r/OZPreppers

On 20 June 2026, CSIRO confirmed Australia's first-ever detection of H5N1 (clade 2.3.4.4b) — the serious global strain, not the milder H7 strain behind past Australian outbreaks. Until then, Australia was among the last places on Earth free of it. (DAFF)

Current scale (4 July 2026): 5 confirmed cases — 4 in WA, 1 in SA, all in wild seabirds. No detections in poultry, mammals, or humans yet. (DAFF)

Wild animals: Overseas, this strain has wiped out over half of some seabird colonies (Sandwich Terns, Peruvian Pelicans) in single outbreaks. Separately, it's already caused serious seal and penguin deaths at Australia's Heard Island/McDonald Islands territory. (Australian Antarctic Program)

Poultry: Not yet detected on any farm, but a vet working on H5N1 since 2004 estimates outbreaks in Australian poultry are plausible within 4–5 weeks. Mortality near 100% is likely on affected commercial farms; mass culling is the standard response, no vaccination currently. Australia's 2024 H7 outbreak (a milder strain) still cost 1.8 million birds. (The Conversation)`

Pets: Cats are far more vulnerable than dogs — US data shows fatalities from eating contaminated milk or dead birds. Worth watching what your cat scavenges outdoors. (The Conversation)

People: Risk is currently low. One 2024 Australian case was acquired overseas (different subtype) and fully recovered — no local spread. Person-to-person transmission remains rare globally. (ACDC)

Economics/food chain: Globally, over 2,000 outbreaks across 64 countries have cost 140+ million poultry since 2025. NSW DPI states plainly that a widespread Australian poultry outbreak would mean shortages, higher egg/poultry prices, and disrupted export markets. (NSW DPI)

It's a notifiable disease — report sick/dead birds to the Emergency Animal Disease Hotline, 1800 675 888, don't touch them.

Anyone seeing biosecurity activity on the ground?`

Happy Friday everyone! - I'd like to give a shout out to a small family run survival kit company based on the Central Coast in NSW. When I came to them for advice in trying to setup an Australian focused sub Reddit they were more than happy to help. Setting me up with some community contacts to talk to, reviewing my pages and giving me new topic ideas.

When I wanted to use their domain to develop some tools they were more than happy to help. When I wanted to develop an app they stumped up some much needed funds to get it off the ground. After a year we now have almost 1500 members and growing each day.

They are pretty specialised and sell long shelf life food and water as well as what they call "survival aid kits."

Anyway, check them out and even if you are not in the market but like what they are about a shout out in a forum or Facebook group, a like on their Facebook page would go a long way.

You can see them at : https://survivalstorehouse.com/

Thanks everyone and looking forward to a great weekend!

I Went through and rewrote our wiki page on pulling usable power out of things most people already have lying around. Covers hand-crank torches modified with a step-up converter, small motors run backwards as makeshift generators, thermoelectric plates that turn a campfire into a USB charger, and salvaging cells out of dead laptops, vapes, and old power tool batteries (with the actual fire-risk rules for doing that safely).

Also covered coin and lemon batteries, mostly to be upfront that they're a fun demo and not something you'd actually rely on — the voltage is real but the current's basically nothing.

Honestly convinced that's not the full picture. This feels like exactly the kind of thing someone with an electronics or ham radio background has a better answer for than we do. Bike-powered setups, salvaged inverter tricks, anything using stuff from a servo or an old UPS we didn't think of — genuinely want to know what we're missing.

Here's what we've got so far: https://wiki.survivalstorehouse.com/wiki/Power_from_Everyday_Items

What would you add, or what's wrong with what's there?

The things I spend money on are things I know I'll use anyway, provided life continues as normal. Two years of toilet paper, soap, shampoo, rice, and the basics aren't wasted if nothing happens — I'll use them eventually. And if something does happen, they're one less thing to worry about. When COVID hit, having a decent pantry and supply of household basics (yes - toilet paper) felt less like prepping and more like just having been organised.

I also try to reduce things to fundamentals — clean water being the obvious one. You know you're going to need it.

The debate I find interesting is where people draw the line on collapse scenarios. I have a mate who is convinced that a complete societal breakdown is not just possible but likely, and he prepares accordingly. My thinking is that even in a genuinely bad situation, some food will be available — more expensive, harder to get, but available. Because there will always be someone with five acres growing something to sell. Farmers don't stop farming.

That framing shapes how I prioritise. I try to have a reason for every dollar I spend on preparedness. Practical, useable, rotating — not stockpiling for a scenario I genuinely don't think is coming.

Curious where others land on this. What's your underlying theory of prepping — and has it changed over time?

