living off the land

[immanuel]

has anyone here ever done this. just lived soley of australian bush for a few months/however long.

i was wondering how one would go about learning to do so?

[ThunderIdeal]

local knowledge, shooting roos, watch lots of bush tucker man... it would really depend where you plan to do it, and with what equipment? shouldn't be too hard with seafood and fresh water.

[momomoto]

Check out good old Koa - he's pretty cool,

Torsten sells his DVD

check out some light reading from koa here http://www.big.com.au/koa/koa.pdf

Edited May 1, 2009 by momomoto

[Teotzlcoatl]

I too wish to live off the land, but not from the wilderness but from my gardens and orchards!

I suggest you plant some goji, fig and bamboo!

[immanuel]

local knowledge, shooting roos, watch lots of bush tucker man... it would really depend where you plan to do it, and with what equipment? shouldn't be too hard with seafood and fresh water.

im interesting in being able to do it anywhere, just like the aboriginals did. and only using equipment found in nature. i'd love to be able to just travel on foot through bushland for weeks.

Edited May 1, 2009 by mardybum

[immanuel]

Check out good old Koa - he's pretty cool,

Torsten sells his DVD

check out some light reading from koa here http://www.big.com.au/koa/koa.pdf

cool thanks for that pdf, thats what im looking for, that dvd looks great.

[ThunderIdeal]

i can't say i fully understand where you're coming from but it's interesting. i'm sure you could do it with limited hassle but your diet may not be very diverse haha, so you want as much knowledge as you can get particularly of which plant foods can be eaten, how to make acacia damper, to de-crown a palm tree if desperate for greens, eat water lilly, wombat berries, small tubers and wandering-jew. the aboriginals knew where to find food where the european settlers saw only barren nothing, because they had knowledge.

hunting marsupials, or getting food from the littoral zones such as crustaceans, molluscs and fish, seems like the best staple.

you'll need to know how to carry water in gourds or skin bags, maybe make sandals from reeds or whatever, and some basic medicine such as anti septic. i reckon nearly everything you could learn was once known by aboriginals, BUT, it seems to make a lot more sense to research the locale you plan to wander in... i have my doubts any aboriginals wandered the entire continent (there'd be no point would there).... it's possible but will require a vast amount of knowledge.

[immanuel]

,

Edited April 19, 2010 by mardybum

[tomte]

Hi mardybum, everyone. I haven't done anything like this myself but would love to for meditation practice. I think south western to western tasmania would be a good place, the bushwalking tasmania forum has lots of great info http://bushwalk-tasmania.com/forum/.

I think its best to leave as little impact on the natural environment as possible, to be with it and not tear it down and start killing animals and the like. I think hammocks are a good idea for a lightweight shelter and you can use them in rough, mountainous/uneven or rocky terrain. Here's a pic and some links to some websites:

Hammock and general shelter info

Hammock forums

Hennessy brand hammocks

Rough idea of price, shop around

Some info on Solitude... i need to get out more

The Hermitary - resources and reflections on hermits and solitude

Forest monks of southeast asia

Shantideva's Engaging in Bodhisattva Behavior chapter 8

[ThunderIdeal]

great idea thankyou!!! you could even have a mosquito mesh that goes on top of you to stop mosquitoes (undoubtedly the most annoying thing about nature). i wonder if some little device on the ropes could stop ants from marching onto you as well. i personally don't like insects attacking me while i sleep, or tickling me and stopping me from even falling asleep.

[Teotzlcoatl]

Awesome thread.

[GingaNinja]

im interesting in being able to do it anywhere, just like the aboriginals did. and only using equipment found in nature. i'd love to be able to just travel on foot through bushland for weeks.

Dont forget that Aboriginal people were not doing this alone. Being part of a group makes things alot easier.

Its something I have often thought about but never tried. Maybe try to get in touch with some Aboriginal people of the area you are interested in and ask them to share what they know

I met a guy a while a go that still has alot of knowledge about plants and foods in the bush. Offered to show me how to hunt roo with just a spear, but being vego I declined.

I would opt for the not totally 'natural' version. Like taking some tools, staple foods, tent stuff, fishing line etc. if you plan on being sedentary for a while you could grow some greens.

there are some inspiring docos out there, only one that come to mind at the moment is "Alone in the wilderness" can watch it here http://www.megavideo.com/?v=EUKR8ROP (click the little play button on the add twice to get to play)

or is on torrent sites.

