On our very first night in the bush, Gordon Dedman issued a warning: “Fussy people die.”
Dedman, a man with an apt name for a military survival instructor, is all muscle and green khaki. Sat by the fire, he addresses his students.
“This is not a wellness retreat. It is about getting out of your comfort zone.”
I am in the Camden bush, on Dharawal and Gundungurra Country, for a four-day wilderness survival course taught by the consultant for TV’s most gruelling show, Alone Australia.
On the itinerary: knife work, knots, emergency shelters, fire lighting, water collection, plant identification, solar and celestial navigation, plus emergency signalling and rescue techniques. On my person: fresh hiking boots, gold hoops, perfectly low-rise cargo pants and a black tee.
The last time I went camping was with school in year 9, in a tent set up about 50 steps from a cabin. Out of my comfort zone, indeed – this time I don’t have a tent, or a toilet.
After a short hike, we arrive at sunset to a large green tarp billowing gently. It’s a military parachute, Dedman tells us. We gather at a semicircle of stools beneath the canopy.
Dedman gets straight to it. The goal of “survival” is to be found, he says. This is different to bushcraft, which has a direct relationship with nature and draws from the skills traditional cultures used to live in the wilderness.
Dedman’s philosophy about the land and people’s role on it is clear just a few hours in: “Our existence here is based on the caring capacity of the Earth.
“But we live in a system of expanding expenditure … at total odds with nature. Something is very broken with our system.”
We go around the circle of 15 students, introducing ourselves. Most of us are novices, mainly Sydney and Canberra-based men with office jobs looking to reconnect with the outdoors (participant Julian Carrick says he is here to “soothe the soul” and “see the stars”) plus two parents, their eager sons and myself.
Some students have dabbled in survival and bushcraft for years – including Karla Pound, a National Geographic expedition leader and contestant on the current season of Alone.
We’re not equipped for when things go wrong, she tells me. She says…
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