How were you able to live largely off the grid without growing foods or hunting?
That's why I said
largely 
We carry food for maybe 3 months and water for two months in the truck. So if we find more water in a creek (admittedly not all that common in the Oz outback) we can in theory stay out of town for about 3 months but of course no fresh fruit and veggies after a week or so. Our preferred mode of travel is to drive for a couple of days and camp for 4-6 weeks. The truck almost never sees a town but we will do a day trip in the car or motorbike for supplies. On average I would say we do this once a month or so. We have almost no mail to collect, what we have is redirected to friends and every 3 months or so I phone them and we go through it, of the little we have most of that is binned and the few remaining items (vehicle registration stickers etc) are sent to us C/o the nearest post office. Here's a pic of the truck
More info on the truck etc here
www.robgray.com
So although we have been "dropped out" for 13+ years we have still been very dependant on the system for food. Unless you are a genuine mountain man I think that's largely unavoidable in a mobile situation although we do have friends living similar to us and they get all of their protein from the land (shooting) or sea (spear fishing), when they return to this side of the country I plan to have them teach me the shooting/butchering part of their routine.
If you can obtain protein then add wheat grinding for flour you would be almost there food wise, but growing fruit and veggies would be very difficult out of a vehicle.
This is one reason we have dropped anchor although after 13 years it's also just nice to have a base to call home I admit, and I love sitting here in the evening with a beer watching the turkeys, bandicoots, possums, wallabies etc eating right in front of me. Also it's been good to get back into building something, the container house is first and that's in progress, then the smithy, and then who knows but with all that metal fab facility I'll think of something I'm sure.
When I say "container house" I am not talking about a flash job with 10 40-footers like you may have seen on the web, after living in about 200 sq feet for years we don't want or need something large. The plan is to have two 20-footers with a covered area between them. They are in place right now and I have started the fitout of one, also the joining roof has been started. There will only be 2 windows and they will be behind steel shutters (the cutouts used to make the windows), all plumbing etc is hidden so there should be no external sign that it is indeed a house. Not bullet proof and not supposed to be a super-defensible FOB, but it will be quite secure and low profile.
BTW re shooting, I see a lot of posts on forums to the effect that guns are banned in Oz, they are not banned and in fact you would be hard pressed to find someone in rural areas who didn't own at least one long gun. They are however harder to get than I gather is the case in most of the US, for example to get a rifle you would need a letter from a land owner that has more than 40 acres (or be the land owner yourself), the letter states that you are allowed to shot on his property for the purposes of vermin eradication. Once you have the firearm you can use it anywhere though (well anywhere that's appropriate), you are not restricted to his property. If you live in the city (yuk) it would be harder although I understand that all you have to do is join a gun club, AFAIK very few people in the city do this. I am not privy to the statistics but I have never (knowingly) met a city person that owns a gun, whereas most country people have them. Side arms are harder to get but it's still doable, in this case I believe you must join a gun club and attend for 6 months etc. I'll know more about this later as I plan to tool up a bit
Everything is solar powered although a gennie is needed for welding etc. We have about 13,000 gallons of water storage and will collect from the roof when it's finished. The land is out in the bush at the end of a dirt road and initial chats with the two immediate neighbours indicate that they are of similar mind, those relationships are slowly being cultivated. So WRT security we are not in a bad state, certainly better that most and far enough away from towns to fly under the radar of the initial golden hoards, more serious intruders would be a different matter and that needs to be addressed.
One thing I think may be an advantage here in Oz is the aforementioned firearm laws, most city people
do not have firearms so if they come out here they will be at a distinct disadvantage, no matter how desperate they are a 308 beats a baseball bat almost every time. But criminals of course can get what they like (most laws only affect honest people) and they will eventually be an issue as more obvious targets are cleaned out. As I said this sort of thing does need to be addressed and it's not exactly my area of expertise.
Truth is I'm not convinced it will get to that in Oz, at least not from financial collapse, that said a CME would affect us as much as everyone else so as they say in the classics, hope for the best, prepare for the worst.
Rob
