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| Wild camel |
During the second half of the nineteenth century over 10,000 camels were brought into Australia. Most of these were dromedaries from India, brought in to transport goods through central Australia. With the advent of the motor vehicle the camels were no longer needed and many were released into the wild. Australia is now the only country in the world where there are herds of wild camels. Their population has been estimated between 300,000 and one million.
I had hoped to photograph wild camels on this trip. I was able to do that when crossing on the great Central Road into Northern territory. First there were a group of three and then a large camel by itself. There were a few camel farms along the way but I didn't go into any of these. At King's Creek Station there was a young camel and a donkey who were playing with each other. The station also had a number of other camels there as well. I did eat a camel burger here but it was made from camel mince and really I couldn't taste any particularly strong 'camel' flavour.
At Uluru you could go on a camel ride out to view the rock, or a short ride around the camp, just so you could experience what a ride would be like. I took the short ride.
To complete the cycle, when I reached Queensland I came across a road train carrying camels like cattle. I spoke to the drivers and found these were wild camels rounded up and they were on their way to the coast where they would be shipped to Belgium. They were being sent live, as meat.
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| Pet young camel and donkey |
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| camels ready for tourists |
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| Wild camels on the way to Belgium |
