Bit of a worry for free campers.

hako · Guru

Bit of a worry for free campers.

Chucker · Veteran Member

Brisssy Tourism copping a bit of a bashing at the moment.
Home Hill Murder.
DreamWorld catastrophe
Great Barrier Reef Deaths
etc.
and know this.

newhorizons · Senior Member

I would never freecamp in a truck bay on my own or with only one other car. THere's safety in numbers and I always find out who's next door just in case. There are some crazy people out there.

adreamer · Senior Member

Where these people stopped is a very isolated spot and no one else was there! Even though I lived in the Territory for a long time I would never stay somewhere like that overnight.

These people were French tourists and probably didn't realize the extreme isolation and dangers of the Outback.

Our Country used to be safe - but No Longer unfortunately.

Drugs, alcohol and no respect for our Laws has ruined our freedom.

This person who committed this terrible crime was obviously watching this place.

I feel so sorry for this man's wife.

Helen

rockylizard · Guru

Gday...

I certainly feel for the French travellers and hope they are able to recover fully and will continue to travel and enjoy this great country.

Unfortunately, there are considerably more instances, such as the one highlighted in that article, within our cities and towns ... DAILY. hmm

I don't want to tempt fate ... but ... I have been travelling alone, camping alone, in a wide variety of places and environments for the past 50 or so years. I have been lucky (?) to have not even encountered a 'worrying' situation - let alone a 'threatening' situation.

I would prefer to be in the bush than in a city these days - I reckon the odds are against me in the city cry

Cheers - John

Tony Bev · Guru

RIP to the French tourist, and condolence to his wife

In my honest opinion, the natural born unbalanced person, would probably not be able to drive a car, to come out the bush, and murder us

Perhaps it is time that as a society, we start to remove the bad apples from the barrel

I believe that when you commit a crime like this, (for whatever reason), drugs/booze/rage then you should lose your right, to live amongst the rest of us

I believe that the normal law abiding people, should have the right to live without the fear of worrying about any crazies, murdering us, just because they can

Off my soapbox now

moamajohn · Guru

Sadly one moron puts the fear of god into others .This is not right ! we need to get on with our lives and enjoy ! Cheers John

dazz49 · Senior Member

More people taken by sharks in Australia in a year than those killed by some crazy at a rest stop in the bush.
It is sad that someone has lost their life but it happens all the time in supermarket car parks, one punch hits in night life spots etc. Less chance out in the bush away from it all. Keep safe everyone and try not to provoke anyone, even if it is unintentional. Keep calm. Daz

Meredith · Senior Member

It says it happened on Wednesday afternoon, so not overnight, and they had probably just stopped for a quick break. Its a very sad event, and deep condolences to his wife and family. But I would still expect you would be generally safer in a free camp than in a big city.

Delta18 · Guru

rockylizard wrote:
Gday...
I certainly feel for the French travellers and hope they are able to recover fully and will continue to travel and enjoy this great country.

Cheers - John

I seriously doubt she will "recover and continue travel" in this case.

oldbloke · Guru

dazz49 wrote:
More people taken by sharks in Australia in a year than those killed by some crazy at a rest stop in the bush.
It is sad that someone has lost their life but it happens all the time in supermarket car parks, one punch hits in night life spots etc. Less chance out in the bush away from it all. Keep safe everyone and try not to provoke anyone, even if it is unintentional. Keep calm. Daz

The reality is that Australia is pretty safe. There are far more road or workplace deaths than murders. I have been camling regularly all my life and almost entire,y just in the bush. Never once hsve I had a problem apart from noisy neighbours.

rockylizard · Guru

Delta18 wrote:
rockylizard wrote:
Gday...
I certainly feel for the French travellers and hope they (yeah ... not both obviously ) are able to recover fully and will continue to travel and enjoy this great country.
Cheers - John
I seriously doubt she will "recover and continue travel" in this case.
Why ? ... obviously traumatised by the fate of her husband ... but one must hope she will recover and travel still, not tomorrow perhaps but ultimately.
Cheers - John

woolman · Guru

Life is about luck. I will continue to free camp on my own. It is much safer than driving on the roads. Let us just get things in perspective. I feel for the wife but there are more drunk drivers on the road than maniacs. Live life . Neil

Santa · Guru

woolman wrote:
Life is about luck. I will continue to free camp on my own. It is much safer than driving on the roads. Let us just get things in perspective. I feel for the wife but there are more drunk drivers on the road than maniacs. Live life . Neil

Well said Neill,tragic, however isolated incident.

lets maintain perspective, occurrences like this are (fortunately) a rarity, and the way the press report them only serves to heighten peoples fears.

My thoughts are with the victims wife.

Australia is a safe country to travel in.

Woody2 · Senior Member

You said it all woolman. Tony Bev could not agree more and sooner the better.

brickies · Guru

Has a leader of this fine country once said don't be alarmed but be aware

Ron-D · Guru

Why do we bother to feed these low life creatures there of absolutely no use and a seriousnesse threat when there released in a few years by our very soft judicial system ....

apparently there's no such thing as a bad person yep in most cases there out again to hurt some poor innocent person,we are a soft left wing country the victim who is usually a nice human being is lost to there family,and the evil creature is usually back on the streets in a few years to do it again.

Mutley · Senior Member

Poor people :( All they were doing was enjoying themselves.

As said above, the guy who committed this terrible crime has forfeit his right to live amongst us IMO.

We had what I call a "Peter Falconio moment" on a very remote road, with next to no traffic, about 110km from anywhere once. It scared me & I don't flap easily. I'm very glad that my wife is an older lady, not a younger woman, as I seriously think that saved us. It happened in broad daylight, but there was nobody there to help if things went bad & no mobile reception.

