The ultimate camp kitchen

by Richard Barnsley
Hunter 2

As a kid I used to love Sunday afternoon westerns and back in the 1970s when I was growing up there were plenty of them. A lot of the action happened around the cowboy cattle drives - good cowpoke versus bad cowpoke - and invariably there was always a smelly old cook running the chuck wagon. Sort of reminds me of some hunting camps I’ve shared.

Whether backpacking into the hills or spending nights in shearer’s quarters on the western plains, all hunting camps need a good kitchen. Apart from wet days or when the hills have worn you out, it’s generally up early and home late. Nothing is worse than coming back tired to a poorly run camp kitchen.

The simplest way to ensure that everything you need is at hand and cooking hassles are minimised is to build yourself a ‘grub box’. These can be as big and fancy as your imagination and designed to suit the style of hunting you do.

Recently, I saw the mother of all commercial camp boxes - the Drifta Camp Kitchen. This unit is for all manner of gear, including the gas stove and was designed by Luke Sutton, who spent several years working as a mule packer for hunting guides in the US. You can preview this highly functional mobile bush kitchen at www.drifta.com.au

My camp kitchen is a little more basic and consists of a five-ply timber box, measuring about 20cm high, 45cm wide and 33cm deep. The ply is cheap, robust and you can give it a slap of paint or varnish. Run some silicone up the inside corners to help keep dust out. In my box I have stored all the basic necessities for either an overnight camp or a week in the backblocks.

The secret to such a system is to keep the camp kitchen fully stocked at all times. The accompanying list is a guide to gear I keep in the kitchen and at short notice I can load the grub box and head bush knowing that, apart from food, everything will be at hand.

Forget about arriving in camp with no can opener, no matches or toilet roll. Gone are the days when salt, pepper and sauce aren’t on every meal table. I include a couple of wire coat hangers and a pair of cheap pliers for fashioning toasting forks, repairing billy handles and making kebab skewers. Rolled up in the bottom is a plastic solar shower for a warm wash and there’s always a cake of soap.

Another great accessory is an old kitchen oven glove. These are indispensable when it comes to lifting billies, hot plates and camp ovens off the coals. No more burns from hot steel or flying coals. When the glove is used with the billy hook, it is virtually impossible to burn yourself in an outdoor kitchen if you are prepared.

All the cutlery and barbecue tools are kept in a canvas roll-up that has a dust flap and several individual pockets. This can be hung around a tree trunk for the duration of the camp and keeps everything nice and clean. A roll of paper towels is great for giving stuff a quick wipe and can then be burnt in the fire.

My grub box also has its own torch inside so that regardless of who has ducked off into the bush after dark, I always have a light handy to check how things are cooking away.

Aluminium foil is handy for baking in the fire and a roll of cling wrap never goes astray. If water is scarce around camp, line your bowl with cling wrap before eating morning cereal or an evening stew. When you’ve finished, pull out the cling wrap and you have a clean bowl and no washing up.

The grub box concept can be simply adopted by the hiking hunter. When backpack hunting, I pack my three-meal supplies for brekkie, lunch and dinner into three different coloured sacks. That way, if stopping for lunch, I need only to pull out a particular coloured sack and everything is at hand. No more digging to the bottom of the pack to find a spoon or the cracker biscuits.

Getting your kitchen in order is simple and a grub box built to your own specifications will make being organised a breeze. It is interesting that hunters will spend hours on their hunting gear packing and cleaning yet little pre-trip preparation ‘in the kitchen’. Give it a go and you’ll find more time for hunting or a lazy ale around the fire.

A general grub-box list

• Cake of soap
• Oven mitt
• Disposable Chux
• Plastic chopping board 30x25cm
• BBQ tongs (contained in canvas roll up pouch)
• Billy lifter (contained in canvas roll up pouch)
• Egg lifter plus four egg rings (contained in canvas roll up pouch)
• Soup ladle for stews (contained in canvas roll up pouch)
• Large knife and vegetable knife (contained in canvas roll up pouch)
• Knife, fork and spoons for four persons (contained in canvas roll up pouch)
• Can opener (contained in canvas roll up pouch)
• Four plastic mugs
• Small bottle dishwashing detergent
• Scouring pads
• Two disposable cigarette lighters
• Salt/pepper shakers
• Tomato/Worcestershire sauce
• Dried garlic
• Instant soup packets
• Four instant noodle packets
• Medium frypan
• Large and medium billies
• Spare mantles for gas lamp
• Large garbage bags
• Roll of paper towels
• Two wire coat hangers
• A pair of pliers