Bushwalk Australia

Hi all

Some friends and I are on a mission- to be able to survive for a week in the bush with only rudimentary tools, and no water or food other than what we can find in a sustainable and low impact manner. This is a long way off at the present, but we are looking to move towards it in a series of steps, the first being a three day hike on the coast with food, the challenge being to eat as little of it as possible.

The issue is we are struggling to find any track that is suitable. Ideally it would be coastal, reasonably remote and within a days travel from sydney. We are all reasonably fit and experienced hikers, so can anyone suggest anything?

Thanks very much!

Mallacoota to Nadgee (Merrica River Ranger Station).

Coastal. Estuaries. Fish and shellfish. Abalone. Lobster. Classic three-dayer. Wilderness.

The Vic side could be tough - it's wilderness/NP, so you can't legally eat any plants or animals, and part of the coast is Marine Park. Bit easier in NSW, as there's no marine park.

If planning on angling in the NSW area, do it legally (not suggesting you wouldn't) but IME you are far more likely to be asked for your rec fishing licence and have your catch inspected in Nadgee than on Sydney Harbour.

If you are planning to "live off the land" you will find that you spend the vast majority of your time finding & collecting food, you will have very little time to hike much distance. For your first time, why not try spending a couple of days in one place & focus on the food gathering process.

It doesn't really even need to be all that remote.....just resist the urge to go to the shops & buy a hamburger

I grew up on the south coast of NSW & my friends & I would do this on summer weekends, just walk/camp around the bays a coupe of hours walk from town & live off what we could catch. It's pretty easy to feed yourself on the coast especially if you're not too fussy........... (often had to resort to eating oysters....ugh !)

Good luck with it !

As climberman said, Nadgee/Howe wilderness is a good region for such a trip, I walk in there a lot (every couple of weeks recently) as I live very near by. There is a lot of nosh about if you are adept at collecting/catching it and know what to look for and where to find it. I have begun supplementing my trips in there recently without too many problems (I fish reasonably well and have a packraft to get around ...). I have just finished reading the excellent book Natures's Larder, a field guide to the native food plants of the NSW South Coast by R J Hardwick.. It is a very handy book, and I will be taking it as a field guide on my next trip the week after next and hope to try a few bits and pieces. Take note of the warnings in this book, as what you are attempting is not for the inexperienced or ill equipped. That stretch of coast can be pretty extreme also, so I would be reluctant to attempt a self reliant trip in the middle of winter or summer when your energy (and water) requirements are higher. I spent 5 days down there this summer and really really struggled to find good water and temps were over 35oC.



Aboriginal elder Uncle Max Dulumunmun Harrison is a teacher of Yuin traditonal knowledge (including all the local bush tucker knowledge) and would be worth seeking out if you are really serious about understanding the bush and it's foods in the Yuin Nation.

The downside of collectiong bush tucker is that the really good stuff like fish, crays, shellfish etc generally requires 'equipment' to collect and that has to be carried...I have been getting a few of these lately (I take them home for my wife as I am allergic to them )


Steve

Do you know the legislation for collecting food from the coast ... I don't just mean, do you have a fishing licence and know what are the legal fish sizes, and what are the bag limits, do you know the legislation?

Do you know about closures and restrictions, zones of high water and low water? Do you know what the fines are for illegally collecting food in the wrong tidal zones? ... the inter tidal zone.

It would be excellent to make a stone fish trap, just like the First People did, and dig up orchid tubers and pull up bull rushes and roast the tubers and eat the succulent bottom 2.5 cm of fronds found in the centre of the tree that tastes like water melon (don't go above 2.5 cm, the alkaloids above are extremely toxic), winnow moths or grind up Kangaroo grass seeds and make damper, and grind wattle seeds to sprinkle on your coffee ... but we are not allowed to on Crown Land. If you eat the weeping sap off a wattle when no one is looking, maybe that's OK!

The Yam Daisy (Murnong) can be found on the South Coast. Eat the tubers raw or roasted. At higher altitudes on the coastal escarpments the Yam Daisy is common.

You can do a lot more on private property. Talk to a farmer, there are plenty of south coast farms with wild country. Survival is about hunting and gathering and expect to spend most of the day doing it. A three day walk is a waste of energy and very taxing on valuable resources, if you are collecting food. Spend the three days befriending farmers.

Study the edible Mushrooms of the south east. It is a good time of year for mushrooms.

On the web is good information on the bush tucker of the Blue Mountains, Lilly Pilly, Mountain Pepper, native cherries, there are a lot of bush foods found in the mountains that are also found on the South Coast.

If you go Yabbying, here is a tip, most people use meat, I use small bits of carrot as bait. Carrot keeps better than meat. Yabbies are addicted to carrot.

There is nothing better than an eel from the creeks. A head torch, a pair of goggles and a metal stake, that's all you will need ... it is a good way to enjoy an evening. Do catch up on the fishing laws though.

Warren.

Nice crawler Steve - you neglected to mention them to me !

We walked in Nadgee five days, years ago and the best meal we had was the one at Bunyip Hole with the pippys we caught on the beach there....