Bas + Eve · Senior Member

Krist they break into your house and rob you at gun point in broad daylight!! We have free camped for many years very often on our own. So many times we awake in the morning to find 3 or 4 others who came in overnight for company and security. We have NEVER had any trouble.

How does anyone know who or what is inside your van or motorhome? You could have have an M16 or shotgun.

Be careful but don't let your imagination run wild.

Bruce and Bev · Guru

in this afternoons TV news, the police are reporting they have arrested a man found naked at an Aboriginal community about 100 km away - hes from Melbourne and the pic of him suggests he is white skinned.

It was on a fairly main road about 150km north of Alice Springs and the well constructed rest area with what appears to be toilets seems to be well used as an overnight stop

Mad as a snake - time will tell - but what bad luck for this couple and of course the wife of the deceased man.

kiwijims · Guru

I recall many years back when working for the P.M.G. Dept ( now Telstra )

I belonged to what was called a Country Camping Gang, our job was to travel all over the West, doing anything the Post Office shoved at us ,from aerial recovery ( pulling down old Telephone lines ) to installing new phone cables,

We camped in the bush full time, one day while camping near a country road out in the Mid West, some Idiot drove past our camp and fired a gun into the camp.

Luckily he missed everyone, but made a lovely hole in the wall of our Canteen, This scared the hell out of us, and from then on I always kept a rifle in the Caravan, although it never had the Bolt in it, or loaded,

I said to the wife, if you ever see anyone hanging round the camp, or comes to the door while we were out on the job, just point the gun in their face, they won't hang around to see if it is complete or loaded,

Luckily this never eventuated, but I made sure we were protected just in case.

K.J.

macka17 · Guru

Back in those days We mostly had weapons.
My Pump 12 was always behind front door with 2 sand
ocksalt loads.
the rest were solids. (I worked away a lot. 3 kids)
Wife's instructions were. point it. He steps forward. pull trigger at his middle
Biggest target area.
If he steps forward again. Pump out the next shell and hang on tight.
The solids kick, But he won't come any closer.
Don't think. Just shoot. Our kids are behind you.

In van and shooting trips with mates.
One of you always let off a 12g round b4 going to bed.
Lotsa dark skins in those areas. Came round thieving and scrounging.
They never came near. and you had a good nights sleep.
Practicality.

Unfortunately, Nowadays. too many Kill. Kill. Kill movies.
everybody trigger happy.Look at that Lindt Cafe show.
All those guns spraying bullets randomly.

Majority of my rifles were single shot. Lever or 3 shells in mag only.
If you can't drop it with one shot, You shouldn't have fired.
We always called our shots. with a $10 penalty for missing that point

A weapon is a good tool. as long as there's a brain behind it.

When travelling and stopping bush. Stop where others are. OR
always take a leftie. and keep going till nothing visible.
You can't see them. Hopefully. they can't see you.
NEVER less than 1\2 km off road.

toglhot · Senior Member

If it can happen in your home or own back yard, nothing to say it can't happen in a caravan park also.

Tony Bev · Guru

Latest news

Northern Territory Police have charged a 35-year-old Melbourne man with murder over the death of a French tourist in Central Australia.

The accused man, Pande Veleski, has been remanded in custody.

He will appear in the Alice Springs Local Court on Monday.

Rip and Rosie · Guru

macka17 wrote:
............
One of you always let off a 12g round b4 going to bed.
Lotsa dark skins in those areas. Came round thieving and scrounging.
...................

That comment is racist and unacceptable.

The Doo crew · Senior Member

We mostly free camp & have only once or twice felt uncomfortable at an overnight stay & we have an inbuilt gun safe under the bed as we are sporting shooters.

Only once ever got out the 12G near Wyndham at a free camp when a lone traveller turned up on a trail bike acting very strangely.
He spent 20 minutes yelling to someone on his mobile phone (no service in the area) then started stabbing the picnic bench with a hunting knife.

Our motor-home is very secure so i wasn't too worried about him getting in, & if he tried i was very convinced of the outcome. We didn't leave as i had stopped for the night as i wasn't feeling well & didnt want to travel any further due to cattle on the road.

He left the camp about 10.30 so we had a good nights sleep after all.

If it feels wrong, move on has always been our mantra, nothing better than that gut feeling to keep you safe.

Bryan · Guru

Rip and Rosie wrote:
macka17 wrote:
............
One of you always let off a 12g round b4 going to bed.
Lotsa dark skins in those areas. Came round thieving and scrounging.
...................

That comment is racist and unacceptable.

If Macka said WHITE SKIN would that be racist too?

This racist thing confuses me no end and I'm just trying to figure it out.

rrakausk · Veteran Member

racist is a non word used by social justice warriors to make you feel bad and shut down legitimate debate. ignore it and people who use it because they only have a one eyed view of the world and think everyone should think the way they do.

ignore it and it will go away...

Phillipn · Guru

Rip and Rosie wrote:
macka17 wrote:
............
One of you always let off a 12g round b4 going to bed.
Lotsa dark skins in those areas. Came round thieving and scrounging.
...................

That comment is racist and unacceptable.

But their is a lot of truth in his statement.

Santa · Guru

rrakausk wrote:
racist is a non word used by social justice warriors to make you feel bad and shut down legitimate debate.

Not so according to the Oxford dictionary.

I agree with Rip/Rosie, the comment is racist., no place for comments like that on this forum.

https://en.oxforddictionaries.com/definition/racism

racism

noun

1[mass noun] Prejudice, discrimination, or antagonism directed against someone of a different race based on the belief that one's own race is superior: