The tuckerbox is a critical resource in the outback. It contains everything you need in the way of food and hygiene material for long camps. The areas you are working will influence your choice of the items you carry, but a good feed at the end of a day and something to chew on when the craving sets-in is most important. Food is the great motivator when outback. Camps remain the same ol, same ol . . . but throw in a block of chocolate and the mood shifts for a group; it's something like a miracle for the solo prospector when a surprise tasty turns up.

You need to provide a variety of foods and a few surprises. The surprises are the things you hide away. Novelty and pure-sugar are all welcome around a lonely campfire. I already know the dietitians will take issue at my Tuckerbox", but I don't care. I have seen the most rabid nutrition-guru turn craven gobbler when the choc-coated, apricot, food-bars come out after five weeks in the bush. No kidding!

This list should feed a solo prospector and 'friend' for at least four weeks.

SPICES: These make or break a meal. Too much causes revulsion, just a touch adds an exotic overtone. Now this is a pretty big claim, but you try and eat Mexican flavoured Baked Beans for a week and you'll know what I mean . . .

Taco powder is strong stuff. It keeps weeks in pouches when opened and remains useable for long periods. 2 pouches should be enough.

Garlic powder and granules are dried. but easily reconstitute. You can also get Garlic pepper. I suggest you get the lot in dried form. The new pepper grinder bottles, available everywhere, can be reused with dried garlic and similar spices.

Dried, diced, onions are really great. By all means carry fresh onions, but take plenty of dried material with you. You use it in all manner of dishes.

Pepper, black this is an essential spice in my camp. You can get it in many ways as mentioned above. Take them all I reckon. Whole corns too.

Sauces and ready made marinades if you fancy a bit of Indian food or Roo kebabs, then these ready made sauces are great. Wet packs . . 6 or 8.

Chicken N beef cubes N soups the usual chicken and beef cubes are a must. 4-packs Cheap brand chic N beef soups are also a great tool. ditto.

With the above ingredients, you can do a proper job on game as well as store bought meat. Roo is good with a bit of spice, goat is like lamb. Don't forget about salt. Get a good supply of plain and iodized salt. Plain for cooking and preserving and iodized for table salt. I add pepper to table salt.

Tinned food. I buy tinned food as staples. Baked Beans, 20 cans. Diced tomato's 10 cans. These are packed as a base in my tuckerbox. Another good product is Mushrooms in butter sauce 8 or more small cans. Great with steak . . . Roo too. These are all cheap products and the cans can be burnt and smashed flat for removal to a town rubbish bin. The Mushrooms can be used on toast or damper as a breakfast treat.

Some retail outlets have a good range of tinned chicken soups (Baxters). These are single serves cans and have small diced chicken portions and a creamy sauce which is best for a feed based on damper or bread. I would suggest try before you commit. 10 cans . . vegetable and pumpkin too.

Tinned Fish. There are several brands of cheap fish available in Australia. Most are from Thailand. There appears to be a new push by South American and Portuguese companies too. This means a good range for you to choose from. A 185g can of Tuna in Australia can cost from $2. 00 to .77c. After what I do with them, I doubt there is a difference. Mostly I make Fish Pie or varieties of Shepherds Pie with fish. Go cheap and go many. If you end up eating fish for your last week in camp I daresay you will relish it and won't bother about the price. Try and buy a split between oil and brine. This is a bonus for your health's sake. Get as many cans as you can carry. They hardly ever go off unless damaged.

Tomato paste there are few more versatile fruits than Tomato's. Get some wet packs of pesto paste: four to the box . . . basil etc. Foil . . 8 boxes. Leggo's Pesto Paste includes Sun dried Tomato. Highly recommended.

Bread damper and bread are a must in the sticks. I carry a Camp Oven just for making bread. There is a national brand of product that offers half loaves with everything included. If you withhold the yeast pack, it is a damper. These are good value and I have used them for many years. The range of breads on offer are quite exotic. . . . too fancy for me, I tend to go for crispy crust, French style and wholemeal. They keep well.