If you ever do this, please report back

Edited May 4, 2009 by GingaNinja

[rahli]

a re-enactment documentary film was made with Australian writer and film maker Rachel Percy, and later turned into a book. In it, Ansell tells of his exploits and that the loneliness of his ordeal had not bothered him -- but he did miss female companionship. Ansell tells how his small boat is overturned, how he is "not lost, but stuck" in the remote Australian bush for seven weeks. He recalls the loss of his supplies and equipment, the search for fresh water, finding food, and setting up a camp. He talks of his dependence on his resourcefulness and inner strength.

Rod Ansell

[baphomet]

This was inspirational, unfortunately the full version was pulled from Utube due to copyright issues but here's a sample 'Alone In The Wilderness - The Story of Dick Proenneke'

EDIT: oops, just noticed that someone already posted it

Edited May 7, 2009 by baphomet

[Chiral]

Dont forget that Aboriginal people were not doing this alone. Being part of a group makes things alot easier.

Its something I have often thought about but never tried. Maybe try to get in touch with some Aboriginal people of the area you are interested in and ask them to share what they know

I met a guy a while a go that still has alot of knowledge about plants and foods in the bush. Offered to show me how to hunt roo with just a spear, but being vego I declined.

I would opt for the not totally 'natural' version. Like taking some tools, staple foods, tent stuff, fishing line etc. if you plan on being sedentary for a while you could grow some greens.

there are some inspiring docos out there, only one that come to mind at the moment is "Alone in the wilderness" can watch it here http://www.megavideo.com/?v=EUKR8ROP (click the little play button on the add twice to get to play)

or is on torrent sites.

If you ever do this, please report back

I have been thinking about this concept lately after watching all those Bruce parry tribe and amazon series....it has got me thinking could I live like that..?...I reckon I could but as you say Ginja it would make it easier if there was a group...you can give support to someone when one is down and help with heavy objects like big logs when building shelter etc. Winter time would be difficult but could be okay if say you killed your own roo's and used the skins as warmth and clothing....being brought up in a "civilised world" means we have the luxury of supermarkets and pharmacies for our food and our ailments...living purely off the land would be tough.....I would suggest that anyone who wants to try this think about getting a group of like minded souls and instead, finding a remote hut or abandoned farm somewhere and live communal life style instead...growing your own crops and doing the place up a bit would bring a good spirit and hope to the project....right now if 10 other people say offered me to live like that in the middle of no where I'd actually go for it....as long as I could bring all my cacti I'd be happy.

Imagine...no money, no bills, no internet, no music...well except live music we could play lol, no getting up for work, no checking the mail...it would be really strange but I'd love to do it...squatting for many years in London is almost like living off the land...it's bloody tough and freezing cold too.

H.

Edited May 6, 2009 by Hunab Ku

[reshroomED]

I've done this on and off for years in Southern Australia. It was actually my interest in bush-medicines that led me to these fora.

I've hunted and fished since I was a small child, got a good-paying contract-based job that only requires work in two or three bursts of 1-2 months/year. Always felt more attraction to nature than people, so have generally worked 3-4 months/yr and visited people/family and camped the rest. Got the latest in a series of old Landcruisers with a 60l fridge, hot shower, 12v lighting galore, plus a Honda genset for when 240v accessories are useful.

Firstly, you've got to be cool with your own company for extended periods. This doesn't sound so hard but can really mess some people up. I've seen mild-mannered 'family-men' completely lose it and start throwing tables etc from being too isolated, and that's on work-crews where there are at least a few others to talk to.

Secondly you've got to be very practically capable. You've got to be able to repair/jury-rig/fabricate stuff yourself.

Thirdly you've got to be reasonably durable. I was living on the West Coast of Tassie for a few years and at one stage got a virus that sat me on my arse. Three days in bed and I'm still knackered. Eventually work up the energy to get up and drive into town to see a nurse (no docs in remote areas) who was only there one day/week, and find three fallen trees across the track to my camp. A few hours later I gave up after dropping one piece of tree on my foot and breaking several bones, so should have stayed in bed.

Fourthly, you need to be very unfussy about what you eat, or else have funds to supplement your gatherings.

Living coastally is the only way to go. For starters, in the Sth two thirds of Oz, there's very little food to be gathered (as an individual) apart from out of the ocean. If you have funds for a rifle and ammo this applies much less so of course. Any more primitive methods of hunting generally consume more energy in the hunt than the quarry provides, hence the aborigines non-solitary lifestyle.

I've tried a ton of native root-vegetables, insects, etc and they *all* taste like SHIT (bar ants, I don't mind ants - noice and peppery, but you need a lot to feel full ). Also tried a lot of ways of preserving meat without cold and same story - but add salt.

The further Nth you go the more prolific the seafood gets, as well as the availability of fruit.

