2020 Pending Review
Beating Around the Bush
(April 2005, Great Sandy Desert) Beating around the Bush is a phrase used in Australia quite a bit. What it means is to take ages to get to the point. A tale of 2 men in Australia from 2005 is a literal and figurative example of this...
As an Aussie, I can confirm, it’s pretty hot here down under! When you are going on trips here, especially in the desert, you must be prepared. Despite being Australian their entire life this darwin duo didn’t get the message. Their ill-prepared trip (which they told nobody they were attempting) consisted of a 41-year-old man, his 21-year-old nephew and their 31-year-old rusty Land Rover. It however didn’t consist of water, a detailed map showing where water is, a two way radio, enough petrol or a helpful handful of intelligence.
The two men and their dog left their house on March 28 to go to Kununurra to do fruit picking. They stopped at a petrol station to fill up but had not nearly enough petrol to make a 2,000 kilometre trip to get to their planned destination.
A few kilometres in, the inevitable happened. The car broke down at the “Talawana Track” leaving the 2 bogans in the middle of the great sandy desert. If they were smart they would have enough water to survive. But the didn’t. And if they were really smart, they would have at least a map that could show where water was. Unfortunately, they didn’t and had no direction to find water. The duo then decided to guess where water was and walk there. Long story short, their guess was off. The pair walked 7 kilometres before giving up and walking back. Finally, the men perished under the harsh
desert sun.
Their 14 kilometre walk would be unnecessary if they had a detailed map, they were 9 kilometres from a bore. The Western Australia Police has this to say: “They didn't have sufficient petrol to get where they wanted to go, they didn't have sufficient water and they were totally unprepared [...] The men were so poorly prepared for their trip that the tragedy was not surprising [...] Our officers shake their heads all the time at the stupidity of some things."
Sadly their dog, too innocent to win, also died
https://www.theage.com.au/national/desert-duo-die-within-9km-of-water-20050412-gdzyn4
Submitted on 04/13/2020
Submitted by:
Hugh
Reference: