Two deaths in WA outback this month

As many of you would have heard on the news there have been two deaths in WA outback this month, earlier in the month near Wiluna a 60 year old man died after his car broke down and he tried to walk the 48 klms to a station in 40 degree temps, his body was found 2 klms from the his destination, didn't hear about this on the news?

The second death on the 16/1 was a 39 truck driver from Perth, his truck got bogged while he was attempting to deliver farm equipment to a homestead in the East Murchison area, about 100 klms Nth East of Meekatharra, after getting bogged it seems he also tried to walk the remaining distance to the homestead in 43 degree temps, his body was found under a tree on Friday night

A sad but timely reminder, the golden rule still applies, you have a better chance of survival if you remain with your vehicle, and the reasons are quite simple.

1. it will give you shelter from the heat and cold , and bities
2. there may be other sources of fluids that you can drink, NOT the radiator fluid as its poisonous, windscreen washer water, and if you leave the aircon running you get water from the drain stem, might not taste the best but may keep you alive.
3. a vehicle is easier to spot from the air than a person walking on the ground or laying under a tree.
4. you will probably have a uhf radio to call for help, and climbing a tree will greatly increase the range of a hand held unit.
5. you might have a mobile phone, once again get as high as you can to see if you can get a signal.

Time and time again people die because they try to walk themselves out of trouble, unless you are reasonably fit and can carry sufficient water, in that sort of heat you will need at least 3 ltrs per day, you should not attempt it and as I said before you have a better chance of survival staying put.

http://www.abc.net.au/news/2015-01-18/man-dies-in-extreme-heat-in-remote-wa-after-truck-breakdown/6023592


au-fever

Regards the death of the truck driver, a report from the station employee reveals the driver walked to within two kilometres of the homestead before turning around and headed back to his truck which had a fridge water and supplies on board.
He was found dead within sight of his truck.
Very tragic outcome for his wife and young family.

https://au.news.yahoo.com/thewest/wa/a/26029610/desperate-bid-for-survival/

u wonder why he didn't have a SAT phone---a couple of silly mistakes and it costs u big-time.

regards
oneday

very sad to read these stories but i still dont get it that you can travel 1000's of km in the remote desert of Australia all alone and you dont need an EPIRB but go more than 2km off shore and its mandatory. how many people died in marine fatalities in the 2014 year? 4, we already have 2 dead remote travelers this year about 6? died last year from memory. i've said it b4 and it didnt go down too well on here but they should be mandatory IMO. itr should be a no brainer really, you get stuck or break down, set it off, get rescued 4 hrs later. all for a few hundred dollars.

yea not good - a timely reminder, We all get into some pretty out of the way places with this game of ours
Ya just got to have a rock solid plan B for when shite goes wrong, because one day it will!! weather its a break down, getting bogged or turned around in the bush ya got to have some form of effective comms to the outside world, with PLBs only a few hundred bucks now days there is really no excuse

Footing it out is not a rock solid plan, hiking out 40+ km in that heat you would need to pack at least 10l of water even then it would be touch and go and move only at night. I would not like to find myself faced with this situation

bit of a personal story that I haven't shared with many people but, a couple of years ago I had a real scare, I had researched a spot that I wanted to check out, it was in real billy goat country in my land cruiser I managed to bush bash to within 2.5 mile straight line according to my GPS. I came to the base of a massive breakaway with no way up, so I parked up loaded up with my gear incl camel pac with 3l of water and set off, it was warm high 30s I recon. the easiest way in was to climb the breakaway and follow the creek lines so ended up covering 4 miles to get in to the spot, finally got there and had a bit of a swing but knew I was pushing it a bit so only hung around for an hour and decided to work my way back. I had only gone about 1/2 mile and had sucked my camel pack dry.
at that point I wasn't too worried I knew exactly where I was and where I had to get too about 3 mile walk should take about an hour if I punched it.....
it took me 4 hours to cover the last mile back to the car, all I could do was sit under a tree for a bit then pick out another tree 20 -30m away and head for it then slump to the ground and wait for my heart beat to calm down as it was racing with heatstroke then go again, and again, and again. climbing back down the breakaway was brutal I could see my car but It may as well have been 10kms away.
when I finally got back to my car I crawled underneath with a bottle of water and fell asleep, took me about 3 days to come right after that, if it had been another k or two away I genuinely don't think I would have made it...

Sobering yarn there Kiwi. I do the sort of thing you describe but I do my hiking in winter.
cheers
Brett

Thanks for the reminder. Sad to hear though

Thanks for sharing that with us Kiwi, when things like that happen it brings you to realisation that sometimes no matter how well prepared you think you are things can and will go wrong, and the strangest thing is more often than not it seems that everything will go wrong all at the same time.

