There are many sites with good advice on the web. Look at the list of Personal Bushwalking Pages on my links page. Here I will try to add ADDITIONAL information rather than repeat the good information already on the other bushwalking web pages.
Land management authorities seem to be pushing for all walkers to carry mobile phones. This implies that these are reliable devices which can get assistance whenever needed. I disagree with this push to carry mobiles as you will see they generally do not work in our bushland areas.
Extensive advertising suggests that these devices work everywhere. They claim to service 90 or 95% of the population but reading the fine print shows that they only cover 3% of the AREA of Australia. Basically the service covers all the large cities, some small country towns, some ski resorts and some of the major highways. If you are really lucky you might be walking in that 3% service area but more likely you will be in the remaining 97% that has no coverage. Sometimes you can get lucky and get a link at times from some mountain tops where you have a direct line of sight with a mobile tower.
From near Mt Kosciusko we once got a call out that was linked through Mt Hotham in Victoria - certainly not the link we expected as we could see the nearby town of Jindabyne. On the Western Arthurs in Tasmania, we could see the tower on Mt Wellington all week but kept losing the signal (it kept dropping out) and could not get a call to work. Others have reported being able to call out from the Arthurs sometimes. My advice is, do not rely on a mobile phone, sure you might be lucky, but most of the time it will just add to your pack weight.
The satellite phone system, which offers 100% coverage, does change this situation. However, at present this is very expensive both for the phones and calls, the phones are large and heavy and is simply not practical for most walkers.
While it is always suggested to walk in groups of 4 or more, there are times that this is not practical. Other walkers might have to withdraw from a trip at the last minute or maybe you cannot find others who want to visit the same place or maybe you just prefer solo walking. The reason for four being the suggested minimum is that when an accident or serious illness occurs, one person can be left to look after the patient while the other two walk out to seek help.
I can see small groups becoming more common as many parks now insist on walkers booking ahead for many months (maybe it will become years like some places in the USA). While some places allow a maximum of 6 in a group, I have seen one proposal for a maximum group size of four. To be required to book ahead with such a small group will encourage groups less than four. Cancellations for group members are inevitable (health, family etc) and who is going to cancel the trip entirely if you have to wait for another year to get a fresh booking. I am sure that most walkers are like myself and they will go anyway even though there are less than four.
While disasters do not happen often, they do occur and I have been on 2 trips where an ankle was broken. I have also had two trips where my cached food supply was stolen. If you find you are walking in a group smaller than four, you can improve your chances of survival when a disaster happens by carrying an EPIRB (Emergency Personal International Response Beacon). These weigh around 250g and basically send out a signal that is picked up by a satellite. If such a signal is found then the authorities start a rescue (often its send out a helicopter). These devices are not cheap (several hundred dollars), but do increase safety for small groups by a very large factor. It is possible to hire one for special trips (in Melbourne, Bogong has one for hire) and you can also hire them from National Parks in Tasmania. There are heavy fines for unnecessary use - in practice this is no problem as they are very difficult to set off accidentally as you have to break seals and erect the aerial. If you walk solo then you should seriously consider one of these devices.
How well do they work. Some gave an opinion that they were not very accurate as some searches have gone to the wrong area. When I checked cases where this happened and records were available it seemed that the aerial was not put up correctly or the device could not see clear sky (they dont work well under trees or in scrub). It seems that if the aerial is erected correctly (it's pretty simple - extend it and point vertically upwards towards the sky) then most times they are accurate most of the time at sending a search team to the vicinity of your location. You will still need to make yourself visible as they only provide a rough position within several km. While no device can be guaranteed to always work, they improve your chances of surviving a disaster. These devices work globally and are not restricted to any one country.
While I encourage use of these devices in remote places, I do not want it to be compulsory to have one. They are just another tool and it should be up to individuals to decide if they want to carry one. One major fault with the devices are that once you start it up you have no way of knowing if it is working properly or whether the signal has been picked up. In other words you could sit for several days before discovering your distress signal has not worked - use it only as a LAST resort.
