Australian Heritage 'Wild' Camel

Australia has the largest population of wild camels, with an estimated population of 3,000,000, in the world today. Camels can be found in over 37% of mainland Australia and in the Northern Territory camels are found in over 40% of the land area. 

 

Camels are survivors of an almost extinct group of ungulates that once inhabited all the large land masses of earth except Australia.

The only camels in existence today are two domesticated species; the Arabian Camel (Camelus Dromedarius) better known as the Dromedary and the Bactrian Camel (Camelus Bactrianus)  also known as the Mecheri.

The Dromedary Camel is the main species of camel in Australia; it is better known as a riding camel, with only the one hump. It is taller than the Bactrian Camel, stand at an average of 6ft at the shoulder and 7ft to the top of the hump, and able to travel at a faster speed over a longer distance. Carrying one rider a Dromedary can the keep pace of 16km all day. The fastest, long distance, record for a ridden Dromedary is 240km in 11 hours.

(Reference Collier’s Encyclopaedia published 1996. New records may have since been accomplished)

On the other hand the Bactrian Camel is shorter in the legs and more heavily built than the Dromedary and has two humps. These camels are known as beast of burden and have mainly been used as pack animals around the world. Some Bactrian Camels were imported into Australia but their population is much less than that of the Dromedary.

Camels are even-toed ungulates, meaning their foot is divided into two parts. Unlike a modern day ungulates foot, which would be encases in horn and called a hoof, a camels is padded with large leathery soles.  This gives the camel a great advantage when moving over sand or snow.

They are natural pacers, meaning that the hind and fore foot on one side move forward together producing a swing like motion when moving. (This is very similar to that of the Standardbred Harness Racing Pacers) They also chew cud but not like that of our other modern day cud chewing livestock.  A camel’s lower jaw makes wide sweeps across the upper teeth then back again, whereas modern day livestock tend to chew on one side of the mouth and will shift it to the other side after some time.  Camels also have teeth at the front of the upper jaw which cause a nasty bite; they are also able to spit their foul smelling cud at things when unhappy.

Camels are well known for their ability to survive without water for extended periods of time, this is due to three things. Firstly a camel is able to excrete less water in its urine, thereby conserving body water.  Secondly a camel is able to regulate its own body temperature but unlike most mammals, whose normal body temperature is around 38 degrees Celsius a camel has a wider range and does not start sweating until it reaches 41 degrees Celsius . The third rather than the blood thickening when water deprivation happens, like other mammals a camel can replace much of the water lost in the blood from water in other tissues. This allows for the normal blood volume to be maintained for a longer period of time. Under exceptional conditions, camels have been known to survive without drinking water for up to 34 days. Though when water is available a camel can drink up to 27 litres a day.

The average lifespan of a camel is 25-40 years, cows (female camels) reach sexual maturity at 3-4 years of age and have a reproductive lifespan of 25 years, with a gestation period of 336-405 days.

 

 

Camels in Australia.

 

Australia has the largest population of feral camels and the only herd of dromedary (one-humped) camels exhibiting wild behaviour in the world.

 

History

The camel arrived in Australia in 1840 from Canary Islands.  

When the Apolline, under Captain William Deane,  docked at Port Adelaide in South Australia on 12^th  October 1840, but all but one of the camels died on the voyage.

The surviving camel, Harry, was used for inland exploration by pastoralist and explorer John Ainsworth Horrocks on his ill-fated 1846 expedition into the arid South Australian interior near Lake Torrens, in searching for new agricultural land. He became known as the 'man who was shot by his own camel'. On 1 September Horrocks was preparing to shoot a bird on the shores of Lake Dutton. His kneeling camel moved while Horrocks was reloading his gun, causing the gun to fire and injuring the middle fingers of his right hand and a row of teeth. Horrocks died of his wounds on 23 September in Penwortham after requesting that the camel be shot. 