Ordinary air temperature — the number on your weather app — measures how hot the air is. It doesn't measure how effectively your body can actually shed that heat.

Your body cools itself primarily through sweat evaporating off your skin. In dry air that works well. In humid air it slows down because the air is already saturated with moisture. At high enough humidity, evaporation almost stops entirely — which means your body has almost no way to regulate its core temperature, regardless of how much water you drink or how much shade you're in.

There's a specific number where this becomes genuinely dangerous. Weird to think that a humid 32°C day in Cairns can be more physiologically dangerous than a dry 40°C day in outback NSW — but that's what the science says.

Had to look that one up before I believed it. What's the preparedness or survival fact you had to look up because it seemed too strange to be true?

BoM's already issued Flood Watch No. 2 for Victoria as of yesterday (29 June): minor to moderate flooding likely from today, Tuesday 30 June, with isolated major flooding possible. Catchments covered: Upper Murray, Mitta Mitta, Kiewa River, Broken River, Seven and Castle Creeks, and parts of the Goulburn. A second front moves through Wednesday 1 – Thursday 2 July, bringing strong winds and a cold change behind it — first snow of the season for the Victorian and NSW alps.

Forecasts have southern NSW, central/north-east Victoria and northern Tasmania looking at up to 100mm this week, isolated spots possibly 200mm. Wider falls of 30-60mm are expected across QLD and SA too.

The number that matters more than the rainfall total: the ground's already wet from previous falls. That's what actually drives flash flooding, not just how many mm land in a week. Most people never check whether their property is actually flood-prone until water's in the driveway.

Worth knowing: Every state has a free flood mapping tool — VicPlan for Victoria, NSW SES Flood Data Portal, QLD FloodCheck, and equivalents in SA, WA, Tas. Search your address and look for flood overlays.

"1-in-100-year flood" doesn't mean once a century. It's a 1% chance every single year — over a 30-year mortgage that's roughly a 1-in-4 chance of copping one.

Outside the mapped flood zone doesn't mean safe. It means it hasn't been modelled for that scenario, and those models are based on historical rainfall that's becoming less reliable as extreme rain events get more frequent.

If you rent, nobody's obligated to tell you any of this unless the property's actually flooded before. You have to check it yourself.

Wrote up exactly how to check, state by state, in the wiki here:

https://wiki.survivalstorehouse.com/wiki/How_to_Check_your_Flood_Risk_in_Australia

Anyone across NSW, Vic, Tas, QLD or SA watching this one closely?

How many people here can look at the sky and make a reasonable call on what's coming in the next 12 hours? - Not a BOM forecast. Not an app. Just what's above you.

Before instruments existed this was a survival skill. Farmers, sailors, and anyone travelling remote country learned to read cloud texture, smoke behaviour, animal movement, and sky colour because getting it wrong had real consequences.

A few that surprised me when I looked into them properly: smoke that spreads low instead of rising straight up is one of the most reliable pressure-drop indicators you can observe with no equipment. A halo around the moon means high thin cloud above you — frontal weather typically within 24 hours. Seabirds moving inland aren't lost — they're reading pressure changes before we can feel them.

What signals do people actually use in the field? And is there someone who always calls the weather right before the forecast does? What's your tell?

On 16 June, the Bureau of Meteorology confirmed El Niño conditions have developed in the Pacific. Current modelling puts a 63% chance on this becoming a "very strong" event — in the same category as 1982–83, 1997–98, and 2015–16.

For Australia that means a higher probability of:

• Drier than average spring and summer across eastern and southern states
• More frequent and severe heatwaves
• A longer, more dangerous bushfire season
• Below average grain harvests pushing food prices higher
• Water restrictions in affected cities if catchments stay dry

The practical window is now. Four months before this peaks is a reasonable preparation lead time if you use it:

Water — if you're on tank water in a drought-prone area, winter is the last reliable fill opportunity before spring. Check now.

Bushfire prep — the standard advice is September 1. A strong El Niño year is not the year to leave it until October.

Food price buffer — El Niño years historically hit eastern Australian grain harvests. A three-month pantry doesn't care what grain prices do.

Heatwave plan — more people die in El Niño heatwaves than in the fires. Know your cooling options if your household cooling fails.

We've put a full breakdown on the wiki — what El Niño actually is, the Australian regional impacts, the historical comparison events, and how to read the BOM ENSO outlook yourself:

https://wiki.survivalstorehouse.com/wiki/El_Ni%C3%B1o_and_Australia

Where in Australia are you and are you taking this into account heading into winter? Keen to hear from people in NSW, QLD and SA especially.