Water and Death

We stopped to offer help, and after a long look at us, one of the bodies rolled out of the shade of a metre-high bush and came over to the cab of the 4WD Volvo. "Do you need a hand?" we had asked. "Wouldn't have a couple of tubes for Falcon tyres, eh?". "Sorry." "Wouldn't have a Falcon water pump, eh ?". "Sorry." "Well, somebody's gone to see my cousin at Millstream, so I might get back in the shade." And he did. They had enough water for a few days, and they were just lying around in the shade of the bushes.

They might have looked in a bad way, but actually they were following the best possible survival techniques.

The first rule is that you shouldn't drink any water at all for the first 24 hours after a breakdown, if you're in a situation where you might run out of water. What this does is tell your kidneys to concentrate your urine, and release as little water as possible.

(For some unknown reason, nomadic Aborigines seem to have an immense capacity for water. According to Professor Lumbers, from the Department of Physiology at UNSW, at least one group of nomadic Aborigines back in the 60's began each day by drinking 7 litres of water. Drinking 7 litres of water, in one hit, for a 50kg body is taking on a heck of a water load.) Our mates with the broken-down Falcon were also following the second rule - don't move, just stay with the car. There wasn't much shade around, but whatever there was, they were in it and that's the third rule - stay in the shade.

By following most of these rules, barrister George Thomas and his father Michael lived. George wanted to get to know his father better, so they chucked a few supplies in his 4WD, and went bush. Mind you, from what I read in the newspaper, he was a little under-prepared. Their supplies were five tins of sardines, 5 litres of lemonade and his mother's meatballs. He had gone 70 kilometres off the track around William Creek when he rolled the vehicle. His 4WD had a winch, but he thought he couldn't push his vehicle back up again, because there were no trees around. Maybe he hadn't heard of burying the spare tyre in the ground, to use as an anchor point. The CB radio was damaged, so he couldn't call for help. But even if it did work, it had a range of 20 km!

But they were sensible enough to lay in the shadow of their 4WD for 2 days, and to eke out their food and drink. And they were lucky that they were rescued after only 2 days.

The Japanese tourist Masa Hiraono was also unwise but lucky. In January '94, he left Carnegie in Western Australia and headed East on the unsealed Gunbarrel Highway. The temperatures were reaching 50°C, but he took only 4 litres of water to travel the 452 kilometres to Warburton. Some 200 kilometres out of Carnegie, he had mechanical problems with his bike so he dumped all his supplies, including his spare fuel, at the side of the road. He then headed back to Carnegie, but ran out of fuel some 70 kilometres down the road. By incredible good luck, he ran out of fuel at a fresh water bore. There was even a drinking cup attached by string.

But he thought that the bore was some sort of FM radio transmitter. He could see an old dam full of brown water, but he was convinced that if he drank it he would die. He didn't think to use his stove to boil the water. He didn't realise that he should sit in the shade. Of course, by this time he was probably well and truly delirious (and unable to think straight) from dehydration. When the police found him he was severely dehydrated, sunstroked, sunburned and "lying in the full sun on the edge of a dam, with his feet in the water, waiting to die" according to Constable Phil Bremton. He was lucky.

But two boys whose car broke down near Balgo in February '94 were not so lucky. They died. They didn't save their water for the first 24 hours. In fact, they immediately drank all of their water, including the water from the windscreen wiper reservoir. They didn't stay with the vehicle in the shade, but as soon as the sun came up started walking.

I have a lot of sympathy for people who don't know what to do in these situation, because I know there are many situations in which I wouldn't know what to do. If you dumped me in Japan I'd be out of my depth. But we need to stop people dying and nearly dying in the outback from lack of water. Maybe we could include a multiple choice question on desert-water survival in the written part of the license test. Maybe we could tell everyone that they leave the bitumen, they have to carry 20 litres of water per person per day. I really don't know.

Karl's volvo bogged in the Fink River, about 80 kilometres out of Alice Springs. The Fink River is 150 million years old, it's the oldest river in the world.

REFERENCES
Desert Victim Wanted To Die, by Mark Russell, The Daily Telegraph Mirror (Sydney), 4 January 1994, p 8.
Dehydrated Tourist Rescued From Death Next to Outback Bore, by Joanne Cooper, The Australian, 4 January 1994, p 1.
Police Critical of Tourist, Sydney Morning Herald, 4 January 1994, p 3.
Outback and Bond For George, The Sun-Herald (Sydney), 23 January 1994, p 12.
Children Died Near Waterhole, Sydney Morning Herald, 10 February 1994, p 5.
Brothers Die After Breakdown, by David Humphries, The Australian, 10 February 1994, p 3.
Two Boys Found Dead in Desert,The Daily Telegraph Mirror (Sydney), 10 February 1994, pp 1 - 2.
Dead Boys Father Faces Tribal Wrath, Sydney Morning Herald, 12 February 1994, p 11.