Australia's first major inland expedition to use camels as a main form of transport was the Burke and Wills expedition in 1860. The Victorian Government imported 24 camels for the expedition. The first cameleers arrived on 9 June 1860 at Port Melbourne from Karachi (then known as Kurrachee and then in British India) on the ship the Chinsurah, to participate in the expedition. As described by the Victorian Exploration Expedition

Committee, "the camels would be comparatively useless unless accompanied by their native drivers". The cameleers on the expedition included 45-year-old Dost Mahomed, who was bitten by a bull camel, leading to the permanent loss of use of his right arm, and Esa (Hassam) Khan from Kalat, who fell ill near Swan Hill. They cared for the camels, loaded and unloaded equipment and provisions and located water on the expedition.

 

 

At least 15,000 camels with their handlers are estimated to have come to Australia between 1870 and 1900. Most of these camels were dromedaries, especially from India, including the Bikaneri war camel from Rajasthan as a riding camel, and lowland Indian camels for heavy work. Other dromedaries included the Bishari riding camel of North Africa and Arabia. A bull camel could be expected to carry up to 600 kilograms (1,300 lb), and camel strings could cover more than 40 kilometres (25 mi) per day.

Camel stud were start up around 1866, by one Sir Thomas Elder and Samuel Stuckey, at Beltana and Umberatana Stations in South Australia. In 1894 a government camel stud was set up at Londonberry, near Coolgardie in Western Australia also.

These studs operated for 50 years and provided high-class breeders for the Australian camel trade.

Camels continued to be used for inland exploration by Peter Warburton in 1873, William Christie Gosse in 1873, Ernest Giles in 1875–76, David Lindsay in 1885–1886, Thomas Elder in 1891–1892, on the Calvert Expedition in 1896–97, and by Cecil Madigan in 1939. They were also used in the construction of the Overland Telegraph Line, and carried pipe sections for the Goldfields Water Supply Scheme.

Unlike horses, camels were well-suited to survive in dry regions of outback Australia. They were in demand as they could be used for travel and transportation during long journeys into the continent's interiors. Besides, their ability to carry on without drinking water for weeks was an added advantage for travels in dry regions.

Thus, for decades, camels remained valuable assets in the everyday life of colonial rulers in Australia. Their dependence was such that by 1907, the British had imported nearly 20,000 camels into Australia, largely from India, Afghanistan and the Arab world.

From 1920s, the population of domestic camels in Australia began declining as people started using vehicles and abandoned camels. Over the next decade, Australia saw a "wholesale abandonment" of domestic camels.

 

Camels and the Aboriginal people

 

As the Afghan cameleers increasingly travelled through the inland, they encountered a diversity of Aboriginal groups. An exchange of skills, knowledge and goods soon developed. Some cameleers assisted Aboriginal people by carrying traditional exchange goods, including red ochre or the narcotic plant pituri, along ancient trade routes such as the Birdsville Track. The cameleers also brought new commodities such as sugar, tea, tobacco, clothing and metal tools to remote Aboriginal groups. Aboriginal people incorporated camel hair into their traditional string artefacts, and provided information on desert waters and plant resources. Some cameleers employed Aboriginal men and women to assist them on their long desert treks. This resulted in some enduring partnerships, and several marriages.

By the 1930s, as the cameleers became displaced by motor transport, an opportunity arose for Aboriginal people. They learnt camel-handling skills and acquired their own animals, extending their mobility and independence in a rapidly changing frontier society. This continued until at least the late 1960s. A documentary film, Camels and the Pitjantjara, made by Roger Sandall, shot in 1968 and released in 1969, follows a group of Pitjantjara men who travel out from their base at Areyonga Settlement to capture a wild camel, tame it and add it to their domestic herds. They then use camels to help transport a large group of people from Areyonga to Papunya, three days walk.

Camels appear in Indigenous Australian art, with examples held in collections of the National Museum of Australia and Museums Victoria.

Once released in the open, these camels became feral and started multiplying rapidly.

