Ships of the Desert

When I was in my middle Primary school years, I can remember learning that camels were the ‘ships of the desert’, and immense respect was accorded to these beasts and their remarkable survival skills. In recent years, Camel Racing has been a feature of many Outback (and not so Outback) communities who host an annual event, and the sight of camels with their eccentric natures and quirky antics as they attempt to race around the track is a source of great amusement for spectators – and maybe the jockey!

Camels are a reasonably familiar sight in parts of far Western Queensland, and I recently saw this camel on the side of the road between Middleton and Winton. In fact, many hundreds of thousands of camels roam the outback of Australia. Camels were first bought to Australian in the 1840’s to assist with transport in remote areas. Well, those explorers were pretty keen to get out and investigate what lay in our great land beyond the coast!

In 2009, we have a rapidly growing camel population that is plodding over the Outback countryside, breaking through fences, trashing installed watering points, disturbing sacred Indigenous sites; destroying fragile desert plant communities and eating scarce pastures that are valued by graziers. Camels do not have a large fan club in rural Australia.

Last month, Mr Rudd proposed spending $19 million on a mass camel culling program, which certainly drew a range of supportive and non supportive responses nationally and internationally. CNBC in the USA even called Mr Rudd a ‘serial killer’. However, the fact remains that these ‘ships of the desert’ are growing in numbers and doing untold damage to our fragile arid and semi-arid countryside.

Does the solution to this problem lie in us all indulging in a camel sausage at our summer BBQ; a camel pie at the footy in winter and enjoying a medium-rare camel steak with a whiskey and mushroom sauce at our favourite CBD restaurant? Or do the logistics of supplying a camel meat product from such a large animal that is found in extremely remote areas mean we will never really indulge in camel meat? One way or another, a solution must be found to curb our growing camel numbers, and reduce the impact that they are having on our truly unique arid and desert plant and animal communities.