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Our bushcraft and survival excursions deep dive into our core subjects of food, fire, water, shelter and rescue. With interactive demonstrations and interesting activities, we teach what it takes to not only survive but thrive in the great outdoors. These courses can be adapted to suit your specific needs if you have a particular goal or curriculum expectation in mind and can range from a simple 1 day adventure to a multi-day expedition.
Shearers Quarters Camping: This option has bunk beds available for 6 supervisors. The quarters are equipped with power, flushing toilets, a hot shower, kitchen facilities as well as a large fire pit. Students would be situated in dome tents.
Scrub Camping: For a more rustic experience, students have the option to build their own shelters in the mallee scrub by the creek bed. Supervisors will need to either swag or be in tents for this option. Portable toilets can be bought in or pit toilets dug. Water will need to be taken in to the location.
FOCUS: Shelter and Fire
SHELTER: Students will be instructed about the pros and cons of various shelters and how to make an effective survival shelter. In groups of 3 or 4, they will then have a few hours to design and build their ultimate survival shelter. Throughout the program there will be opportunities to continue to improve their structure if they would like. Once the groups have constructed a shelter they are happy with, a Bushrangers staff member will evaluate and decide if the shelter would be a good one in a survival scenario. When the shelter passes inspection, the group will be awarded tarps or tents as an alternate option to sleep in.
NB: Bushrangers staff will ensure that the shelters are built safely and to a standard that will enable the students to sleep in them if they wish.
FIRE: The afternoon will be spent exploring the history and different methods of making fire. The students will produce fire using a ferro rod and the strap drill method. Other traditional fire making methods will be explained and demonstrated.
NIGHT 1: Food will be provided by Bushrangers and the students may choose to sleep in their shelter or their tarps/tent but must let a staff member know what they choose.
FOOD: The morning will be spent exploring the ways and means of procuring food in the wilderness. This will include stalking and tracking, as well as traps, hunting tools and things to be wary of. Activities will include use of the traditional spear and woomera, boomerang and a trap building exercise where students will be encouraged to design their own traps and explain how they might work to the group. They will then be taught three different trapping methods.
Meal prep: Students will be taught how to prepare a whole salmon. Then the ponassing technique of cooking fish will be demonstrated and dinner cooked over an open fire.
WATER: The afternoon will be spent discussing various methods of finding and filtering water. Some activities will include a water carrying race, making their own natural water filter as well as taking time to craft a water carrying vessel out of clay and other natural items.
NIGHT 2: Each group will be required to create a tribal origins story and perform the story in front of the whole group after dinner. This will be a night of skits and storytelling.
FOCUS: First Aid, Rescue and Navigation
First Aid: We take a look at wilderness first aid. How to tackle injuries out bush using the tools and medicine nature provides. After which we’ll run a first aid scenario where in students make decisions on how to triage and treat casualties.
RESCUE: At this stage it’s time to look at getting back to civilization. There will be a discussion on how best to ensure your rescue. A course will be set-up with 4 steps that tribes must complete in order to be “rescued”. Each tribe will then build a stretcher and be required to safely navigate a course with a stretchered patient.
NAVIGATION: The program will end with a quick lesson on map reading and natural wayfinding and tribes being required to navigate their way to the extraction point with a compass and mud map.
Accommodation and meals included in price.
