The instinct when lost is to keep walking. It is the wrong instinct: every kilometre you cover multiplies the area searchers have to cover. Here is what the first hour should actually look l…

Every purification method has a specific gap, and the gaps are what get people sick. Here is which method beats which pathogen, the boiling time that is actually required, and where the drin…

Severe bleeding is the emergency a bystander is most likely to be able to fix, and most people get the mechanics wrong. Here is the Australian guideline: pressure over the point, one or two…

People die going back for pets. The fix is boring: carriers out before the day, a written grab list, and somewhere to go that accepts animals — decided in October, not on the road.

Every bushfire guide assumes you own the house. If you rent, most of the advice is unusable — and the honest plan is narrower, cheaper and almost entirely about leaving early.

Most houses lost to bushfire are never touched by flames. They are ignited by embers landing in gutters, vents and door gaps, often hours before or after the front. Here is the ranked list o…

There are only two survivable bushfire plans, and most people have neither. Here is the trigger table that makes the decision before the day, and what Black Saturday actually showed about wa…

Most go-bag lists are a shopping list with no order and no weight. This one is packed by the hour you would need each item, costed three ways, and includes the clothing rule that decides how…

Most people’s blackout plan is a torch and hope. The real decisions are a food-safety clock most people don’t know, a medication problem nobody plans for, and the fact that EFTPOS dies with…

Heat kills more Australians than any other natural hazard, and it kills them indoors, alone, over 60. Here is what the coronial record shows, how to cool a house without aircon, and the chec…

There is a point in every exam block where another hour of study costs you marks instead of earning them. Here is how to find it, the sleep and caffeine numbers that decide it, and what to d…

First year fails in predictable places on a predictable timetable: the census date, week six, the first real assignment. Knowing the dates in advance is worth more than any study technique.