Weevils are a problem for flour and bread. I suggest you ignore these issues as you are using the stuff as fast as heck. If you open your tuckerbox one day to be greeted by a swarm of little moths. . . . you may have a problem. Otherwise munch away on fresh bread every second day and give it no thought. Get a packet of corn flour for thickening your casseroles too.

Take one packet of dried yeast. SR-Flour can be tricky, but a few kilo's (3 x 2 kg) of plain flour and a tin of baking powder will make many fine dampers and if you get the half-loaf breads I mentioned above, it will be more than enough. Wrap the individual loaf portions in plastic to keep them dry. The flour bags too. I got a couple of boxes of zip-lock bags in two sizes . . . big and bigger. I wash and reuse them over and over again.

Meat. it's hard to get fresh meat out bush unless you hunt. In the north, fish can help the diet somewhat and the reliance on store bought meat diminished. Out in the desert country you need to carry a few items if you need to have meat and are unable to hunt. There are wild goats around the WA goldfields.

Corned beef or 'tinned dog' as the old blokes called it is very . . . yuk! The cheap varieties of meat generally don't hold-up. Hams and suchlike are OK, but you need to share them or they tend to be too much for a single feed. I have found that TVP (Textured Veg Protein) a vegetable substitute is an . . OK . . . substitute for mince. Sure you need to soak it in a Beef or Chic cube to give it flavor. . . but it makes a good 'texture' for a spag-bog sauce and last forever. So, go for small tins of whatever if you must, but get good stuff. Cold cuts are the best use for these products . . . I can't think of anything that substitutes for a beef-steak . . so there you go. TVP two boxes.

Noodles there are a fantastic range of noodles available these days. Not much to say here, but take plenty in their cheapest form. You have spices. . .

Sweets you have to take Golden Syrup for putting on your dampers. Sugar in the least refined state is good for those who need it. Tins of Rice custard are a favorite treat at the end of a hot day. Chocolate drinks are good around a campfire at the end of an evening. Plenty of cheap munchie bars from Coles. . . choc chip and yoghourt topped etc. These can serve purpose as snacks during a day of prospecting. Old Gold chocolate is a cheap sugar fix in camp. You need these types of things to take the edge off sudden cravings for a snack. . . and trust me, they will come, but not in my camp . . .

Veggies: take some brown onions, a few spuds and pumpkin too. Nice to use and easy to eat. Dried beans, potato and peas are good staples. Take plenty of dried potato as it is a good thickening agent and a mainstay in my fish and shepherds pie. Work out what you need. Beans go a long way. Peas do too, but potato only needs hot water for a feed so take at least 8 pouches plus. . .

More diced tomato's, mushy peas, in the tin, like you would use on meat pie floaters are good. You will also need a boost on vit C in the bush, so take a bag of oranges and a dozen fresh lemons. You can still get juice from lemons after several months . . . Capsicums are good, but don't last. Take more lemons.

Dried peas, corn and diced carrot are simple and can be tossed in with other things like noodles for extra fibre and colour. You can buy a 'birds eye' variety with exactly this mix. Take 3 pouches.

Dried mushrooms are available from the Asian food stores and some supermarkets. These absorb water and reconstitute quickly. They are very tasty and fairly cheap too. A good sized bag would be worthwhile. While in the Asian shops, check-out other veggie ideas. Both dried, and tins are cheap. Perhaps you can get your fish varieties and spices there too.

Oils I tend to use two oils for eating and cooking. The best Olive oil, Extra Virgin, is my staple. I also use sesame oil in a little bottle. This gives a nutty flavour to anything you use it on. A little goes a long way. Get a Big bottle or two small Olive Oils and a tiny bottle of sesame or another more to your taste. I neither carry or use butter or margarine. Most of these tuckerbox items are selected to be carried and used without refrigeration.

Biscuits or crackers. I use a brand of cracker called SAO as a bread substitute for lunches using fish. SAO can be had from the cheap brands too. There's not much difference from what I can see. I take 4 packs of these. They don't really go off as long as you can protect them from moisture.

