-bulletproofing mobility, austere medicine literacy. The body is the only vehicle that doesn’t need fuel.
Mental — psychological flexibility (ACT — Russ Harris’s The Happiness Trap is the standard), epistemic hygiene, decision-making under uncertainty (Thinking in Bets).
Financial — Taleb’s barbell strategy: hyper-safe assets on one end, asymmetric upside bets on the other, nothing in the boring middle that can wipe you out.
Strategic — antifragility. Build systems that gain from disorder rather than just survive it. More on this.

The everyday baseline

Not bunkers. Just enough that a disruption doesn’t force you into bad choices:

Two weeks of food that doesn’t need a fridge — rice, canned protein, long-life milk. About $50 at Woolworths.
$200 in physical cash at home. Payment systems do go down (Optus 2023, EFTPOS during disasters).
Encrypted USB with copies of the documents you’d hate to lose. Plus cloud backup.
A basic first aid kit. Bunnings, $30. Most people don’t have one.
One person in the household with a current first aid certificate.