Footloose - Our Wild Camels Need Culling (March 2006)

Return to main Footloose Page

Long term travellers to central Australia would have noticed the increasing numbers of camels seen in the remote areas of the Outback. For many visitors the experience takes the form of a group of animals trotting in front of the vehicle along some narrow, desert track. The animals are generally extremely reluctant to leave the cleared pathway and no matter what speed you do they keep running, trotting or walking just in front of the vehicles for mile after mile. This gets decidedly less pleasant when the hard running animals begin to froth at the mouth and flying foam begins to splatter the windscreen … or worse!

Even so, most of us like to see these dromedaries during our excursions into the outback, but they are not as benign or as benevolent as they first seem.

The Northern Territory P&WS has recently estimated that there are somewhere between 500,000 and 800,000 camels wandering the wild, remoter areas of central Australia. They damage fencing, take food and water from native animals and destroy fragile vegetation, especially around secluded waterholes. Rare animals, such as the desert mole, even have their nesting and travelling burrows trampled as the camels wander along the crests of dunes – seemingly another favoured travelling route after vehicle tracks!

Descendant from camels used by the fabled Afghan cameleers and others who helped pioneer transport and the isolated routes through the Outback, camels were made redundant with the coming of the motor car in the early to mid 1900s.

Most of the camels were released to wander and survive on their own resources, but our deserts are nothing like the vast expanses of bare sand that these animals originated in. Our deserts are virtual lush grasslands in comparison and as such those few animals have grown and multiplied. Today, while it’s normal just to see groups of half a dozen or so, the biggest single mob we’ve seen was a herd of over 200 animals at the northern end of the Walkers Crossing Track in SA, while we have also seen large scattered groups of animals on the southern shores of Lake Disappointment in WA.

These numbers are only going to get worse as the word from the experts is that camel populations are increasing by about 100,000 animals a year and if nothing is done, the population will double in the next 8-10 years!

While the Northern Territory may have the reputation as the major area for wild camels, currently the worse infested areas are in northern Western Australia and in northern South Australia. Both these regions have large areas of Aboriginal land and in the past the custodians of these lands have been very reluctant to allow any culling of the herds.

For some years now Kings Creek station, south west of Alice Springs, has been catching and exporting disease free camels to the Middle East where they are highly valued on the racing circuit. While the operation is successful, it isn’t even making a small dent in the wild population.

The restaurant trade has also been cooking and serving camel meat for a number of years, but this has been pretty limited. Still, for the Central Australian Camel Industry Association, this seems to offer the most potential. A camel abattoir is planned for Alice Springs in the very near future and this may well process up to 25,000 animals a year, with most of the meat destined for overseas markets.

Still, even at that number, the animal population in the wild will keep on increasing. That’s especially true of the far-flung areas where distances from market make any commercial venture unviable and the damage being done by the animals is arguably worse.

That brings us to culling. And culling of our wild camel populations seems to be the only viable proposition as far as this writer is concerned. It should begin soon!

Return to main Footloose Page