 

Australian Camel Corp

The Imperial Camel Corps (ICC) was formed in 1916 in order to deal with the revolt of pro-Turkish Senussi tribesmen in Egypt's Western Desert. The first four companies were recruited from Australian infantry battalions recuperating after Gallipoli. Four battalions were eventually formed. The 1st and 3rd were entirely Australian, the 2nd was British, and the 4th was a mix of Australians and New Zealanders. Each regiment had around 770 men, and at full strength the brigade contained almost 4,000 camels.

The camels fought alongside the Australian Light Horse at the battles of Romani, Magdhaba, Rafa, Gaza and Beersheba. They suffered heavy losses during the seconf battle of Gaza in 1917 and in the operations later that year, to destroy the Turkish defensive line between Gaza and Beersheba.
As the ICC moved into the more fertile country of northern Palestine, its practicality declined.

The camels needed more fodder and water than equivalent numbers of horses, and, unimpeded by the desert, horses could move much faster. The bulk of the ICC was disbanded in June 1918 and the Australians were used to form the 14th and 15th Light Horse Regiments.

Though Camel were not sent to WW1 from Australia they were used in the training of our Australian Camel Corp reinforcements, here at home.  Like the below photos from the Australian War Memorial of Menangle Park, NSW. 1916, where members of the AIF are training as reinforcements for the Australian Camel Corps. (Donor G. Henderson)

 

 

In 1969, population of such feral camels roaming in outback Australia was estimated to be between 15,000 and 20,000. In the next 20 years, their population more than doubled. It was estimated that 43,000 feral camels inhabited Australia in 1988.

In 2008, the number of feral camels was estimated to be more than one million, with the capability of doubling in number every 8 to 10 years. In 2013, there was an estimated  population of 600,000 prior to culling operations, and around 300,000 camels after culling, with an annual growth of 10% per year.

 

Although their impact on the environment is not as severe as some other pests introduced in Australia, camels ingest more than 80% of the plant species available. Degradation of the environment occurs when densities exceed two animals per square kilometre,

Camels can do significant damage to infrastructure such as taps, pumps, and toilets, as a means to obtain water, particularly in times of severe drought. They can smell water at a distance of up to five kilometres, and are even attracted by moisture condensed by air conditioners. They also damage stock fences and cattle watering points. These effects are felt particularly in Aboriginal and other remote communities where the costs of repairs are prohibitive.

Camels in Australia are blessed by nature. They have the stamina and endurance to survive in harsh conditions, and the very sparsely populated outback means they haven't faced much competition from other species.

The other factor that works strongly in their favour is that the Australian landscape hardly hosts any predator for camels. The dingo is believed to be the only potential predator, but it too attacks only the newborns and calves.

Thus, besides humans, who occasionally hunt them for meat, camels in Australia hardly have enemies--a win-win situation. No wonder their population has not just ballooned but exploded.

Drought conditions in Australia during the first decade of the 21st century were particularly harsh, leading to thousands of camels dying of thirst in the outback.

Management of feral camels is not consistent and has little impact on populations overall. 

Management falls into three categories:

• Fencing off key areas to keep out feral camels.
• Live harvest and export of feral camels for commercial sale - currently this is about 5,000 camels a year, but this has potential to grow.
• Ground and aerial culling - in the NT aerial shooting is done by Parks and Wildlife contractors with the cost of helicopter hire and ammunition being paid by the land manager.

The most widely used method to check their population is aerial culling in which thousands of wild camels are shot down by snipers using helicopters.

Today, feral camels are found across Western Australia, South Australia, Queensland and the Northern Territory, covering nearly an area of 3.3 million sq. km.

So, in the 180 years between their introduction in 1840 to the present times, camels in Australia have a come a long way: from being a valuable asset to a wild "pest".

 

 

 

Camel industry

 

Camel meat

A multi-species abattoir at Caboolture in Queensland run by Meramist regularly processes feral camels, selling meat into Europe, the United States and Japan. Samex Australian Meat Company in Peterborough, South Australia, also resumed processing feral camels in 2012. It is regularly supplied by an Indigenous camel company run by Ngaanyatjarra Council on the Ngaanyatjarra Lands in Western Australia and by camels mustered on the Anangu Pitjantjatjara Yankunytjatjara (APY) Lands of South Australia. A small abattoir on Bond Springs Station just north of Alice Springs also processes small quantities of camels when operational.

