News Flash: One of my professional, highly educated colleagues has just announced, total surprise, that he is: quitting his high-tech job in US, just closed on 1000 acres in completely remote area of Northern Australia, and will be COMPLETELY isolated and self-sufficient. Off the grid! He's cashed out his 401K, just sold his house here in an overdeveloped US metro region, and he's GONE. Says the high-tech world is OVER. Beat THAT for survivalism.

Claims he will live to be 150 years old. People here think he's nuts.

-BH

-- Blue Himalayan (bh@k2y.com), December 10, 1998

Answers

Hey, maybe that's Infomagic!!

-- me too (canIgo@there.com), December 10, 1998.

Wow. No computers. Just snakes, dust storms, scorpions, brush fires, crocodiles.

Of course, if things DON'T go Milne, he could always come back...with one hell of a tan.

-- Ben Dair (not@aol.com), December 10, 1998.

Sort'a lonely.

-- Diane J. Squire (sacredspaces@yahoo.com), December 10, 1998.

Wow. Maybe it is true that the techno-proficient see the coming problems and hightail it, leaving fewer to fix code. Code Blue.

xxxxxxx xxxxxxx xxxxxxx

-- Leska (allaha@earthlink.net), December 10, 1998.

If you think that is a good place, think again. Crocodiles 30 ft long that can run up to 30 mph for short distances, and can swallow a whole person in one gulp. Think I am kidding ? read a book titled "Greater Nowheres" about some guys looking for adventure. Written about 10 years ago, in the library, I don't remember the author (one of the adventurers). With photo of man in croc's stomach!

-- curtis schalek (schale1@ibm.net), December 10, 1998.

Lonely? Did he say he was going stag?

Crocodiles? It could be worse. But stay out of the swamps anyway.

-- Tom Carey (tomcarey@mindspring.com), December 10, 1998.

As an Aussie, I can tell you how wise this guy really is.

First: Crocodile Dundee territory does exist. In the far north. In the extreme north. Most of Northern Australia -or Western, or Central, or even Mid-Eastern- is desert. That man's 1000 acres probably cost him about 10,000 dollars. If the bloody Aborigine scum don't take him to court and get it for themselves. (Sorry, but I have a deep disgust for people who try to grab others' land without any validated reason. "The distant ancestors of the person who sold it to the guy who sold it to the guy who sold it to the guy who sold it to the guy who sold it to you, displaced some people who may or may not have been my distant ancestors", does not count).

It's not desert, not quite. The outback, it's called.. one of the terms people think of when they think of Australia. I've been out there, once. Most Australians, ninety percent, never have. It's flat; very, very flat. The foliage is tough grass, in clumps. And mulga trees, which are useless for anything but shade and firewood. The grass is the favourite food of kangaroos and buffalo. Also of sheep. The buffalo are a major pest. Their distant ancestors escaped from or were released by some settlers. Now they number in their tens of thousands. The kangaroos are an even more major pest. They number into the high millions, and they jump fences. The sheep that are the main industry out there, are not considered a pest. They are considered useful. Too bad they compete with fence-jumping kangaroos for food. In my opinion, they shouldn't have to. Kangaroo meat is far better-tasting than sheep.

There are no crocodiles in the outback. Too bad; I've also eaten croc meat and it is good. Crocodiles may be able to chase sheep, but kangaroos can hop at sixty miles an hour when they want to. And there's not a lot of water.

Not many snakes, either. They don't seem to like eating grass, sheep or kangaroos.

Brushfires are different. Actually, they're called bushfires. If there's a lot of bush (forest) in your area, then there's a reason to worry. Otherwise, not.

This guy, in my opinion, is smart. He's bought cheap land. There's a ready supply of tasty meat (kangaroos). No thug is going to come close, and if they did..about one in a hundred Australians own guns, and that 1% are mainly cops or security guards. They're legally forbidden unless you can show a very good reason why you have to have one; self defence is not considered such a reason.

Of course, if he's on his own out there.. it would not be a good thing. He should bring a couple of friends, preferably someone skilled at first aid. It can quite easily be hundreds of miles to the next "station". There are stations out there that are bigger than medium-sized European countries. Even now, if your car breaks down out there, you are in deep trouble. In a y2k situation (nowadays there is a government plane that flies over the main roads, taking about two weeks per sweep) then if that happens you will die.

--Leo

-- Leo (leo_champion@hotmail.com), December 10, 1998.

Yes, the way Leo has written it is just how this guy described it to me, price range and all, at our "farewell lunch".

-BH

-- blue himalayan (bh@k2.y), December 10, 1998.

Don't know about crocs, but gator tails is good eatin'.

MVI

-- MVI (vtoc@aol.com), December 10, 1998.

MVI -

I wonder what they say about how our 'tails' taste?

Mike ==================================================================

-- Michael Taylor (mtdesign3@aol.com), December 11, 1998.

No-one can afford acres of prime land anymore except for the ultra-rich, well certainly in Europe.

Most of Australia is uninhabitable I suppose. You could have your own beach though.

-- Richard Dale (rdale@figroup.co.uk), December 11, 1998.