When Do you leave your car when Bogged

Hi Andy,

Unless such a course was a prerequisite to hire the vehicle in the first place, it just would not happen.

I am a little amazed that no recovery gear is provided as part of the vehicle hire, but then again that would require the driver to have some experience in using it.

Come to think of it, I doubt whether a hirer is even supposed to take the vehicle off-road at all.

They were very fortunate indeed to have made it in one piece and find someone willing to help them out of the poo!

From our experience with Rent-a-Prado drivers on the Gibb, the companies just chuck them the keys and say "good luck".

Gidday

This sort of thing has been happening for years and it is not always tourists, more than a few locals have been caught out.

Some people have common sense, some don't, you can't legislate it into them.

the mining industry has taken it to the nth degree where you usually can't go on site without an induction course or certificates in this and that but short of a checkpoint at both ends of every remote track to make sure people know what lies ahead, I don't know what you can do.

Cheers

Gday,
What's the difference between overseas travellers and Interstate travellers? Un prepared travellers have been around for years and will be around for years to come...........no law is going to stop people getting bogged.
People have travelled this country for years without all the gadgets and learned how to get themselves out of their own problems. If people wish to travel around without being decked out like the Leyland brothers and the bushskills of Russsel Coight that's up to them.
I'm over people making laws to protect everyone from themselves........let them learn from their mistakes and their own "adventures".
With a screen name like yours Id assume your out there doing the same?

Cheers

Unfortunately the message just doesn't get through to people like this, Caroline Grossmueller died needlessly ( http://www.exploroz.com/Forum/Topic/73559/1998_Death_at_Halligans_Bay_-_Caroline_Grossmueller.aspx ) and I think that, whilst some agree with Darwins theory of natural selection, the gruesome task by those that have to deal with it would be overwhelming and we do need to hold the hire companies to some form of responsible behaviour.

Of course, at the end of the day they are responsible for their actions and a good stiff penalty for not covering their bases is in order.

cheers

Andy,

Was it raining on Wednesday when they called you? if it was why didn't you tell them not to venture out if the road conditions were bad?

They did tell someone - you, that they were heading to your location. Local knowledge is good but if they haven't driven on our regional roads before how are they to know if they are not informed to take caution when informing people of their destination.


Cheers Kev

Hire vehicles come with epirbs

30k is fa

Less than a days walk.
Ive done furthet after getting bogged.
Walked 10hours. No one at the station so slept in shearers quarters and rung help next day from open homestead

A course for overseas travellers is in practical terms, impossible. The best you could do would be for the government to produce a remote travel survival booklet in different languages and have it as a mandatory document they receive when getting the car. The same booklet should be available to locals. Then the info is with them in the car in a language they understand. If they choose not to consult it, or ignore it then so be it. Running courses for overseas travellers would be a logistical nightmare for everyone involved. I must say I am a bit over nanny state legislation. Those guys will remember that experience all their lives, even brag to friends about being "stuck in the wilderness", covered in mud and unbelievable sunburn. Sure, it could have ended badly, but you could also be hit by a bus getting a sandwich in the middle of a city. Lets not take the life out of life.

Education won't happen. There's nothing that can be done to protect people from themselves, so it's not worth losing any sleep over it. As they say in the classics .. "sheet happens".

Jack

The fatalities that spring to mind are:

the German tourists at Lake Eyre Explor Oz item Coroners Report

Canadian teacher on Sandy Blight Junction Track (early 70s)

the two young station workers south of Balgo 1986 deaths

the guy at Ethabuka (Eastern Simpson) SMH report

the two locals between Kintore and Nyrrippi. SMH report

In all but the first two, the participants lived or were working near the place of their death. All except the Canadian left their vehicle. He was found as a black, shrivelled corpse sitting at the wheel of his bogged vehicle.

Let someone know of your plans. Take plenty of water. Have adequate comms. Stay with the vehicle.

Bob

I can remember, from the 1970's, amongst all the graffiti at the Ninety-Mile Tank on the Lake King-Norseman Road - someone had chalked in charcoal on the tank - "broke down here (xxx date), and walked 54 miles (87kms) to the Norseman Rd to get help! It's a BLOODY LONG WAY!!" LOL

I felt like chalking in a reply - "but it was a BLOODY GOOD LESSON, wasn't it!" - but they'd probably never gone that way again.

I must be a rank amateur, I used to travel all these lonely tracks in nothing more than a 2WD Holden ute. I didn't take to these tracks right after it had rained, though. I'd travel with a 20L poly drum of water, maybe a couple of jerrycans of petrol - and a good range of tools and small repair items.
Back then - no mobile phones, no EPIRB's, no hugely expensive HF radios, CB radios were unheard of - and you just told family and friends when you expected to be at point X - and to come looking if they hadn't heard from you, by a set date.

I think most of today's generation are brought up with no idea what it means to be totally isolated, and to be independent.

What about all the travellers of the 1930's, '40's, '50's and '60's who never knew what 4WD and good roads were?
East-West truckies who pounded their way along the nearly-non-existent road across the long paddock - having to be totally self-supporting and resourceful?

I can remember reading a story of the bloke with the station mail truck leaving Pt Hedland in 1952 - and a third of the way to Broome, he came across 2 blokes on BICYCLES, who had ridden down from Broome!
They carried rifles, light swags and some water, and had been living off the land, and were in good shape - but the mail truck man said he gave them a loaf of bread, that they devoured in minutes! - with them not having seen or tasted bread since they'd left Broome, 3 weeks before!

G'Day Kevin -

Gee, you must have been one of the rich blokes! A NEW Holden van, too, I suppose! LOL

I was talking about the early 70's when I said no CB's. In my neck of the woods (wheatbelt and Goldfields of W.A.) there were a few odd scattered blokes with imported American CB's, but they were a real novelty, and not legal, anyway.

18CH CB wasn't legalised until 1977 and 40CH UHF CB wasn't legalised until 1980.
I believe you could get done for some serious dollars before those dates, if you were caught with an "illegal" American CB, because the bandwidth wasn't officially allocated.

CB radio in Australia

Cheers, Ron.