How Emergency Services View Prospectors

I'm with you on respecting the ocean Wal, I haven't had your experience prospecting in the bush but I've spent a fair chunk of my life on the briny and I use the same common sense when I'm out detecting, the sea and the bush can be very unforgiving.

Being someone who was in the NSW Rural Fire Service for 39 years, I never go out alone prospecting, always take out a GPS and Mobile Phone and like the idea of that USB Key GPS that XLOOX mentioned and will look at getting one of those if they can be found easily. My training in the RFS back when it was the Bush Fire Brigades was ground into us and it has remained foremost in my mind ever since.

All in this post need to look at being a bit more careful when out prospecting - I hope all are!

Everyone‘s basic kit should include a PLB (personal locator beacon). These days, they’re smaller than a pack of cards, the batteries last something like 10 years, and when activacted will show your position within a few metres.

I also carry a handheld gps (Garmin 66i), which while more expensive, can be carried in a pocket. Has full navigation capabilities, allows family to track my position and progress, and allows text messaging (via satellite) when youre out of phone range. It also has full epirb/plb capabilities, so there’s no need to carry a separate device.

I used to be very good at navigating my way out and back with no navigation aids but that was through the QLD hills and gullies. This featureless country gets me confused very quickly. I usually carry my phone with GPS Kit and on airport and we carry a PLB each. If I intend on goin a long way from camp I'll take water and food in a knapsack but I usually travel light.

My first experience at getting disorientated was in the Blue Mountains somewhere I think. I'd worked my way downstream and on the way back I took the wrong branch of the creek without realising it. Once I realised what I'd done I climbed to the top of the range and looked down right on top of my camp on the other side.

You don't get the chance to do that in most places here in the mid-west where the terrain is nearly flat. Reliable navigation aids are essential.

I often wonder when I watch detecting clips on you tube.
Most people I see on clips are carrying detector, pick and go pro. I assume they are within sight of their cars?
I know, I'm always carrying a 3 Lt camel back, another 1lt army canteen, with a cup just in case I need to boil water, a fire starting kit, which includes a pill bottle full of cotton wool balls soaked in Vaseline, even a spark from a lighter without gas will start that stuff, phone, powerbank, gps, some of those bicycle instant energy snack tube things, and after last year, a go straw filter and ease a cramp spray! Plus other stuff, I often wander 3 to 6 km away from the car, and always get side tracked by some good looking ground. Sometimes it's easy to find my way back to the car, sometimes I think I'm heading the right way, and I'm way off!

Dare I say it how about a map ??? By the time you work out your lost who knows where you are ? Gps and all aside it may get you home and then when you open the map up once back in camp you realise that where you had wandered to, there was a road or way back home probably half the distance of what you trekked by back tracking. Handy things those maps and they don't need batteries either

Dave's Office said:

I'm with you on respecting the ocean Wal, I haven't had your experience prospecting in the bush but I've spent a fair chunk of my life on the briny and I use the same common sense when I'm out detecting, the sea and the bush can be very unforgiving.

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The big "Fact" about the ocean is many more die from drowning than detecting when their boats overturn from not respecting what the ocean can throw at you. If ever you have been out there in a strong southerly, which can come up in a mater of moments, with short sharp choppy conditions, then disaster can end what should have been a memorable day in a very short time....respect your environment wherever you venture.

Reminds me of the need to prize our ability to Dead Reckon. In the old days before modern aids such as gps navigation, in difficult terrain it was basically dead reckoning ie remembering the way you went in to tell you the way out.
I have great admiration for people like Sir Francis Chichester* who in a range limited Gypsy Moth airplane navigated from New Zealand to Australia by island hopping (Norfolk and Lord Howe islands) in the Tasman sea purely by dead reckoning.
He calculated wind speed and direction, air speed, correlated with bearings and and occasional sextant fixes and calculations while flying the plane in the cockpit of the aircraft and after a journey of a thousand miles over featureless ocean, dropped right on target.
Foolhardy, I would even now say yes but shows us what we can do to navigate without resorting to mod cons.
Disclaimer. I am not recommending we do this and ditch our modern aids but we can and should be a little more conscious of our surroundings when we venture into the bush.
* One of my favourite books “The lonely sea and the sky”

Yes and funnily enough I bet he also had a Map

Diginit said:

Dare I say it how about a map ??? By the time you work out your lost who knows where you are ? Gps and all aside it may get you home and then when you open the map up once back in camp you realise that where you had wandered to, there was a road or way back home probably half the distance of what you trekked by back tracking. Handy things those maps and they don't need batteries either

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I don't carry topo maps with me, but sometimes have them in my car.
I do however have spare batteries for the gps and a powerbank for my phone and torch. Also, I usea gpz which also has a gps....which I have not used yet lol. I also carry a Silva compass. If worst comes to worst, I can walk a direction to a main road. Might be a long walk in some cases! But with a water filter, I am confident I will get there eventually.

Diginit said:

Dare I say it how about a map ??? By the time you work out your lost who knows where you are ? Gps and all aside it may get you home and then when you open the map up once back in camp you realise that where you had wandered to, there was a road or way back home probably half the distance of what you trekked by back tracking. Handy things those maps and they don't need batteries either

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Lock in your vehicle "before" you venture out. Don't need to back track...just go to way point "Car"....shortest distance between you and the vehicle is a strait line.

Interesting thread...I have never been to Oz but have spent a limited amount of time in the South African bush plus a hell of amount of time outdoors here in the UK.

