WILDERNESS MEDICINE – WEST MACDONNELL RANGES

18–20 September 2026 | Alice Springs, Northern Territory

3 Days of Remote & Wilderness Medicine | $1,800

Take your clinical skills beyond the road.

Join Outback Wilderness Response (OWR) for an immersive three-day Wilderness Medicine Course in the spectacular West MacDonnell Ranges near Alice Springs, NT.

This is not a classroom-based first aid course. Participants operate in genuine remote terrain, combining wilderness medicine with canyon travel, helicopter operations, remote-area navigation, cross-country hiking, search and rescue, patient access and prolonged field care.

Over three days, participants will hike into remote country, enter and traverse canyons and gorges, manage simulated patients in difficult locations, and develop practical strategies for providing medical care when conventional ambulance and hospital resources may be hours away.

COURSE FEATURES

Remote Canyon & Gorge Operations
Enter and traverse remote Central Australian canyons and gorges while learning how terrain, access, heat, communications and evacuation limitations affect clinical decision-making.

Helicopter Operations
Work around operational helicopters and develop an understanding of helicopter safety, landing zones, patient preparation, remote retrieval and integration with aeromedical assets.

Cross-Country Wilderness Operations
Move beyond established roads and urban environments with cross-country hiking and remote-area patient access through rugged West MacDonnell terrain.

Wilderness Medicine Scenarios
Manage realistic medical and trauma scenarios where equipment, personnel, communications and evacuation options are limited.

Prolonged Field Care
Develop strategies for managing patients when definitive care is delayed, including ongoing assessment, analgesia, environmental management, packaging, monitoring and evacuation planning.

Search & Rescue
Learn practical approaches to remote-area search, patient location, initial access and coordination of a wilderness response.

Remote Patient Extraction
Assess the terrain, develop an extraction strategy and prepare patients for movement through difficult environments using wilderness rescue principles.

Navigation & Remote Communications
Apply navigation, communications and situational-awareness principles while operating away from conventional infrastructure.

Environmental & Expedition Medicine
Explore heat illness, dehydration, environmental exposure, remote medical emergencies, expedition planning and risk management in the Central Australian environment.

CLINICAL CURRICULUM

The course includes practical education and scenarios covering:

• Wilderness trauma assessment and management

• Major haemorrhage and shock

• Fractures, dislocations and limb injuries

• Analgesia and patient comfort in austere environments

• Head, spinal and thoracic trauma

• Environmental illness and heat emergencies

• Dehydration and fluid management

• Snakebite and Australian envenomation

• Medical emergencies in remote environments

• Patient monitoring with limited resources

• Prolonged field care

• Remote evacuation decision-making

• Improvised and wilderness patient packaging

• Search and rescue considerations

• Helicopter retrieval and landing-zone operations

• Clinical decision-making when evacuation is delayed

THE ENVIRONMENT IS PART OF THE COURSE

Training takes place in the West MacDonnell Ranges outside Alice Springs, using the landscape itself as the training environment.

Expect:

Canyons. Gorges. Helicopters. Cross-country hiking. Remote patient scenarios. Wilderness search and rescue.

Participants will operate away from conventional training facilities and experience the logistical and clinical challenges of delivering care in genuine remote Australian terrain.

WHO IS IT FOR?

Designed for healthcare professionals with an interest in wilderness, expedition, retrieval and remote medicine, including:

• Doctors

• Paramedics

• Nurses

• Remote-area clinicians

• Retrieval and emergency healthcare professionals

• Other suitable healthcare professionals working or interested in remote environments

COURSE DETAILS

Dates: 18–20 September 2026
Duration: 3 days
Location: West MacDonnell Ranges, Alice Springs, Northern Territory
Course Fee: $1,800 per participant

Places are limited to maintain a practical, field-based training environment.

BOOK NOW

Experience wilderness medicine where it actually happens.

Outback Wilderness Response – OWR
Wilderness Medicine | Remote Medicine | Search & Rescue | Expedition Support

Email: OWR@OUTLOOK.COM.AU
Phone: 0450 835 166

18–20 SEPTEMBER 2026 | WEST MACDONNELL RANGES | ALICE SPRINGS NT

$1,800 — LIMITED PLACES AVAILABLE