Plain brand Ginger Nut cookies are sweet and great with coffee. 4 packs . Little round Savoy crackers are salty and great for digging out fish from a can, 2 boxes. Nothing with choc-chips or that sort of thing. I get plenty enough sugar anyway.

Cereals. I like any sort of breakfast cereal, but in the bush I simply take porridge portions. These boxes of individual packs are best, but not the cheapest. They are quick to prepare and easy to chuck in you backpack in case you need some emergency tucker. They even taste OK with cold water. 3 Boxes. The cheap musseli bars are in this category too. I like the yoghourt coated ones which are again, individually portioned. Same deal, chuck em in your backpack for a quick energy boost. 6 Boxes many varieties.

Powdered Milk. It's hard to keep UHT milk from going off in hot weather. The stuff turns even before it's opened from my experience. Take some and use it, but be ready with powdered milk when nothing else is available. Use what you prefer. Skim-milk or full cream . . . your preference. I use full cream because it has more body. I would suggest that even the cheap brands are pretty good. I prefer to buy several smaller packs instead of a big tin or bag. I believe the stuff tastes better when freshly opened. Just have two screw-top containers to hold half the bag each. I use recycled plastic fruit packs. You can get a nice range of plums; pears, fruit-salad and peaches in these containers. I number them 1 and 2 so I can keep track of which milk I'm using. Depending on your usage and needs . . . perhaps 4 packs of milk powder.

Fruit as mentioned above, I like the plums in the plastic containers the best. I make good use of these containers for storage as a bonus. I even put bolts and screws into them. The large tins are cheaper. Once open, you should put it into spare plastic containers because it is less likely to spill and stores better. Remember, I have no refrigeration and it may take a couple of days to eat a big tin of plums. Most of the supermarket oranges are rubbish. Before you buy any rip one apart and try it. Even apples are suspect these days. I tend to use tinned fruit because I know exactly what I'm getting.

If you add a packet of custard powder to the tuckerbox, Plums with custard made from powdered milk are a real treat.

Jams and other toppings. plum jam made in a Slavic State is quite cheap. You have Golden Syrup and save those containers too. Vegemite is peculiarly Australian. Most Aussies love it and it probably comes from being used on toast as a baby when they were teething. Nearly everyone else loathes the stuff. but we eat it on crackers and use it on toast and sometimes for cooking. It boosts a beef broth if you don't add too much. Peanut butter is good if it doesn't kill you. These days there are some fearsome reactions caused to certain people by eating peanut butter. If you have never eaten it. . . don't try it for the first time out in the bush. There are other toppings of course, but with your supply of fish and sardines, you will probably be happy with these few as a change.

Cheese. I carry and use only one cheese. I buy grated parmesan and fill a Golden Syrup container with it. It is good on crackers and in a lot of my cooking. I love the stuff and can eat it from the spoon. It takes about three bags to fill the plastic container.

Pasta. Spag is a good filling meal and easily prepared in the bush. I carry 4 bags of medium sized rods and they are all dumped into a single screw-lid container. I can fish out as much as needed and it almost never goes off if kept dry. There are pouch packs too of pasta and sauce. Single meal per serve. I have a few of these with basil pesto sauce just for a change.

Coffee and Tea etc. I buy Nescafe exclusively because it's easy and tastes good. No reason why you can't carry ground coffee. Just open a fresh pack whenever you need it. I use two types of tea. For Billy tea there is nothing better than a large bulk pack. 1 is enough or 2 if you don't drink coffee. I also carry teapot bags for single use when out prospecting. In certain weather it is too windy to boil the Billy so I use a small gas stove. Coffee 1 x 500g. Tea 1 or 2 big packs for the camp and 1 box bags for single use. Nestle's Quick is a chocolate drink hot or cold. 2 medium tins.