Camel meat was also used in the production of pet food in Australia. In 2011, the RSPCA issued a warning after a study found cases of severe and sometimes fatal liver disease in dogs that had eaten camel meat containing the amino acid indospicine, present within some species of a genus of plants known as Indigofera.

Live camels are occasionally exported to Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates, Brunei, and Malaysia, where disease-free wild camels are prized as a delicacy. Australia's camels are also exported as breeding stock for Arab camel racing stables, and for use in tourist venues in places such as the United States. Exports to Saudi Arabia where camel meat is consumed began in 2002.

 

Camel milk

Australia's first commercial-scale camel dairy, Australian Wild Camel Corporation (Summerland Camels), was established in 2015 in Clarendon, Queensland. The Camel Milk Company in northern Victoria has grown from three wild camels in 2014 to over 300 in 2019, and exports mostly to Singapore, with shipments of both fresh and powdered product set to start to Thailand and Malaysia.

Production of camel milk in Australia grew from 50,000 litres (11,000 imp gal) of camel milk in 2016 to 180,000 litres (40,000 imp gal) per annum in 2019.

 

There are now a number of camel dairies across Australia:

 

QLD : Summerland Camels , QCamel & Camelot Dairies

NSW : Camel Milk NSW

VIC : Camel Milk Co Australia & Camilk

SA : Humpalicious

WA : Good Earth Dairy, Calamunnda Camel Farm & Dromedairy

 

Tourism

There are numerous Camel farms offering rides or treks to tourists around Australia; just to mention a few there is Kings Creek Station near Uluru, Calamunnda Camel Farm in Western Australia, Camels Australia at Stuart Well, south of Alice Springs, and Pyndan Camel Tracks in Alice Springs. Camel rides are offered on the beach at Victor Harbor in South Australia and on Cable Beach in Broome, Western Australia.

There are also two popular camel racing events in Central Australia, the Camel Cup in Alice Springs and the Uluru Camel Cup at Uluru Camel Tours at Uluru.

 

 

 

 

Sources;

 

https://nt.gov.au/environment/animals/feral-animals/feral-camel

 

https://www.indiatoday.in/world/story/astonishing-story-of-australian-camels-why-thousands-of-them-are-shot-dead-routinely-1635687-2020-01-11

 

https://www.awm.gov.au/collection/U51065

 

 

Wikipedia and Collier's Encyclopaedia

 

 

 

 

Page Photos;

1: From Wikipedia, public domain.

2: Approx 1886 Camels in harness at Hergott Springs, Central Australia from the State Library of SA public domain.

3: Parliamentary Party on Camels about 13 miles north of Algebuckina. Parliamentary Party on Camels about 13 miles north of Algebuckina. The party left Alice Springs on the Broken Hill Express on October 17, 1889. The members include Mr Playford, Mr Moncrief, Mr Krichauff, Mr Homer. from the State Library of SA public domain

4: Approx 1909 A small team of camels harnessed to a wagon lie down whilst waiting for the loading of grain bags to be completed from the State Library of SA public domain.

5: Approx. 1889 Team of 20 camels, belonging to Mount Eba Station, leaving Port Augusta West with stores from the State Library of SA public domain.

6: Page 28 of the Queenslander Pictorial, supplement to The Queenslander, 23 December, 1916. State Library of Queensland

7: Imperial Camel Corp from the State Library of SA public domain.

8 & 9: Australian War Memorial of Menangle Park, NSW. 1916, where members of the AIF are training as reinforcements for the Australian Camel Corps. (Donor G. Henderson)

10: Feral camels by  freeaussiestock.com

11: An Indigenous stockmen at a feral camel muster on the APY Lands of South Australia, source wikipedia public domain.

12: Needpix.com public domain.

13: Camel racing during the 2009 Camel Cup held at Alice Springs, source wikicommands public domain.