I am pretty good with a Topo map and compass, reasonably familiar with GPS and over all consider myself to have a good sense of direction. All that said, having watched a fair few programs about Oz, the thought of venturing off grid would make me very nervous indeed...A lot of the landscape seems relatively flat and featureless, with the scrub in front of you looking pretty much like the scrub behind you...I can easily imagine how easy it it is to get turned around even relatively close to your vehicle....

WalnLiz said:

Lock in your vehicle "before" you venture out. Don't need to back track...just go to way point "Car"....shortest distance between you and the vehicle is a strait line.

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Definitely. But I think one of the most important things is to know where you are roughly ALL the time, and to have checked which way you would need to go to get onto a track, and how far. Few missing people die walking a track - they are so much easier to find and it saves on chopper costs.

I find many younger (post-GPS) prospectors rely too much solely on their GPS. Don't die of a flat GPS battery. We old farts used to travel cross-country also, and often only had 250K die-line maps to refer to. We would mount a large compass on the dashboard and note distances travelled on the odometer, all the time looking for the sparse reference landmarks that appeared on the map.

I used to often work alone - in retrospect that was stupid (but often enforced on us by employers before the days of OH&S). One person cannot walk too well with a sprained ankle or treat themselves for heat stroke.

Bring back the Bata Scouts I reckon

I have posted this before.
All phone networks require the ability to make "000" calls without a SimCard, on ANY network, that includes Satphones.

I have a Satphone that has never made a call while owned by me (but tested with the network provider), uses the Iridium network,
kept charged and discharged occasionally.
(I also have full network access via loan Satphones.)

Anywhere I go out of the 'normal' it comes with me, along with the PLB, GPS, UHF handheld CB, First aid kit.
Hope I never need any of it.

Electronics helps, but common sense helps more to keep us safe.

Greenhornet_au said:

I have posted this before.
All phone networks require the ability to make "000" calls without a SimCard, on ANY network, that includes Satphones.

I have a Satphone that has never made a call while owned by me (but tested with the network provider), uses the Iridium network,
kept charged and discharged occasionally.
(I also have full network access via loan Satphones.)

Anywhere I go out of the 'normal' it comes with me, along with the PLB, GPS, UHF handheld CB, First aid kit.
Hope I never need any of it.

Electronics helps, but common sense helps more to keep us safe.

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It is worth knowing that there is a phone app that you just have to hit a button and your GPS coordinates are sent to emergency services.

goldierocks said:

It is worth knowing that there is a phone app that you just have to hit a button and your GPS coordinates are sent to emergency services.

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https://www.emergencyplus.com.au/

Greenhornet_au said:

I have posted this before.
All phone networks require the ability to make "000" calls without a SimCard, on ANY network, that includes Satphones.

I have a Satphone that has never made a call while owned by me (but tested with the network provider), uses the Iridium network,
kept charged and discharged occasionally.
(I also have full network access via loan Satphones.)

Anywhere I go out of the 'normal' it comes with me, along with the PLB, GPS, UHF handheld CB, First aid kit.
Hope I never need any of it.

Electronics helps, but common sense helps more to keep us safe.

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You can make 000 calls from a mobile via any network even when your carrier has no service in an area but there must be another network with service.

Network coverage​

You can call 000 even if your mobile provider does not have network coverage in the area.
Your call to 000 will be carried on any available mobile network.
You must be in the coverage area of one of the mobile providers in Australia to make emergency calls.

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https://www.acma.gov.au/emergency-calls

Have a look at the 3 word app emergency fella show me this every 3 x3 meter block in the world has been allocated 3 letters so trying to give them heep of numbers 3 words how easy

I get a little bewildered at how many rely on a normal mobile phone to get them out of the proverbial ? Maybe and only maybe in Vic or more densely populated areas perhaps but again maybe only. FNQ, NT,WA and SA remote areas forget it. You can have network coverage walk merely 100 metres and lose it. Try crawling 100 metres just for the hell of it and see how you go? Then try it with a broken hip in 40+ temps? So not much fun if you send out your SOS whatever and who you think has got it hasn't? Meanwhile the time clock is ticking on your snake bite, or even time from injury to treatment being received in many cases can be a deciding factor. This is just my humble opinion as after all only you can decide what you choose. I could add quite a few stations have closed due to not wanting the responsibility of having to rescue people. So topic could be headed "How do station owners view prospectors" also perhaps. Stay safe

Here is a review from an app user which sort of says it all
Dangerous app. It thinks I am at my old address, some 50km from where I actually am.

Diginit said:

I get a little bewildered at how many rely on a normal mobile phone to get them out of the proverbial ? Maybe and only maybe in Vic or more densely populated areas perhaps but again maybe only. FNQ, NT,WA and SA remote areas forget it. You can have network coverage walk merely 100 metres and lose it. Try crawling 100 metres just for the hell of it and see how you go? Then try it with a broken hip in 40+ temps? So not much fun if you send out your SOS whatever and who you think has got it hasn't? Meanwhile the time clock is ticking on your snake bite, or even time from injury to treatment being received in many cases can be a deciding factor. This is just my humble opinion as after all only you can decide what you choose. I could add quite a few stations have closed due to not wanting the responsibility of having to rescue people. So topic could be headed "How do station owners view prospectors" also perhaps. Stay safe

Here is a review from an app user which sort of says it all
Dangerous app. It thinks I am at my old address, some 50km from where I actually am.

Click to expand...

Another problem is assuming that you will be able to get a message out even with better than a mobile. I have had problems getting satphone reception as well, so a PLB is wise (it keeps trying itself and is more likely to get through once you pass out).