Dave Darmody, owner and lead trainer of Australian Offroad Academy shares why being a brownie is better than a greenie and how we can minimise our impact on the environment when RVing.
It’s not hard being green(ish).
Or brown. A great friend of mine, 4WDer, educator, and hands-on lover of the natural world once rejected the term ‘greenie’, referring to themselves as a ‘brownie’ because they cared for the environment by actually getting their hands dirty.
I loved that and it stuck with me.
We are all on this planet for a limited time. Thankfully, if you’re reading this, it’s likely that you partake in enjoying the best bit of the best part of the planet. Outside…in Australia.
There are a number of ways that we travellers can ensure that we ‘leave no trace’ or even leave a location better than how it was found.
Here are just a few:
‘Road closed’ is a direction, not a challenge
Taking your 4WD and trailer past a road-closed sign, even if the skies are blue, really is the height of entitlement. You’re either going to A) make it through doing untold damage to the track or B) get stuck and likely need someone to come and get you.
It’s all too easy for travellers (and we see it all the time) to consider themselves to be on some kind of mission and to complain about sections of remote highway being sealed, or temporary closed following rain. But as a traveller, you don’t need to live there. Local people rely on these roads 52 weeks a year and their needs outweigh your once-in-a-lifetime adventure.
If you carried it in, you can carry it out
In a perfect world, we’d see the main street of every small town bustling with travellers each day as they top up their tanks, visit the local butcher, and deal with their waste. No one minds if you leave your money behind as well as your empties and wrappers.
Rather than bemoaning the lack of rubbish collection and bins in national parks and remote locations, plan for the need to have to remove your rubbish when you buy it. Maybe one of those spare wheel garbage bags will suit your needs. Maybe, if it’s stinky, you need a zip lock bag and newspaper to wrap it up and store in the fridge or freezer until you next find services.
National Park staff have enough to do in keeping our wild places open and safe. They shouldn’t need to be on rubbish duty picking up after lazy and/or unprepared travellers.
Give your gear a wash before it gets dirty
We have a weed problem, we really do. It’s so sad to see our native flora choked out by invasive weeds. Now, there are loads of ways that weeds find their way into places they don’t belong (the definition of a weed really) and not all of them are due to travellers. However, across the nation, we are definitely a major contributor.
Consider giving your car and trailer a proper washdown. Anything will help really but have a look online for some good guides to how the pros do it if they are completing a ‘recognised’ weed washdown. Weeds and weed seeds can hide everywhere and anything we can do to protect the biodiversity of the places we love to visit simply has to be a positive for nature.
Keep the wildlife…wild
Making food available to critters isn’t really helping them. Purposefully feeding animals, or leaving food for them, or just failing to deal with your scraps correctly, leads the critters to look upon humans and campgrounds as their meal ticket. Potentially becoming reliant on the free, easy and high caloric content of ‘people food’ rather than finding their tucker in a more natural way.
Avoid the temptation to lure wildlife closer with food and be vigilant around dealing with your scraps. Place them in a secure container or location until you can dispose of them appropriately.
And shhhhh
Yes, carrying a generator as a backup power source can be a lifesaver. Literally. I know folks who absolutely must have a reliable power source for medical devices. But that’s the thing, as a backup. No one wants the constant drone of a generator all day and into the night. But likewise, no one will be too upset with you needing to run your genny to top up your storage if there’s been a few days of gloomy weather.
Try to plan your power needs to be silent and renewable, either through solar, wind or just by the nature of your travelling if you don’t usually stop for more than a couple of days.
We are just so lucky to live where we do and to be afforded the opportunity to travel with so few restrictions. Let’s all step up our game in ensuring that our natural places stay natural. Maybe even pick up someone else’s trash if you find it. You’re not going to get a medal or parade but you’ll know you did the right thing.
