EPIRB sparks search

This is what I seen ,

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Yes and the article states it was a hired troopy that had a flat tire repaired 3 days prior , , as an aside it just goes to show that an EPIRB is a sound investment for an outcome that could have had a very different ending.

Nar she'll be right, Someone in a 4wd will come along with all their fancy gear and get us going again. In the case of Doug's photo, Doug and I did come along in our fancy 4wds but we were too late, they lost the LOT! We had just spent 6 days in 4wd, low range for most of it, and they were heading straight into it, totally unprepared.
How they got as far as they did without waking up is beyond me. In the 6 days we only saw 1 other vehicle which was a 4wd which also had the fancy gear for survival.
Please think, a 4wd track is just that, a 2wd drive can fall to bits and up here in this climate you will perish.

Noel K.

Noel ,its a big jump from what you and Doug came across on one of your travels that the picture shows and the pic from the NT news that also shows a 2wd camper to what in reality was an unprepared 4x4 with tourists on board , the outcome no matter what we say is that no one lost their lives through perceived ignorance , unpreparedness or just plain stupidity , who is to blame for this particular instance ? Look at it from the overseas tourists point of view , hammerd with with lovely pictures and deals to "see" the outback of Australia without the restrictions of organised $$$$ tours yet are not really informed of the dangers that can and do exist ,

Noel,

as for a "2wd" falling apart I have owned an E20 like the one pictured and I can assue you they are easily bult as tough as 4bys like Prados, and pajeros and if driven to their lmmits of clearance have zero problems with rough terrain witout falling part

I saw a good portion of Australa in mine which included "4wd only" tracks

Couldn't agree more Landy, case in point is the young Austrian couple that were stranded at Lake Eyre right in the middle of summer. I cant remember their names but she ended up perishing after walking about 25Klm's toward William Creek. They were let down by so many people, the 4WD hire company that gave them no information or even basic instruction and a mix up at the William Creek hotel that ended in the wrong book being filled out to name a couple.

We live here and we travel here, we know the dangers and we prepare accordingly. I believe we have an obligation to educate the people that come here injecting cash into our society to keep them safe and make their time here as enjoyable as possible.

Tony

For once I'm in total agreement with you , We do fail our foreign visitors , when you have tourists thinking that kangaroos jump down the middle of George st Sydney and every gum tree has a Koala in residence ,it's only a couple of hrs drive from Sydney to AliceSprings and you can see Ayers Rock from your hotel in Alice , yep we are definitely failing to inform our overseas tourist of the real nature of our diverse country.

I'm sure there are many things we would agree on....

The reality is that Australia is somewhat unique when it comes to the diversity of landscape and conditions experienced from highly inhabited coastal regions, to remote outback places. Contrast our country with the size and landscape of many European countries where you couldn’t get lost if you tried (I generalise!)....

And this is the way Australia is promoted overseas, a land of diverse landscapes to be explored and many of these people are doing it within a 2-3 week timeframe and I suspect their due diligence on how to prepare for outback travel, for instance, is not extensive.

We’ve all seen many reports similar to this one and it tends to point towards a finding that we simply don’t provide enough information about travel in Australia, bearing in mind you don’t have to go too far to be ‘remote’.

Cheers, The Landy

I've got to admit, before coming to this country I had some preconceived ideas about Australia [due mainly to the media back in NZ and the odd bit of hear-say].

Australia was a huge sand dune surrounded by water just off the coast of NZ.

The Aussie bloke:
Wore a silly hat with corks dangling from it,
Drank beer like it was going out of fashion,
Wore shorts and silly things called thongs,
Swore like a trooper,
Beat the missus cause she forgot to put the beer in the fridge,
Did un-natural things with kangaroos,
Played a weird looking game of footy,
Had this odd facination with prawns being on the barbie,
Charged around the country-side in 4wds trying to jump onto the backs of unsuspecting crocs.

He was also known to do things the Catholic Church would not condone.

Mind you, I have since realised that not all of this is true.
Once you have watched a few AFL matches, the game is not that weird....lol.

As far as travelling is concerned, I reckon tourists should learn the same way I did. Advice is always welcome but there is no better teacher than a mistake.

All tongue in cheek chaps [except the kangaroo bit].....hehehe.

Cheers.....Lionel

Education is what many people need, i was on Fraser Island Qld and as i came round a bend in a large sand dune was a Volkswagen van stuck so deep you could not see any wheels but guess who was pulling them out a Troopy with all the gear. Same day i pulled out a Hilux out of a river crossing of course i had all the gear. Thanks to Malcolm Douglas and the educational shows he brought out.
Thanks mate we miss you.