The Two-Hour Preparedness Sprint
Roughly half of Australian households own no emergency supplies, and only about 39% have any plan. If you are in that group, almost everything written about preparedness is addressed to someone else — someone with a shed, a budget and a weekend.
So this is the opposite. Two hours, about $100, done in strict order of value, so that if you stop after twenty minutes you have still captured the single most useful thing.
No shopping list of forty items. No judgement about not having done it already.
The 10-minute version
- The first twenty minutes are free and worth the most. Two triggers written down, and photographs of everything you own.
- The first $50 is water, light and a radio. Those three cover no water, no dark, no information.
- Stop wherever you run out of time. Each block below is independently useful.
Block 1 — Twenty minutes, $0: the decisions
This is the highest-value block on the page, and the one people skip because it does not feel like doing anything.
Look up your actual hazard. Your state fire, flood or emergency service publishes maps. Five minutes tells you whether you are planning for fire, flood, cyclone, heat or blackout — and prevents you preparing for all of them, which is how people prepare for none.
Write two triggers on one page. A “get ready” trigger and a “go now” trigger, each tied to something you can observe: a fire danger rating, a flood warning class, a cyclone watch. Put it on the fridge.
Deciding late is the most consistent cause of harm in Australian disasters. This page fixes it, for free, in ten minutes. Detail: Writing a Family Emergency Plan.
Block 2 — Twenty minutes, $0: the evidence
Photograph every room. Wide shot from each corner, then open every cupboard and wardrobe and photograph inside. Then film a slow walk-through, narrating what things are.
This is what settles an insurance claim. After an event you cannot generate evidence of what you owned, and insurers pay on evidence. Ten minutes now is worth thousands later.
Scan the documents. Licence, passport, insurance policies with the claims number, prescriptions, birth certificates, the lease or title. Photograph them if scanning is a hassle. Put them in cloud storage.
Block 3 — Twenty minutes, $0: the water and the shutoffs
Fill things. Whatever containers you have. If a warning is ever issued, fill the bath too.
Find your water stop tap, your gas shutoff if you have gas, and your switchboard main switch. Turn the stop tap off and on so you know it moves. Tell everyone else in the house where they are.
A burst flexible hose under a sink empties into your house at mains pressure until somebody stops it — and those braided hoses are a leading cause of household water damage. Knowing where the tap is converts a catastrophe into a mop.
Block 4 — Thirty minutes, about $50: the shop
One supermarket, plus one of Bunnings or Kmart. Prices are indicative and will drift.
| Item | Price | Why it is in the first fifty dollars |
|---|---|---|
| Water, 20–36 L | $10–18 | 3 L per person per day, three days |
| Headlamp | $10–20 | Hands free. A torch is useless while carrying a child |
| Battery AM/FM radio | $15–20 | ABC Local Radio is the emergency broadcaster. Nothing replaces it |
| Bulk batteries, one size | $10 | Standardise so one spare pack covers everything |
Before you buy, spend five minutes checking what you already own — most households have torches, batteries, blankets and containers already. The radio is nearly always the genuine gap.
Block 5 — Thirty minutes, about $50 more: the rest of the basics
| Item | Price | Why |
|---|---|---|
| Power bank, 10,000 mAh | $25–35 | Two to three phone charges |
| Fridge thermometer | $5–8 | Settles every “is this still okay?” question in a blackout |
| P2 masks | $10–15 | Smoke, and cleanup afterwards |
| Manual can opener | $5 | Yours is probably electric |
| $200 cash, small notes | — | EFTPOS and ATMs stop with the power |
Then add, from the supermarket, three days of food that needs no cooking: tinned protein, muesli bars, nuts, crackers, long-life milk.
What this two hours does not cover
Being honest about the gaps, so you know what is still open.
- A week of prescription medication — the most important remaining item, and it needs a pharmacy visit or a script.
- A go-bag, if you live near bush. See Bushfire Go-Bag.
- Anyone power-dependent. A CPAP or oxygen concentrator needs its own solution and a life support registration with your energy retailer. That is more urgent than everything above.
- Pets — food, carrier, lead, medication.
- Bulk water storage beyond three days.
What actually goes wrong
People buy before they decide. Objects without triggers is the expensive way round.
The kit gets scattered. Four cupboards is not a kit. One box, one location, near an exit.
The radio is skipped because the phone seems to cover it. The phone is a torch with a two-hour battery.
Nothing gets photographed, and the insurance claim becomes an argument about what existed.
Everything takes a different battery.
It never gets checked again. Two calendar reminders — six-monthly rotation, twelve-monthly full check — take thirty seconds to set.
Thresholds
| Situation | The rule |
|---|---|
| Before spending anything | Twenty minutes on triggers and photographs |
| Water | 3 L per person per day, three days minimum |
| Storage | One box, one location, reachable in the dark |
| Batteries | One size across every device |
| Cash | $200 in small notes, set aside and left alone |
| After any use of the kit | Restock immediately |
| Review | Six-monthly rotation, twelve-monthly full unpack |
The two-hour sprint, in order
Copy this list. Tick as you go. Stop whenever you like.
- ☐ Look up your hazard on your state service’s site (5 min)
- ☐ Write two triggers, put them on the fridge (10 min)
- ☐ Photograph every room, cupboards open (10 min)
- ☐ Film a narrated walk-through (5 min)
- ☐ Scan or photograph the document set to cloud storage (10 min)
- ☐ Find and test the water stop tap, gas shutoff, switchboard (10 min)
- ☐ Audit what you already own against the shopping list (5 min)
- ☐ Shop: water, headlamp, radio, batteries (30 min)
- ☐ Shop: power bank, thermometer, masks, can opener, no-cook food (20 min)
- ☐ Put $200 cash aside (5 min)
- ☐ Pack it into one box, inventory on the lid, near an exit (5 min)
- ☐ Set two calendar reminders (1 min)
- ☐ Tell everyone in the house where all of it is (5 min)
That last line is not optional. A kit and a plan that one person knows about is worth a fraction of one everybody knows about.
Frequently asked questions
What is the most important thing to do first?
Write two triggers for the hazard you actually face and put them on the fridge. It costs nothing, takes ten minutes, and it fixes the failure — deciding too late — that causes most harm in Australian emergencies.
How much does basic preparedness cost?
About $100 covers water, a headlamp, a battery radio, batteries, a power bank, a fridge thermometer, P2 masks and three days of no-cook food. The most valuable parts — the plan and the photographic inventory — are free.
Why do I need a battery radio if I have a phone?
Because the phone is a torch with a limited battery, and mobile networks degrade when tower batteries run down. ABC Local Radio is the designated emergency broadcaster and a battery radio is the one item with no substitute.
How much water should I store?
Three litres per person per day for drinking, for at least three days — nine litres each, or about 36 litres for a family of four. That is roughly one supermarket shop.
What if I only have twenty minutes?
Do block one and two: look up your hazard, write two triggers on the fridge, and photograph every room with the cupboards open. That is the highest-value twenty minutes available and it costs nothing.
Do I need to buy a pre-made kit?
No. Pre-made kits usually contain no water, no radio and no medication, and their first aid contents skew towards small plasters. The list above is cheaper and better matched to what actually happens.