Women's 3 Day Survival Skills Course

START: 05:30 PM FRI 6 SEPT - ENDS: NOON MON 8 SEPT 2024

This course is for women who want to gain the confidence to safely explore the wilderness, and learn what to do if they find themselves in a survival situation.

The focus of the weekend is on practical, useful and hands-on skills.

Join me and other outdoor women in a beautiful bush location, just an hour outside of Canberra.

Camping facilities are available for three nights with a long-drop toilet, fire pits and under-cover shelter if the weather turns bad, all amongst schlerophyl eucalypt forests - the perfect place to learn valuable, hands-on outdoor survival skills.

Many survival schools teach Wilderness Living skills, rather than Survival. But when you’re lost, you don’t need to know how to build a shelter that will see you through 102 days on the TV show, ALONE. You won’t likely have the tools or the energy to do that either, so our focus is on the most efficient, practical and useful techniques that will realistically help you survive an emergency incident.

While you won't want want to carry a suitcase full of gadgety and heavy survival gear, I'll have plenty of useful hands-on kit for you to try and explore. You won't see a bigger range of options, in any other course in Australia. Gear is mostly selected to align to ultra-light hiking principles, but we cover a full-range of outdoor pursuits such as 4WD'ing, kayaking, climbing, fossicking and mushrooming.

We'll review what works, what doesn't and what’s the minimum pocket-sized kit that will get through almost any emergency scenario, and help you select the most effective items for your own kit and future adventures. You'll get to try many different options.

Our approach is based on Search & Rescue statistics, research and process, Lost Person behaviour, Survival Psychology and pragmatic outdoor techniques.

What the course covers:

Survival priorities and how to decide what’s important:

->Mindset, Shelter, Water, Fire and Signalling

Mindset:

> How people respond (how you’ll likely respond)

>Dealing with Wood Shock (and what it is)

>How to make a plan and prioritise

First-Aid

>Critical first-aid items, and a framework on how to decide what to put in your kit

>Snakes and snake-bite Pressure Immobiliation Technique

>How to perform CPR, stop emergency bleeds and using Epipins in responding to Anaphylaxis

Shelter

>How to build an emergency shelter

You’ll get to construct a shelter (and can sleep in it, if you’re up for the adventure)

Fire

>Making fire with friction, flint and steel and other improvised methods

>How to build a fire with wet wood

>Efficient fire-making skills

While you’ll get to start a fire using friction methods like Bow Drills and Hand drills - we’ll show you why that’s grossly impractical and impossible if you’re in a real survival situation - and what to do, instead, including from simple items you'll likely have on you.

Water

>Finding and collecting water, without a water source

>Making water safe to drink

> What to do when you run out of water

Signalling

>Different signal methods

>How to signal to maximise rescue

Navigation

>Map, compass and navigation basics

>Using nature to navigate

>How to get unlost

Survival Kits

>How to make your own basic kit

> Crap v useful items in commercial survival kits

Knife Handling, Safety and Sharpening

>Knives and safe handling

> Basic Knife Sharpening (how to use a sharpening stone, ceramic sharpener and more)

WHAT TO BRING

You will receive a detailed Information Pack with all the gear requirements for the weekend. You will need a caravan, tent or tarp for camping for three nights.

We commence at 17:30 pm (5:30 pm) on FRIDAY 06 SEPT 2024. We recommend you arrive earlier in the day to get your camp set up before the course starts, so you don't miss anything.

Please bring your own survival kit items if you have them (eg ferro rod, tinder, whistle, mirror, water filters , etc). If you don’t have any survival kit, we suggest you hold off on purchasing them until you’ve participated in our weekend where you can see what works best, and what doesn’t. We have a huge range and diversity of kit items to try, as well as plenty of all-natural options.

If you don't have camping gear, I can loan a tent / sleeping mat / sleeping bag for a small additional fee. How to access loan items, is included in the Info Pack.

This location has a long-drop toilet, but no shower facilities.

There is no wifi or mobile phone signal at this site. Tank water is available, but requires treatment prior to use. Each participant should bring their own drinking water for the duration of the course, if you don't have water treatment.

While the site is accessible by 2WD, the road into the site is around 2 klms in distance, and is on compressed and rocky dirt road. I recommend lift-sharing where possible and will provide driving instructions in the Info Pack.

REFUND INFORMATION

If you cancel (for any reason) > 30 days out from the event, I will refund you fully, less a $4.50 processing fee. [For this activity - before 7 Aug 24]

If you cancel between 30 and 21 days [7 Aug - 16 Aug] before the activity, I will refund you 50% of the cost of the course.

If you cancel less than 21 days before the event start date, unfortunately there is no refund available. Please note that under Australian Consumer Law, I am not obliged to refund you at all, if you change your mind for any reason. (Changing your mind can incude cancelling because of illness, pregnancy, family incident, work committments, etc).

Despite there being no legal requirement to offer you a refund, I do offer one under the above conditions, as an act of good faith.

We are happy to transfer your spot onto one future course date - within the following 12 month period. If you choose the transfer option, there are no refunds available if you then later cancel on a transferred spot. If the price of the course rises during that time, you will need to pay any difference in price, or otherwise the refund rule at the time of transfer, applies.

I can also transfer your ticket to an alternative attendee for the same course, with your written approval. Refunds are not available to an alternative attendee.

FREQUENTLY ASKED QUESTIONS

Here's a link to some frequently asked questions about the activity and additional Terms & Conditions:

https://docs.google.com/document/d/1maa6uClFihr28OcrgSYRK9m2r3DB20F0RdaNeZFxs-g/edit?usp=sharing

ABOUT THE INSTRUCTOR

You can read more about our instructor, here:

https://bushsafe.com/about-us

See us featured on the ABC, here:

https://www.abc.net.au/news/2023-07-22/act-teaching-women-outdoor-emergency-survival-skills-hiking/102634212

and in other articles, here in Wilderness Magazine, New Zealand

Five remarkable mental health benefits of hiking - Wilderness Magazine

How light is too light? - Wilderness Magazine

BUSHSAFE

PO BOX 977

DICKSON POST OFFICE, ACT 2602

MOB: 0466 978 029

ABN: 92 845 308 397

We teach three different approaches to survival priorities - natural, manufactured and improvised methods. Learn how to make a natural lean-to shelters.

Learn how to find water and what to do, when you run out

Learn cord making with natural fibres and net making

Learn safe knife, blade and saw handling and blade sharpening including how (and when) to use a sharpening stone

You'll learn how to start a fire six different ways, including how to use a ferrocerium rod (ferro rod), flint and steel and bow and hand drill. You'll get to try different natural and manufactured tinders, how to build a safe fire, and what to do if it's raining or wood is wet.

Learn how to use a compass, how to read a topographic map, how to put those two items together to navigate. Understand how people get lost and tips and tricks for getting yourself unlost.

Learn hands-on skills in a beautiful bush setting, with other adventurous women

We'll look at all survival priorities, including signalling. Learn how to use a retroflective mirror and set off a Personal Locator Beacon. Understand the difference between a PLB and other emergency communication devices, such as Garmin Inreach.

At night, share a campfire and stories (and marshmallows) with other wonderful women from outdoors communities around Australia!