By Jenny Mills · rural nurse & homesteader · health, safety, law and the paperwork of going bush
By Jenny Mills · rural nurse & homesteader · health, safety, law and the paperwork of going bush
On this block the emergency gear is split between the ute and the workshop, not the house. The sat phone lives in the glovebox with the snakebite bandages and a printed list of 000, the local police, and UHF CB channel 5 plus local repeater frequencies. I test the handheld on channel 5 every Sunday when the generator runs, because the creek flat behind the shed has no mobile or repeater coverage. A long-handled bolt cutter stays on a hook by the front gate, since a locked gate is the first thing that stops you when smoke is already across the road.
On my patch of mulga in western Queensland, after the wet season drowned every track and the creek sat at bridge level for weeks, I waited 42 days for a rescue chopper. That wait rubbed my nose in a fact no first aid course drilled hard enough: the most carefully stocked kit is just an expensive cupboard of bandages without a satellite phone and a written evacuation plan taped to its lid. I now carry an Iridium 9555 handset—a tough, rainforest-proof brick that cost me $1,800 new—loaded with a Pivotel prepaid SIM.
The SIM runs about $200 for a 12-month voucher and gives 200 minutes of talk time, enough for a full-blown emergency and a handful of check-ins to relatives who imagine you’ve been eaten by pigs. The phone lives in a waterproof Pelican case inside the kit, and every three months I pull it out to confirm it locks onto the network. The written plan replaced a scrap of cardboard I once scribbled on with a Texta. Now it’s a single A4 sheet in a zip-lock sleeve, written in 14-point type so a stranger can read it by headtorch.
It lists the exact AMG grid reference from the 1:250,000 topo sheet, the landing zone cleared to a 30-metre diameter on the claypan nearest the house (slope under 3°, no overhead wires),
A well-stocked bug-out bag is your lifeline during sudden evacuations, but it must stay under 20 lbs and be compact. Pack shelter, water, food, navigation, and survival tools that serve multiple purposes. I learned the hard way to test your kit's contents during practice drills; my clogged filter and burst meal pouch during a recent drill proved that theoretical gear fails without real-world checks.
When the grid goes down and the highway floods out at the same time, the gap between inconvenience and emergency is measured in hours, not days. I've pulled the core specs together so you can build a kit and a plan that holds up when systems and services around you don't.
The most efficient way to build a kit is to start with the disasters most likely to happen where you live. In my patch of Central Queensland, the recurring risks are bushfire, cyclone-driven flooding, prolonged heat, and grid outages that stretch for days. In other regions the list swaps around — earthquakes, hurricanes, tornadoes, severe winter storms — but the priorities stay the same: drinkable water first, then shelter, then food, then communication.
Thinking through scenarios matters more than accumulating gear. A pile of equipment you don't know how to use is dead weight. The kit you can actually deploy — and the household plan everyone understands — is the one that works.
1. Water — the single most important item in any emergency.
2. Food — non-perishable, calorie-dense, minimal preparation.
3. Shelter and warmth — ability to retain body heat.
4. First aid — including any prescriptions you depend on.
5. Communication and light — knowing what's happening and being able to call out.
6. Tools and sanitation — to fix, improvise, and stay hygienic.
The standard baseline used across mainstream preparedness guidance is 1 gallon (≈3.8 L) of water per person per day for several days. For a family of four over three days, that's roughly 45 L — about the weight of a full esky plus a few cartons of milk.
Water weighs about 8.3 lbs per gallon (≈1 kg/L), so the maths matters. A three-day supply for four people is around 45 kg of water. Plan your container sizes around what you can actually lift and what fits through the door.
Storage principles:
A few days without food causes noticeable effects, and a few weeks without food can be fatal. The recommended starting point is a minimum three-day food supply of non-perishable items. Aim for 2,000–2,500 kcal per person per day if you can — and rotate.
Storage and maintenance principles:
For a deeper layer, store a two-week supply if you have the space. That covers most domestic outages without needing evac, and it gives you flexibility if roads are cut.
When the grid drops, you'll want these working within the first hour:
In remote or off-grid settings, mobile towers often fail during disasters. Worth keeping from the earlier draft: a satellite phone or personal locator beacon (PLB) gives you a layer of communication that doesn't depend on terrestrial infrastructure. A handheld UHF CB radio (476–477 MHz, legal in Australia without a licence) is useful for short-range comms with neighbours and anyone in line-of-sight of a repeater. Test everything at least quarterly.
For most emergencies you'll stay put, but a grab-and-go bag is essential for evacuation. The standard reference is a 72-hour kit — named because it covers three days of self-sufficiency on the move. For remote properties, push it toward seven days if the bag will still be portable.
Key contents (mirroring the verified kit list):
Off-grid and rural specifics worth keeping from earlier research: a designated helicopter landing zone marked on your property map (clear area, GPS coordinates, no overhead wires), and a written evacuation plan with two routes out, agreed meeting points, and an out-of-area contact who can relay between separated family members.
