Is it legal to carry knives in Australian open country

Y

y53p

Joined
May 11, 2022
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Same question for guns. Are you allowed to carry knives/guns in the outback/open country, for either camping or defense from wildlife? And if yes are you allowed to carry any type of knife (large fixed blade/kukri/machete/hatchet) and what guns are you allowed to carry?
 
y53p said:
Same question for guns. Are you allowed to carry knives/guns in the outback/open country, for either camping or defense from wildlife? And if yes are you allowed to carry any type of knife (large fixed blade/kukri/machete/hatchet) and what guns are you allowed to carry?
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The outback is a big area, the easy answer is on private land with permission you can have any knife that's legal in the state or territory your in and guns that are legal for hunting purposes of the state your in. So usually bolt action hunting rifles and shotguns.
Generally on public land without expressed permission you can't have firearms. And most states and territories you can legally have a knife to help with your recreational pursuits eg. camping, hiking, fishing etc.
These are just very general broad statements
 
It's legal..you just don't walk into a town with one especially if their big.
A folder clipped onto a belt in it's own pouch is legal to carry just about anywhere.

But of course private property anything goes.
 
Wildlife defense isn't that big of a deal, a solid stick and a stern voice will handle most of the wild dogs. On the coast, just mind your distance from the water and crocs are no biggy. As of the current laws, knives are fine, (apart from autos and balis, but one-hand-openers are fine). If you walk into a town strapped you'll get an odd look, not that anyone will be worried about you, they will more be worried for you, since it's not really considered a common need. Depending on your terrain, a machete or a cane knife is fine, and in some areas it would simply be futile considering the timber. There is little "public" land that isn't a park, so normal national park rules like many places (no fires, etc) and when on private land, it's the owner's rules. That sort of limits the "why are you carrying that" to "planning on hurting something, or someone" and that can set people on edge.
Guns are all dependent on what you are permitted for, wouldn't even consider it unless you were willing to go through the paperwork, and by the time you are done that, your questions would have been answered.
I'm not really "outback" but I've been reasonably inland and no one bats much of an eye at what folks are carrying, apart from wondering why they might feel the need. Again, it's all about context, so you should always fit into your environment. If you know private land owners, it's no big deal. If you are looking for a place to camp and don't already know someone, I have not met many land owners who are keen to allow that sort of thing. The past 20 years or so have seen only a few (but when there are only 25mil people total it seems a lot) of people who wanted to live "off grid" who had other purposes, and that tends to not leave landowners in a comfortable place. And once you are a few hundred miles off the coast, you are pretty much sticking to vehicles anyway.
But to the core of your question, if it's legal to own, it's probably fine to carry under "camping" as a "lawful excuse" you don't need to have reason past that.
 
If I didn't have a knife, I would have died from a python wrapping around my neck.
A stick is gonna do jack shìt.
 
Things happen, but pythons have pretty thin skin, and most aussie timber is very tough, so I'm just trying to figure out what might have been happening to have that arrangement. This all being said, one in a million chances happen about 7 thousand times a day worldwide, so you could have just been very unlucky in that particular moment. So I'm calling for or against just yet. So long as you were not pulling a "drunk german tourist petting the puppies" move and got yourself into a situation that ended in the demise of a peaceful python, because that would be not so cool. How did that situation come about?
 
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Happens more often than you hear about.
 
Jubapocitohee said:
Whenever me and my mates pull out our knives that quote comes up without fail. I would think it is encouraged to have the biggest knife possible down under as a matter of national pride.
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I like that Aussie spirit’s still thriving regardless of the nanny laws. Also isn’t like 95% of Oz uninhabited? You could easily get away with carrying whatever you want in the Outback or on the thousands of miles of deserted coastline, no? I doubt a nanny cop would venture such places, only to get scared by a large fixed blade on a camper’s hip.
 
It's not the cops you gotta worry about. Although the chances of actually meeting a legit deranged killer is lower than getting hit by lightning, so there are some thing you just cannot account for. More than a few places in the middle of nowhere are protected by monofilament line or hidden barbed wire, and the knife won't help you there, just knowing how to watch for things and "not see" other things is the key. But no different than a lot of places in the central US or the Canadian prairies.
 
y53p said:
How would that have happened exactly?
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Grabbed onto my leg from under my car at a public park, just came back from a bush walk.

They wrap around you real quick, if I couldn't get to my knife on my belt i wouldn't be here.

Was a 1 minute wrestle before I got my knife.
Wasn't very big either. I'd hate to see what the pythons at the zoo can do...
 
Dude, you must be skinnier than I am. I worked at a campsite where there lived a human-habituated carpet python who would arm wrestle one of the guys. Now granted he is what the average aussie would refer to as a "rig" and no American would believe was vegan, but he would let that thing wrap his arm up and he would fight with it. Easy six feet long and when hungry four inches in diameter (the python) and they knew each other well.
Now that having been said, if I didn't know how they reacted and acted, and had a similar incident to you, I might have had a similar reaction, so I'm not judging, I've been attacked by stuff that in hindsight was far less dangerous than it seemed at the time. To me, it falls into the "funny but sad that an animal died" rather than a "fight for my life" story, but I'll take a python over an eastern brown any day of the week. But as I said, I wasn't there, so I'm not trashing too hard, just a little. I've camped with bears and snakes, and to be fair, I'll take bears. :D
 
gadgetgeek said:
Dude, you must be skinnier than I am. I worked at a campsite where there lived a human-habituated carpet python who would arm wrestle one of the guys. Now granted he is what the average aussie would refer to as a "rig" and no American would believe was vegan, but he would let that thing wrap his arm up and he would fight with it. Easy six feet long and when hungry four inches in diameter (the python) and they knew each other well.
Now that having been said, if I didn't know how they reacted and acted, and had a similar incident to you, I might have had a similar reaction, so I'm not judging, I've been attacked by stuff that in hindsight was far less dangerous than it seemed at the time. To me, it falls into the "funny but sad that an animal died" rather than a "fight for my life" story, but I'll take a python over an eastern brown any day of the week. But as I said, I wasn't there, so I'm not trashing too hard, just a little. I've camped with bears and snakes, and to be fair, I'll take bears. :D
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I'm skinny as have always been underweight for my height, the snake was bigger than me.

To put it into perspective of snake strength, a 1m python can push 1 ton of force... I'm 1.81m so you're looking at 2-3 ton of crushing force.

I was unable to walk for a month due to my leg being crushed, it was by no means a "large python ".

I was also going to the gym at the time. 135kg on the bench...

Problem was it was under the vehicle and I didn't know and was standing there with no clue...

Imagine if it was my daughter and I had turned my back for a few seconds
 
y53p said:
Didn’t you say it wrapped around your neck?
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Yeah it did, didn't I say I was struggling with it? I cut it open when it was wrapped around my neck....

Did you require me to repeat myself or go into unnecessary depth?
 
For those who have never been caught up in a python fight, I can tell you when you manage to pull the head off you, it'll try latch on wherever it can....

I don't think my 1 yr old daughter was capable of pulling it off if that's what someone is trying to imply....

Yes it was wrapped around my neck, it was under my car and grabbed my leg 1st.

For those who unable to understand how it moved from my leg to my neck, I WAS ACTUALLY TRYING TO GET IT OFF ME....

It latched onto my shoulder as i was unable to hold onto its head and wrapped around my neck and upper torso...

By then I was in pain and couldn't use my leg and grabbed my knife as I was choking.
 
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