I had an experience year before last that I told about on this forum and I am now even more aware of how easy it would be to die in the bush, I had long realised that I might get lost one day, and that's exactly why I persisted in carrying safety gear on me all the time, but when you are out of water and already suffering heat exhaustion you have very little time to wait, so you either have to make a decision to stay or go, but sometimes that decision can be the wrong one and you wont make it, but in order for a person to really understand the situation you have to experience it for yourself.

au-fever

When Chris and I began opal mining in W. Qld., 1996 the first thing we bought was a Westinghouse mobile sat connected to the Optus geo. stat. communication system.

At a cost of nearly $4000 (we had tax exempt) plus $45/month access then $3.25/min. calls we reckoned it was the cheapest insurance one could get. (BTW, if anyone needs it, its still in the shed!)

And yes, we did have to use it twice for emergency calls to the RFDS, numbers were programmed in to save time.

That system is now in decommission stage, but for the last 4 years have used the Inmarsat Isatphone, uses a geo. stat. cluster, hand held and simply works. The new costing means around $70? for 90 day access but that includes call costs. ($0.90/min.) Before the units expire use the satphone to "top up" the next tranche of units.

Would not go into any remote area without it.
Mike

Very sad, just makes you think how vulnerable we are out there!
I'm looking at sat phones ATM, hard to make a decision
Has anyone had experience with the Thuraya smart phone sleeve?

MY SAT PHONE IS PERMANENTLY IN My VEHICLE IN ONE OF THOSE PADDED PLASTIC TOOL cases.

it cost me $375 a year to keep it registered.

there are sat phones that u can buy outright then buy a $50 card to download into it--something like that anyway.

hunt around for the one that suits you.

regards
oneday

Thanks Ray
I have got an Inreach SE but can't rely on it, messages don't send etc and then I'm in the nure with the trouble and strife when I get home, cause she hasn't heard from me
So now I'm going for a Sat phone, but what is the best satellite coverage?

GS.
Investigate the Isatphone.
You can voice, data, which is to say (Ime a dunce on this tech. stuff) you can text message, email and send pre recorded emergency message with GPS location.
Phone is purchased outright (we had the gov. rebate) so it can sit idle until you need to prepay some units on it.
I appreciate the IPIRB is an excellent emergency call for help device, but sometimes a voice diagnosis can be life saving.
In the wash up, I suppose its really just horses for courses.
Mike

they all have excellent coverage these days.

i cant recomend one over the other coz i dont keep up 2 speed. mine is about 4 years old and i got the rebate.

regards
oneday

A sta phone is something i will look into this season, as mike says having voice communication could be the difference between surviving or not, especially in an medical emergency.

Sad to here about those deaths, feel for there family's.
Re Sat phone I have a Inmarsat, tell me that can call 000 even if don't have credit.
And an interesting device came across recently. ( Google this ) Spot Gen3 GPS messager. Could be a real life saver/ get out trouble item. Will look in to getting one. may be better than my Trackback.
Cheers
salt-d

isatphone carry case is attached to my detecting harness. Camelbak is clipped on as well. Yes it adds to the weight and yes it can be awkward and a tad cumbersome but they will be there when I eventually need them to save my sorry ar*e.

I've seen a couple of guys out bush with the "Spot" gps messenger. Seems about the most logical, cost effective way of doing it. From memory i think it was about $240 to buy and about $40 a year to register, something in that order anyway. Pretty cheap if you're worried about it or operating by yourself.
cheers
Brett

Still have my old Barratt 550 HF radio hooked up in my ute, haven't used it a great deal since old Snowy, (VKS-737) operator in Sandstone passed on. However it is there if ever the need arises.
Had some very interesting conversations over the years from Tasmania, Qld, Alice springs, Perth and on a few occasions the RFD tuned in on during many of their flights around the nation.

Thanks for the input guys on the sat phones
I have an epirb already that I transferred registration from my boat to the ute
The main reason to have a sat phone is to keep the missus happy

Looks like I will be going for the Isatphone on the Inmarsat sattelites

For what its worth I have a sat phone for work in some pretty remote areas, mainly on coast and at sea (Kimberley etc). Years ago we originally had a Globalstar and that was hopeless. The current one which we have had for a few years now is an Iridium and is a pretty good little phone - don't get coverage all the time, but most of the time. It is on a Telstra plan. Can't comment on the others mentioned on this thread.

Regards
Stingray

Thanks Stingray
Looks like I have to do a bit more research before I commit to buying one

Hey Goldstrijk
I'm looking at purchasing a Thuraya smart phone sleeve for my Samsung S4. For about $1k you get the hardware including sim and pre-paid plans start at $65, calls are 99c a minute and it’s 50c to send an SMS. Would like to speak to someone who has one before I commit?
Cheers
Phil

Hey flyrock,
Just bought the IsatPhone Pro from ClientSat
Rob was very helpful and recommended this one for the areas I go to
It would be worthwhile for you to even just talk to him