A household first aid kit covers cuts, sprains, and minor illness. If you're more than an hour from a hospital — or working with chainsaws, axes, or livestock — step up the kit to wilderness/trauma grade: a tourniquet (commercial, windlass type — not an improvised one), hemostatic gauze, chest seals, a SAM splint, a CPR face shield, and a heavy pressure bandage. Train before you need it. None of this gear works if you don't know the indications and the limits.
Most people under-pack the unsexy items. The mainstream disaster kit list includes:
Add a small shovel, a hand saw, work gloves, and a tarp with grommets. They weigh little and they fix a lot.
For hygiene: hand sanitiser (≥60% alcohol), soap, disinfectant wipes, a small bucket or commode, toilet paper, and women-specific supplies. Sanitation is the second-fastest way a household falls apart after water.
The kit is only half the job. A working plan covers:
A real drill twice a year — once announced, once not — reveals every gap in your plan within 30 minutes.
Maintenance cadence:
The off-grid practitioner rule of thumb: backups for your backups. A single generator isn't a backup; it's a single point of failure.
Off-grid preparedness pushes into regulated territory more often than people expect. In Australia, call a licensed professional when:
How much water do I really need to store?
The widely cited baseline is 1 gallon (≈3.8 L) per person per day for several days. For a family of four over three days, that's around 45 L. Push higher in hot climates and during cyclone season, and add a backup purification method.
What's the difference between a 72-hour kit and a bug-out bag?
They're the same thing under different names — also called survival kits, disaster kits, emergency kits, or bug-in/bug-out kits. The idea is three days of self-sufficiency in a single portable container.
Do I need a satellite phone at a rural property?
If mobile coverage is unreliable at your location — or has been historically — a satellite communicator or PLB is the most reliable way to call for help when the mobile network is down. Test it before you need it.
How often should I replace the food in my kit?
At minimum once a year. Canned and freeze-dried food has a best-before date; rotate it into everyday cooking and replace it with fresh stock.
What should I keep in my car kit?
Water, food, first aid, torch, jumper leads, a fire extinguisher, a reflective vest, a shovel, and a blanket. Add a UHF CB radio if you're driving remote roads.
Should I store fuel for a generator?
Yes, but store it correctly: undamaged approved containers, away from living areas and ignition sources, rotated every 6–12 months. Never run a generator indoors or in an enclosed space — carbon monoxide kills quickly and silently.
While many off-grid projects are achievable as DIY, certain situations require licensed professionals:
Before I could plumb the new 22,500-litre rainwater tank at my Bellingen place I spent more time at the council counter than I did in the trench. Bellingen Shire Council wanted a development application for the tank pad on a rural block zoned RU2, even though the tank was a standard Polymaster model trucked up from Coffs Harbour for $2,850. The DA fee was $290, and the plumbing permit ran another $110. I’d dug the 600 mm deep foundation by hand, levelled it with road base, and thought I was done.
Then the council’s plumbing inspector pointed out that a gravity-fed line from a tank taller than the house’s internal floor level required a backflow prevention device fitted by a licensed plumber; my Bradflo 25 mm poly line and a non-return valve off the shelf at Bunnings didn’t meet AS/NZS 3500.1. That visit cost me a $330 re-inspection fee and a plumber’s invoice for $480. Down on the flats my greywater system is a different dance. Before I could run a hose from the laundry to a sub-surface trench, I needed an approval under the Local
Worth a watch: SHTF Power Outages: Essential Gear for Surviving Off the Grid · prepping4tomorrow
I treat my 72-hour go-bag as the gear I can grab in under a minute if we need to evacuate, and I aim to keep the whole thing under 20 pounds so I'm not fumbling with it in a panic. Mine covers the basics for water, food, shelter and first aid, but I also tuck in the small stuff that matters when you're heading out fast — copies of IDs, cash, and a torch. The trick is packing only what you truly need for three days, because a heavy bag ends up left behind.
My water drum is the first thing I check when the power fails, because without pressure or filtration running, things can go south quickly. I keep enough treated water stored to cover the household for at least a few days, and I rotate it through so nothing goes stagnant. If the supply's iffy, I'll boil before I drink, every time.
I've been caught out when the network went down and learned the hard way that relying on the one bar on your phone is a rubbish plan. My setup now includes a backup communication option that doesn't depend on the mobile towers, so I can still check in when the grid is well and truly out. I also let family know the plan before anything happens, so they know not to panic if they don't hear from me straight away.
Even after years as a remote-area nurse, I know there's a line between what I can patch up at home and what genuinely needs a professional, and I don't cross that line just to feel brave. Anything that's getting worse despite basic first aid, anything involving chest pain, severe bleeding, breathing trouble, or head injuries — that's when I'm calling. Off-grid doesn't mean off-duty for common sense.