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So, we were watching this week’s episode about a family living in the middle of the Australian desert, 450km from Broken Hill. The question arose:
How do you do your shopping? Presumably go into the nearest town once every couple of months and stock up on long life stuff?
Got the impression there was as much fresh ‘roo as they wanted, which seems easier?
I've heard you can survive for several days by sucking petrified nutrients out of fragments of sedimentary rocks.
Aye, not going to keep you going for ten years in a house though.
Think they got water from a borehole, there was a rural Aussie pub not that far away but they looked much more like they had a normal standard of living that people on NLitW sometimes do.
Step-sister used to live in a very small community in North Yukon - about 500 miles north of Whitehorse, Canada.
Her husband drove to Whitehorse every 2 weeks for the shopping. Getting the truck serviced would involve a multi-night stay in Whitehorse. Forgetting an essential shopping item meant a shoutout on Facebook etc asking for a neighbour to help out. They were teachers rather than farmers. Starting a car in -60C temps is quite a challenge apparently.
She then moved to Yellowknife (where Ice Road Truckers starts) - and this must have been bustling in comparison. The drive was timed to use an ice-bridge !
Double post. Doh!
@StirlingCrispin - sounds similar, though roads were dirt tracks that could be washed out/flooded if it rains. What did they do for fresh food? Presumably a couple of days after the run to town then that’s it?
Big chest freezer. Grow a fair bit of food.
We were at a remote place in the Northern Territory that gets cut off in the wet season and we could order food from Darwin to be delivered by plane. We had three months worth of essentials and made our own bread etc.
@ratherbeintobago - you need to start watching Homestead Rescue on Discovery+, all the answers to questions you never knew you had!
@ratherbeintobago - Not sure what they did for fresh food. There was a local store and some food was flown in.
If there was a growing season it would have been a short one!
We spent a bit of time in remote Northern Territory about 400km (6 hours drive in good conditions) from the nearest town with more than a crap local shop. In the wet season the only way in or out is by plane. You could order in advance from supermarkets in Darwin and when a plane (a bit like a bus service) came they'd bring your order. We had huge stocks of flour etc and made our own bread every day. We were supposed to be there for 3 months over the wet season, but the project we were going to run (vegetable gardening with the kids) got axed in the end so we left before the weather arrived.
We were living out of a Land Rover, but you'd have big chest freezers of course.
Bore and rainwater collection is standard practice in large parts of Australia. Rainwater tastes superb, bore water varies depending of course... some of it you definitely don't want to drink. But you use it to grow vegetables.
And kangaroo is fantastic meat if you know how to cook each cut. There's virtually no fat.
Indigenous people really prize the tail though. I once watched an old lady hack a tail up with an axe and boil it in an old flour tin over a fire.
These days we buy tail from a local butcher cut up like Ossobuco and my wife slow cooks it with barley most weeks.
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How do you do your shopping? Presumably go into the nearest town once every couple of months and stock up on long life stuff?
I watched that episode - they explained in considerable detail how they manage regarding food, education, medical emergencies…
A 900km round-trip means being properly organised.
I remember the bit about medical emergencies. Having to say to the kids to play more gently when the airstrip is inaccessible…
There was a TV series called Outback ER all about the emergency department at Broken Hill. There were some great stories.
We spent a bit of time in remote Northern Territory about 400km (6 hours drive in good conditions) from the nearest town with more than a crap local shop.
An ex colleague was brought up on a cattle station, same sort of thing. Was about 250 km to the next nearest anything (a crossroads with a motel, pub, petrol station and a tiny shop, 30-40 houses). 1000 km round trip and an overnight stop to do the shopping.
Think they were quite lucky back then as they had their own helicopter for emergencies. Even back in the 80s. (He's a bit older than me, and left the station to go to uni when he was 20 ish so let home in 90 or 91).
The monthly trip to the nearest pub apparently involved a lot of people shoehorned into a pick up and getting home at sun up. Hopefully with everyone present and correct, a taxi home if you missed your lift would be eyewatering!