Cordial. I carry one or two 2-litre bottle of Pub-Squash, lemon cordial. This makes many litres of cold drink. I also add a half - teaspoon of iodized salt to each two litres and this is my desert cordial. I sometimes crush and add a few1000mg vit C tablets. In hot weather I feel it makes me better able to get the best from the fluid intake. It's quite a pleasant taste too. I also carry simple powdered fruit-salts (saline) for a burp using plain water. It's a kind of seltzer with a lemon taste. Burp! I also have a similar dried product that tastes like orange. It too is a vit C product and has similar properties of being slightly fizzy. I make cold water by preparing drinks at night. Draping them in a damp cloth and standing them in some water to catch a breeze. In the morning I keep them shaded and as cool as possible by the same means during the day.

Deserts. I like rice cream. This is a tinned, rice custard with a vanilla sauce. It is a thick glutenous product that sticks to the ribs and can also be heated on cold nights. I buy good quality and carry 6 cans. You can also use a small amount of flour to make mini dumplings and stew them in some boiling water with Golden Syrup. Self Raising flour is best for this, but enough baking soda will do the job. Bit of a task, but they are great when you get them right. You need to reduce the syrup and water before cooking the dumplings. They need to be light and quick cooked or otherwise they go leathery.

Other stuff. Take plenty of cheap 'Black and Gold' twin-pack paper towels. I have found these to be the softest and easiest to tear off the roll. Use them as hankies, mops for spills . . . anything at all. You can also use them as toilet paper and to light a camp fire. Very useful items 3+ packs. Toilet paper is by preference. Same deal . . . 3 packs. I take a small bag of washing-up sponges. These are best because they tend to harbour bacteria is you leave them in use for too long. Better to change them regularly. They can be disposed of in the camp fire. 1 bag of small sponges. Laundry detergent 1 bottle of cheap liquid, 'Black and Gold' 2-litres. Washing-up liquid is as you like. Good quality product serves as a body-wash on occasion.

Insect repellent creams and spray. The best by far is Aerogaurd tropical formula. It stinks and stings sensitive skin but it works. I never use it on my skin directly. I do spray it on my clothes around my back and shoulders not forgetting the ankles and feet. I use my hands to apply it to the skin where necessary. There are others, but they are not as good in my opinion. I suggest 2 spray packs for day use and for the evening 1 medicated cream which helps with small scratches and suchlike that you may have gathered through the day.

For around the camp you can't beat the old fashioned mosquito coil; any brand will do as they are nearly all made in Thailand or India. I suggest you get extra coil holders or make some out of clothes-hanger wire. These should be placed on some sort of base to prevent fire and being stepped on. I use 6 at a time strategically placed around the camp. Remember these are a fire hazard and should always be used on a base plate. Saucers from the OP-shop are good. 2 boxes.

Do buy yourself a full head net. These pull completely over the head and keep the flies at bay. Awkward, but they will give you a break when the flies are really bad.

I carry at least 4 cans of cheap fly-spray. These are used for honey-bee invasions and scorpion and ant infestations. I also have 2 of micro-mist, quality sprays for in my tent or your caravan . . . when the bugs are bad I give a quick spray well before bed and there are no mossies or flies to bother me at night. These are only needed sometimes. If you try and kill every insect around your camp you would need a truckload of spray. Better, to get used to it. Too much 'spraying' could mean your tits will fall off . . . eventually. Just a tip on eating and cooking when flies are bad. Don't! Wait until they knock-off around dusk.

In General. You can pad-out the rest of your tuckerbox with substituting the things you like and need. My tuckerbox is a bit more a survival tuckerbox than most. I can hunt and you don't need firearms or weapons to get a feed from the native fauna. Anywhere there's a fence-line is a good place to catch game. Goats will let you stalk them from downwind. A quick dash and you can have a young animal for the pot easily.

I don't often have alcohol in my camps. I don't see the need. There's enough going on amongst the natural world to keep me interested and a clear mind in no hinderance. It's in the city that I get a bit strange. . .

I hope this list and the description is of some use to others. We all have our own preferences and that is good. I have left a lot out because you will all have a picture by now and that is the idea. I did not intend to provide a do it my way guide.

daza