SYDNEY LETTER:The Aborigines view the camel as sacred and say killing them would provoke a drought, writes PÁDRAIG COLLINS.
NOT MANY people realise there are camels in Australia, but there are a million of them roaming wild in the centre of the continent. However, the ships of the desert, who stand more than two metres tall and weigh up to a tonne, have become a dangerous pest, causing huge damage to farms, Aboriginal communities and the environment as they search for water. They are also a hazard on outback roads and sometimes ransack cars for food.
While federal, state and territory environment ministers work on a plan to deal with what has been called a plague, the strongest opposition is coming from some Aboriginal communities who fear killing an animal with biblical links will bring drought.
Camels were introduced to Australia between 1840 and 1907 and used mainly as pack animals in the construction of rail and telegraph lines, and to bring supplies and equipment to mining camps. Their ability to carry huge loads over long distances and go for days without water meant they were far more useful than horses in the soaring desert temperatures. The men that handled them were Australia’s first Muslim immigrants. Though they came from many countries, including Egypt, Turkey, India and the regions now known as Pakistan and Iran, they were collectively known as Afghans or Ghans.
Trucks and trains replaced the camels by the 1920s and, their services no longer required, thousands of the hard-working beasts were abandoned to the central Australian deserts. With no more loads to be carried, the world’s only feral herds of dromedary camels took well to a life of leisure and bountiful breeding. There are now more than a million of them and that figure is predicted to double within a decade. A cull seems the most immediate solution to the damage being done by the hordes, and the political will to carry it out is there. But the deeply Christian (usually Catholic) faith of many Aboriginal tribes in central Australia is proving to be a stumbling block. For them, the camel is a religious symbol.
Northern Territory’s environment minister Alison Anderson (who is Aboriginal herself) says: “The Three Wise Men rode in on three camels and my people think that we have to leave a million camels out there to run around . . . that’s the fear that we have to start talking to indigenous people about because they think if you kill God’s animals we’re going to have serious drought,” she told ABC radio.
Anderson says a fear of drought due to a cull is superseded by the fact the camels are already contributing to drought in their constant search for water. “They go into houses and they smash the taps, and anywhere they can smell water they will absolutely destroy the pipes and the taps and the toilet bowls . . . Our traditional water holes have all but caved in.” The camels also drop dung near the water holes. This leads to a build up of both flies and mosquitoes and resultant health problems, particularly for children.
There is a large and potentially lucrative market for camel meat, which is low in fat and cholesterol, in Arab and Muslim countries but the lack of suitable abattoirs, especially halal-certified ones, in central Australia is a hindrance to taking advantage of this trade.
Glenn Edwards, chief scientist at the Northern Territory’s Environment Department, says while there is also talk of using the camels for pet meat, the region’s remoteness means most of them will just have to be shot from the air.
“There are places like the Simpson Desert, for example, where there just is no infrastructure. There are no roads in there and there are lots of camels and the only way we can really get at them in the middle of the Simpson Desert is to go in in helicopters and cull them,” he said.
Edwards says that despite religious sensitivities, tough decisions have to be made. “People have to make the choice about what’s actually important to them; it is the camel . . . or is the environment and the sacred sites and all those culturally important things out there that camels are actually having a heavy impact on at the moment?”
Though the trade in camel meat for either human consumption or in pet food is still minimal, camel leather is proving increasingly popular for use in shoes, jackets and belts due to its strength and grain pattern.
One way or another the days of leisure for a great number of Australia’s wild camels look set to end.