So it's doable if you're keen, just a big lifestyle change for most.

ed

[baphomet]

Dunno what this is like but I just came across it and thought I'd post it here: Les Stroud (Survivorman) - Snowshoes and Solitude

[Chiral]

Great write up ReshroomED...some very interesting and important points obviously taken from experience..thanks for sharing that as I feel the harder side of these things needs to highlighted because the fantasy of it being really cool and happy are all to unrealistic.

H.

[psychoshaman]

yeah sounds quaint, does anyone remember, in the movie "cast away" and the tooth ache scene? sort of like what you was saying reshroomED, sort of forget about these things i guess...

one thing that i do like about solitude and doing it hard like, is that it brings me closer to god, especially the external, impersonal features manifesting herself as nature... or the like. (it;s amazing who you talk to when there is no one else to talk too), it's really hard to explain, i've lived in the bush (nothing like totally living of the land, i;m a city boy who lived in the hills, so to speak), lived on the streets of various cities, for various reasons and sometimes when i look back upon that moment of existence, the alone-ness, the hunger, the cold, the whatever... it feels great shivering in a wet blanket of sorts with the rain pelting down. mind you i do dislike the cold sometimes

if i wasn't so bloody lazy i would prob hone my skills go bush for real (don't even know what a vego would do in the aust. bush) , some of those links tomte are great, maybe i was hindu in a previous incarnation or something, but as i get older i grow fonder, of the idea of solitude. and the whole concept of detachment from the material world.

it would be great to only desire one thing and not many...

glad i found this thread

[ThunderIdeal]

(don't even know what a vego would do in the aust. bush)

cultivating plants rather than hunting/foraging. not a lifestyle this harsh country allowed the aboriginals to adopt as quickly as on other continents, but i'll bet they would have eventually.

i know what you're saying psychoshaman, memories of certain periods are imbued with an extra lustre, when we seem to be more in touch with every day life and less concerned with the future/past.

[rahli]

Hey Thunder,

It's not really that likely that Australian Aborigines would have moved toward a more vegetation based diet as the use of fire to promote habitat for game (grass regrowth) and open the country up for easier hunting directly results in a decrease in fruiting vegetation (or so it is thought, I can't be bothered looking for a paper I read 2 years ago). So in effect Aborigines have in the past steered their land management (through the use of fire) toward hunting and away from gathering.

But then again I guess anything could happen after an ice age or two.

[ThunderIdeal]

hey rahli, thankyou, interesting point. another factor though is trade and communication with other cultures, which people on other continents had. as you say given climate upheaval, and exchange of ideas and seeds/animals with other cultures............... i guess we just don't know how it would have turned out.

anyway, we DO have seeds/animals and ideas from other cultures.

[rahli]

Yeah I guess we are all products of our environment. That and subversive government mechinations.

[kindness]

Hey Mardybum,

Wondering if you are still out there or if you have headed bush.

Sounds like what you want is to go hiking for a while at least at first. I dunno about dropping everything you have been raised with and deciding to suddenly go bush. Learn about the area you are heading into... perhaps even live on the periphery (I know thats crap spelling) of it and then head in for a few days at a time.

I don't believe that there is much point heading too far away from known places of fresh water... the coast is the go. Find water near the coast, settle, then gradually head out bit by bit from there to find more fresh water.

That said and from personal exp. mussels, oysters, any type of fish, prawns even abalone and lobster tastes like shit after a few days of eating them and not enough carbohyrates. gotta take lotsa rice and enough seed to raise some good vege's in a patch that you fend with maybe a dog... unless you feel like taking a whole bundle of fencing wire with you which could prove difficult.

yeah, anyhow.

the wilderness isn't just sitting there waiting for you to come eat it! lol.

mz

[Hedonix]

Hey Mardybum,

Wondering if you are still out there or if you have headed bush.

Sounds like what you want is to go hiking for a while at least at first. I dunno about dropping everything you have been raised with and deciding to suddenly go bush. Learn about the area you are heading into... perhaps even live on the periphery (I know thats crap spelling) of it and then head in for a few days at a time.

I don't believe that there is much point heading too far away from known places of fresh water... the coast is the go. Find water near the coast, settle, then gradually head out bit by bit from there to find more fresh water.

That said and from personal exp. mussels, oysters, any type of fish, prawns even abalone and lobster tastes like shit after a few days of eating them and not enough carbohyrates. gotta take lotsa rice and enough seed to raise some good vege's in a patch that you fend with maybe a dog... unless you feel like taking a whole bundle of fencing wire with you which could prove difficult.

yeah, anyhow.

the wilderness isn't just sitting there waiting for you to come eat it! lol.

mz

I beleive you can eat all weeds as young shoots.. young green fern shoots... extract syrup from palm trees for pancakes.. i'll find the document and post it.. interesting stuff on aussie bush survival.