Evacuation planning for remote homesteads

March 28, 2025

The two things that make a rural block worth living on are space and distance, and those are exactly the two things that make it hard to leave in a hurry. A fire doesn't care that the front gate is padlocked, or that the dog has gone to ground under the shed, or that the only track out runs through the paddock that's already alight. So the real work of getting out safely isn't done on the day. It's done months beforehand, on an ordinary afternoon when nothing at all is happening.

Write the plan down, because nobody thinks clearly in smoke

A plan you're carrying around in your head is not a plan, it's an intention, and it evaporates the moment the sky goes orange. Sit down with whoever else lives on the place and work through it out loud. Where do you go, which way do you drive, what happens if that road is closed, who grabs the animals, who grabs the kids, and where do you meet if you end up in two separate vehicles. Write the answers on a piece of paper and stick it inside a cupboard door where everybody can see it.

Decide your trigger too, which is the single hardest part. Leaving early is the only plan that reliably works, and early means before there's anything to look at. If you're waiting to see flames before you decide, you've left it to a moment when the decision gets made for you.

The go bag

One bag per person, packed once, kept by the door you actually use rather than buried in the shed behind a broken pushbike.

Water, more than you think, and something to eat that doesn't need cooking.
Copies of the documents you'd hate to lose, including insurance, land titles and the animals' vaccination records.
A torch each, plus spare batteries. A head torch is better again because it leaves both hands free.
Any prescription medication, in the original packaging so the dose is on it.
Long sleeves, long trousers, boots and a hat made of natural fibre. Synthetics melt.
Phone chargers and a bank of cash, because eftpos goes down with the power.

The animals are the part that takes the longest

Every plan I've seen come unstuck comes unstuck on animals, because they're the one element that gets an opinion about being loaded into a vehicle. Have the carriers, leads and halters somewhere you can reach in the dark, not stacked at the back of a shed. Work out in advance where stock are going, because a paddock that's been grazed hard and has water in it is often safer than a float on a road you don't control. And a dog that bolts when it's stressed needs to be on a lead before the panic starts, not after.

Gas, fuel and anything else that burns

If you've got LPG on the place, know where the valve is and turn it off on your way out. Bottles want to be standing upright on a firm base, clear of long grass, with the pressure relief valve pointing away from the house rather than at it. That's worth checking on a quiet day, because moving a 45kg bottle is not a job you want to discover halfway through an evacuation.

Petrol and diesel belong away from the house in proper cans with the lids done up, not in an open shed with a pile of rags next to them. Don't stack fuel in the cabin of the car you're planning to leave in either.

Gates you can open with one hand

This is the small thing that costs people the most time. A chain and a padlock is fine for security and it's terrible under pressure, especially in the dark with gloves on and a vehicle idling behind you. A D-pattern latch opens in a second. If you need the gate locked, at least keep the key on the same ring as the car key rather than on a nail in the shed, and make sure everybody who might be the one leaving knows where it lives.

Have a look at the track out while you're at it. Emergency vehicles are wide and tall, and a branch you duck under in the ute is a branch that stops a truck.

Talking to each other when the towers drop

Mobile coverage is the first thing to go and it goes quietly, so don't build the plan on it. A battery powered radio will still give you warnings and road closures when nothing else will, and it costs almost nothing to keep one in the cupboard with a fresh set of batteries taped to the side of it. If there are UHF handhelds on the property already, agree on a channel now so you're not sorting that out later.

Then run it once

Walk the whole thing through one afternoon with everybody who lives there. Open the gate, load the dog, find the documents, time yourselves. You'll find something wrong, and finding it in October beats finding it in February.

Planning like this isn't being dramatic about it. It's the same instinct that has you keeping a spare fan belt in the ute. You're not expecting to need it, you just don't want the day you need it to be the day you go looking for it.

Shop related products

Hard Unit aluminium torch, medium, USB rechargeable. Rechargeable, so there's no flat battery surprise in the bag.
Hard Unit head lamp, red and white LED. Both hands free, which matters when you're loading animals.
Autoking 13 LED marine torch. Comes with its own battery and handles wet weather.
Gate latch, D-pattern dual opening, galvanised. Opens from either side with one hand.

Did you know we also stock first aid kits, 10 and 20 litre fuel cans and AA batteries in the shop. They aren't all listed online, so give us a ring on (08) 8536 4333 to check what's on the shelf.

If you run gas on the property, our LPG and industrial gas page covers bottle sizes, refills and delivery.