Australian CS Safety

This page is still under construction. 31/5/08

Couchsurfing safety links

For more generic information (not Australia specific) you can check out the general couchsurfing safety links below:

• The CS Safety Sheet July 2008
• CouchSurfing Safety Team
• General safety tips
• Handling dating requests
• Safety for hosts
• Safety for surfers
• Tips for solo women
• Useful tips

Couchsurfing requests and references

• Handling a CouchSurfing request
• How to handle freeloaders
• How to Handle people that are using this web site for dating purposes
• Negative references
• How to leave a negative reference on a Hidden profile
• Searching and requesting a couch

Emergencies

The Triple Zero (000) service (or 112 from any mobile phone) is the quickest way to get the right emergency service to help you. It should be used to contact Police, Fire or Ambulance services in life threatening or emergency situations. Calls to Triple Zero (000) are free and can be made from mobile phones, home, work phones or pay phones.

If a person is unable to speak English, they should call Triple Zero (000) from a fixed line, say ‘Police’, ‘Fire’ or ‘Ambulance’. Once connected to the nominated emergency service, stay on the line and a translator will be organised. For more information and instructions on how to make an emergency call see the AusDin 000 Fact Sheet or the 000 Wiki page for more information.

Has a crime been comitted? - Identifying your Host/Guest

It was discussed at length recently (April 2008) by Australian Ambassadors that a host should sight a passport as a means of positively identifying their guest. With half a million CouchSurfers it is becoming a lot more important that caution is duly applied when hosting and determining those you let into your home.

The mechanisms of "friend", "reference", "vouch" and "verification" still stand as being the best CS tool available to determine who you will accept as a Surfer to your Couch. However it was agreed by the Australian Ambassadors recently that we would further advise Australian CouchSurfing Hosts to apply additional safeguards when hosting a new CS member with no friends, references, vouches or verifications by taking note of their ID (even having them email a scanned image before hand to prove good faith).

Should you make reference to this "condition" in your profile as a requirement then it becomes the choice of the Surfer as to whether they still wish to contact you for a couch should they NOT wish to provide such evidence....

Medical stuff

It is usually cheaper to get travel insurance before you leave, especially if you are planning to do anything risky or adventurous. There are numereous online insurers or to obtain contact details for insurers offering private health insurance for overseas visitors, telephone the Australian Government Department of Health and Ageing on (02) 6289 7531 (from overseas 61 2 6289 7531).

For more detail about medical considerations to take into account when visiting Australia visit the Australian Healthcare website for visitors or tourists.

Do I have to pay for medical care?

The Australian Health Care Information page highly recommends adequate health insurance for every traveler.

Australia has Reciprocal Health Care Agreements with nine countries .These are :Ireland, Italy, Finland, Malta, the Netherlands, New Zealand, Norway, Sweden, United Kingdom Under these Agreements, residents of these countries have restricted access to Medicare while visiting Australia.

These Agreements cover immediately necessary medical treatment only. It does NOT cover Ambulance services. Therefore, if you are seriously hurt and go to the Emergency Department, and you are from one of the above countries, you should not have to pay for public hospital care, but you might still have to pay up to AUD$5000 if an air ambulance is necessary to take you to the hospital. For more information, visit the Department of Health website for more details or phone 132 011 (local call cost if calling from within Australia).

Useful Phone Numbers

• Interpreter or translator: 13 14 50
• NPS Medicines Line 1300 888 763. Available 9am - 6pm EST Mon-Fri. Independent information on your prescription, over-the-counter, and complementary (herbal/'natural'/vitamin/mineral) medicines from a pharmacist.
• Here's a list of sexual assault crisis contacts organised by state.
• Poisons Information: 13 11 26
• National Lifeline 131 114 (Free telephone counselling service)

Useful links

• Drink spiking, what do do, how to avoid it.
• Get lots of excellent advice from Better Health
• Find out about Emergency contraception also known as the the morning after pill
• Find Australian hospitals or medical specialists by searching the Yellow Pages
• Sexual Assault info

Support services