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“I don’t like that the prepper community will now be made to look nuts again,” wrote one contributor to a prominent Australian preppers Facebook group this week, as speculation swirled about Porepunkah fugitive Dezi Freeman’s apparent ties to these sometimes shadowy communities.
Researcher Tom Doig has interviewed 50 preppers from around the world and came across the complaint while writing this fascinating essay drawing on his research. Just days after we first commissioned the article, Freeman allegedly murdered two police officers and disappeared into Victoria’s remote high country, relying on meticulously honed survival skills to evade capture.
So what really drives Australia’s preppers? Doig, together with sociologist Jordan McKenzie, explain how although some of them are motivated by vehement distrust of the government, most Australian preppers don’t conform to the far-right libertarian mindset more prevalent among their counterparts in the United States. Australian preppers are more likely to worry about floods, fires and climate apocalypse – and to focus on sustaining their food, water and community.
As always, let us know what you think about our stories by sending us an email. We publish a selection of your comments each day in this newsletter.
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Jo Case
Senior Deputy Books + Ideas Editor
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Tom Doig, The University of Queensland; Jordan McKenzie, University of Wollongong
Prepping in Australia is distinctive: less about guns and militias; more about food, water and community. While anti-government preppers are a problem, they’re rare.
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Best reads this week
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Denis Muller, The University of Melbourne
When reporting on racist rallies, it’s important the media don’t fall for the shadowy language used by organisers.
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Stacey Pizzino, The University of Queensland; Bryan G. Fry, The University of Queensland
Toxic remnants of war can damage ecosystems and communities long after the fighting stops.
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Theresa Larkin, University of Wollongong; Gregory Peoples, University of Wollongong
A freediver recently set a new world record for a breath hold. His physical and mental training allowed him to delay a basic human survival response: breathing.
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Katie Turlington, Griffith University
A new tool aims to help scientists decode what underwater river sounds really mean.
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Tristen Anne Norrie Jones, University of Sydney; Alfred Nayinggul, Indigenous Knowledge; Sam Provost, Australian National University
This new project has strong potential to be scaled up and delivered in other land and cultural heritage management contexts.
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TC Weekly podcast
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Michelle Grattan, University of Canberra
A former deputy secretary of the immigration department under the Howard government says ‘it’s time politicians on both sides pulled up their socks’.
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Gemma Ware, The Conversation
Historian Meredith Oyen explains how disagreements over the history of the second world war and who fought the Japanese are central to tensions between China and Taiwan. Listen on The Conversation Weekly podcast.
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Our most-read article this week
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Vibhu Arya, University of Technology Sydney; Renu Agarwal, University of Technology Sydney; Wen Helena Li, University of Technology Sydney
Card surcharges cost Australians more than $1 billion a year. Switching to real-time payments – which are already here – would cut costs for shoppers and business.
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In case you missed this week's big stories
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Michelle Grattan, University of Canberra
Despite he and his government being in an overwhelmingly dominant position politically, Anthony Albanese sounded quite tetchy at times this week.
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Christopher Rudge, University of Sydney
The government will pay hundred of thousands of robodebt victims more than $500 million. But we may never know if public servants knowingly acted unlawfully.
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Mary Anne Kenny, Murdoch University; Lisa van Toor, Murdoch University
The non-citizens in the NZYQ group cannot be returned to their country of origin. But sending them to Nauru just pushes the issue onto a poorer country.
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Michelle Grattan, University of Canberra
Some 20,000 home care packages will be brought forward to be delivered before the end of October.
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Alexander Howard, University of Sydney
Meanjin published the cream of Australia’s writers. With its sudden closure, a vital, 85-year thread of our cultural conversation will fall silent.
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Iftekhar Ahmed, University of Newcastle
The type of buildings that are common in rural Afghanistan help explain why this earthquake was so deadly.
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Stefan Wolff, University of Birmingham
Despite the smiles, the unity underpinning a new China-led global order looks a lot more fragile than its president would have you believe.
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Tim Lindsey, The University of Melbourne
The president has made some concessions to protesters, but this may not be enough to quell public anger with politicians seen as lazy, corrupt and out of touch.
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Michael Toole, Burnet Institute
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention is a key institution when it comes to public health in the US, but it’s also instrumental in global health.
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Katie Attwell, The University of Western Australia; Julie Leask, University of Sydney; Nancy Baxter, University of Sydney
Florida plans to scrap all vaccine mandates for school students, with the state’s governor describing them as ‘slavery’. Here’s what this could mean.
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Peter Newman, Curtin University
The deadly derailment has shone a spotlight on this transport relic of the 19th century.
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Words matter
"If the media doesn’t call it for what it is, Denis Muller says about last weekend’s marches, it ends up giving an unintentionally sanitised account of what actually took place." Excellent observation. Let's apply the same rationale to bribes called "political donations" and to invasions called "national security" or "military countermeasures".
Glen Davis
Deportation shock
“I’m shocked by Albanese’s decision to deport the people from immigration detention to Nauru, especially given he announced it the day after the fascists marched against immigration! Albanese, do better! The vast majority of people in this country are immigrants, should we all return to our own countries of origin?”
Anne Corkill
Fair point
"The Meanjin article states "Editor Esther Anatolitis and deputy editor Eli McLean have been made redundant". NO, they are not redundant, their JOBS are redundant. If we do not change the narrative as discussed this week, nothing changes and feelings and attitudes do not change".
Shirley Allen 
We'd love to hear from you. You can email us with your thoughts on our stories and each day we'll publish an edited selection.
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Auckland University of Technology
Auckland, New Zealand
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The Conversation AU/NZ
New Zealand
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Auckland CBD, Auckland, New Zealand
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