Ready, Steady, Go is a collaboration between Jen Rae and Emma Byrnes. The PDF for this project is a resource that we encourage people to share widely under a Creative Commons Non- Commercial License.
Download and share the READY, STEADY, GO PDF.

Prior to coming to Australia from Canada - emergency kits were something we always kept in the trunk/boot of the car especially in winter. Packed were items such as chains, kitty litter, wool blankets, instant heat packs, energy gels, warm clothes, blankets and flares. And, they could mean the difference between life and death if you were to spin-out on black ice into a ditch, hit a deer, have a breakdown, or need to sit out a blizzard. In Australia - the context is different and the climate emergency takes preparedness to a whole new level.

In May 2018 - Ambulance Victoria’s State Health Commander Paul Holman led the REFUGE lab participants through an autopsy of the 2016 Victorian thunderstorm asthma event. He started by saying “Imagine the unimaginable...” and then began to describe how 14,000 people were taken to hospital and how ten people lost their lives in the freak weather event. He spoke about learned helplessness, circumstances where the public has developed a conditioned sense of reliance on emergency services and may not act in their own best interest in an emergency (e.g. waiting for help instead of doing what they can do themselves to help the situation); the limited capacity of emergency services to respond to disasters of that scale; and, how increasing and cumulative climate-related disaster events will affect the ability of emergency services to respond quickly in the future. In 2018, Holman advised that Ambulance Victoria, along with emergency service providers in cities across the world, were shifting communications and encouraging communities to be more self-reliant in the event of major disaster events. Some cities are now asking populations to prepare to be self-sufficient for 48 -72 hours and sometimes even longer to receive help in case of emergency. 

Our ability to recognise and act on these realities may help us in the future. Therefore, now is the time to shift into preparedness thinking. If we can self-audit our skills, knowledge, resources, relationships, environments, assets and liabilities, we are better placed to identify where there is room for improvement before an emergency strikes. In 2018, I posed the question at home to my family ‘what would we do in an emergency if no one came when we called 000’? This led us into imagining emergency scenarios we might encounter and prompted us into planning and preparations in case of emergency.

READY, STEADY, GO originated with a list of items that I wanted to collect to make my family’s emergency Grab + Go kits. It was a practical exercise from years of research and learning from emergency services. During the Australian bushfire crisis in 2019, I shared this list with a small community of friends and colleagues before later hearing it had been more widely shared. Our family’s list is best understood by sharing the context and considerations informing our decision making, planning and what items are included, with the hope that the project might inspire others to ask questions and make their own lists that are context-specific to their own needs and those in their immediate care groups.

It should also be noted that you can easily go out and purchase a ready-made Bug-Out Bag at the Survival Shop Preppers Warehouse if you’re into camo or fluoro for about $1400; a Kim Kardashian approved Judy kits for about $60-$250 USD; or, a $6000 for the deluxe Costco kit that will feed a family for a year. But, will these ready-made kits meet your needs or those of your family and/or immediate community in the type of emergency you are likely to experience? An earthquake is very different to a bushfire depending whether you live in a minimalist inner-city apartment, an under-privileged suburb or a farm. A ready-made kit may offer a false sense of security especially if the items are a one-size fits all, are foreign objects to you, have expired goods after being stored indefinitely or if you have allergies. We imagined three emergency scenarios our family may encounter in the near future where we might have to consider evacuation, stay + wait, or leave indefinitely.

The three questions informing our scenarios:

- READY (Grab + Go kit). What if our family had to leave on short notice and end up in a relief centre or at someone’s house for 3-5 days?
- STEADY (Self-reliance kit). What would we need to have on hand to be self-reliant if at home for a week without utilities?
- GO (Car kit - trunk). What would we need/want to take if we had to leave our house for an indefinite period of time with the prospect of returning? [it’s likely we will work through the fourth scenario of not returning at some point in the near future]

We scaffolded our list of items through six considerations and our economic means:
1. What are our essentials? In our case, things like eyeglasses, medications, a map, food, photocopies of our important documents, a first aid kit, a dog leash and personal care items were on the top of our lists.
2. What do we need for comfort? eg changes of clothes, a familiar blanket, a comfort object, headphones and our Aeropress.
3. What will we need to communicate? eg walkie talkies, phone chargers and a list of important phone numbers.
4. What can we pack for entertainment? eg games, colouring books and a hand cranked radio.
5. What can we pack to trade? eg chocolate, cash and alcohol.
6. What can we pack to share and to make community? eg lollies, tea bags, tools, seeds and Vegemite.

Your plans
After going through the birth of a child we know that nothing goes as planned, but having a couple of strategies in place and thinking through processes of evacuation or power shortages might make a significant difference in how your emergency response unfolds. In our household, we have designated roles and responsibilities for leaving. There is a checklist of things we need to do and also grab in addition to our packs if we have to evacuate quickly.
For instance:
Refrigerated medicines, mementos box, wallets, passports, computers, phones and Greenfeet (the teddy bear). Turn off gas, power and water, and lock all doors and windows if time allows.
Welfare plans for animals - those that will have to stay put and those that will come with us.

Plans to stay (as the Covid-19 crisis has revealed) also require some planning. For instance, ensuring all prescriptions are up-to-date or other essential items that may be in short supply or hard to access over time; enough food for your humans and animals for at least 2-3 weeks; keeping all of your devices charged; having cash on hand; setting up rosters to check-in on others; and, any other considerations that may need planning for each member of your immediate care group.
Walk through it. Talk about it at dinner. Involve everyone.

Analogue preparedness
What happens if you don’t have wifi/4G access or lose your phone in an emergency? I can remember my first phone number and three others. Only one lives in Australia. Take a moment to compile a list of phone numbers that you might need in an emergency. Include those who are geographically close to you, work and childcare numbers, family, friends and important local services such as the hospital, your doctors and veterinarian. You might also consider doing the same with your emails and important passwords. Make copies of any important documents or policies such as passports, house deeds, insurances, licenses, certificates, immunisation records. If you will have to prove identification, ownership, legal status, income, healthcare or anything important to you or others in your care group, ensure you have copies in both digital (USB) and analogue form. You can also upload documents into cloud platforms on Google, Dropbox, Evernote, plus others. This takes longer to compile than you’d expect, so make it a priority and set some time aside to work on. It will help put your mind at rest.

This is an ongoing knowledge-share project. If you have any items that you would add to your own emergency kit list and are keen to share them with us just fill in the form below. We would love to hear from you.

Ready, Steady, Go by Jen Rae and Emma Byrnes is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Non Commercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International License.
It was supported by the City of Melbourne's COVID-19 Arts Grant.