There has been considerable debate about these instruments
and in fact there is a newsgroup with a lot of interesting facts
and information. The newsgroups provide a lot more detailed information
than this short summary provides. A GPS basically uses signals from a
series of satellites to calculate a ground position. The calculation is
fairly complex and the quality of the result depends on the number of
satellites seen and also their relative positions. Many seem to believe
a GPS is always highly accurate and while they often are we have also
seen a number of misleading readings when in gorges and under trees.
Practically, a GPS does not replace navigational skills and is just another tool like a compass is. Like all tools it has its uses and limitations. While there has been much debate about the accuracy of the GPS instruments, many overlook the problem of the accuracy of maps. Maps are a flat representation of a curved surface and there will always be some errors introduced when creating a map. Most maps used by bushwalkers are designed to be accurate when using a compass so directions are correct but not necessarily distances. Generally the corners are less accurate than the map centre.
As an example, on a search for a lost bushwalker, the Victoria police used a GPS unit in a helicopter. The Federation had members on the ground at the same time using compass and map. The GPS unit consistently showed the helicopters location to be above a ridge while it was indeed above a valley, about 200m away from the ridge. The helicopter had a clear view of all satellites. As pin point navigation was needed to ensure that every piece of bush had been searched, the GPS was little better than conventional methods (the map was probably the fault, not the GPS) and compasses were used to plot the areas searched.
We personally use a GPS for checking maps - they often work under dry trees providing you wait a while (sometimes up to 15 minutes) but under wet trees we have found they basically dont work. One advantage of a GPS has been it works correctly in areas of magnetic anomoly (these are rare but do exist). Some leave their GPS turned on all the time and while this has the advantage that it takes less time to get position fixes under trees, it also discharges batteries. To use a new set of batteries every 2 days is impractical on long walks hence why we use it for spot readings and as a backup navigation aid. The GPS can also fail due to mechanical, electrical or satellite problems. In conclusion, the GPS is a good tool but you should still carry a compass and a map.
Summing up, the map is essential, the compass is essential, the GPS is optional and does not replace the other two.
While huge areas of Australia have very low rainfall and are either deserts or close to being desert, there are some very wet regions as well. These areas of high rainfall are close to the coast and many of these areas are also the popular walking regions. For most parts of Australia, very light 3 season tents do the job very well. Hoop designs with one or two poles are ideal and weight is about 1.9 to 2.5 kg.
There are some exceptions. If you are going snow camping in the Alps in Victoria and New South Wales then a 4 season tent is recommended. Our snow conditions are marginal and the snow is often wet and sticks to tents and trees. Tents that are strong enough to hold thick snow on top are ideal. If walking the higher ranges of Tasmania at any season then a 4 season tent is recommended. This is because Tasmania is subjected to extreme weather conditions with heavy rain, very strong winds and snowfalls occurring in every season.
While Australians call the tents 4 season, in many other countries these would be regarded as Expedition Tents designed for places like the Himalayas. The most popular designs are 3 or 4 pole tunnel or dome tents weighing 3 to 4 kg. While such tents might seem extreme, the range traverses in Tasmania all take 1 to 2 weeks and there are no short cuts to roads or civilization. Severe damage to a tent in the middle of a trip could be fatal in cold wet conditions and using the best minimises risk. The best tents cost from around A$500 to A$1000 in Australia.
For a special single trip to a place, it is sometimes possible to hire a tent. Many places hire tents, the cheap stores hire the same tents they sell - cheap models. In places with mild weather these are fine. In the southern states where the weather is more extreme, I recommend hiring a tent from one of the bushwalking shops. Sure, they are more expensive to hire, but then the tents cost more to purchase so that’s to be expected. When hiring a tent, most shops expect a hefty deposit which is refunded upon return - instead of cash a signed credit card slip is often used and is torn up on return.