We stopped at Stuarts Well Camel Farm for some refreshments and I bit the bullet and took a camel ride. My minder was a gal from Sweden. I asked her how many camels there are in Sweden and she not surprisingly replied that there were none. I tried to persuade her to start a camel farm there but she was not having any of it. Pity, I think that it could be the next big thing in Sweden! Funny how I spent four years in Saudi Arabia and I had to come to Australia for my first camel ride.
The next time you see me remind me to tell you the story of the fellow who lost his camel on O connell Street.
Did you know that there are huge numbers of camels in Central Australia? Harry brought the first one in, in 1846 from the Canaries that great camel breeding ground. The first camel was a contrary SOB so Harry decided to shoot him. While holding the loaded gun he was nudged by the camel, the gun went off and blew away two of Harry’s fingers. As he was in the outback far from medical attention, gangrene soon set in. Harry died, thus becoming the only man that was ever shot dead by a camel!
Anyway many camels were imported in particular to help with the laying of the overland telegraph. Explorers and gold miners also used them. By 1920 there were around 20,000 in harness. By then there were cars and the Ghan Train Line had been built signalling the end of their era. They all got the hump and stormed off into the desert-only kidding! They were let free and now there are 1.25 million of them doing terrible damage to the vegetation. Apparently they eat trees so the Government are employing people to round them up in helicopters and shoot them. It is causing controversy here as they are being left to rot after being shot. The ones closer to civilisation are being exported live and butchered for their meat which is then exported to Morocco, but the rest are too far away for this to be viable. At the end of the day they estimate that they will cull about 300,000 which means that the number will soon be back up to 1.25 million.
Did you know that there are huge numbers of camels in Central Australia? Harry brought the first one in, in 1846 from the Canaries that great camel breeding ground. The first camel was a contrary SOB so Harry decided to shoot him. While holding the loaded gun he was nudged by the camel, the gun went off and blew away two of Harry’s fingers. As he was in the outback far from medical attention, gangrene soon set in. Harry died, thus becoming the only man that was ever shot dead by a camel!
Anyway many camels were imported in particular to help with the laying of the overland telegraph. Explorers and gold miners also used them. By 1920 there were around 20,000 in harness. By then there were cars and the Ghan Train Line had been built signalling the end of their era. They all got the hump and stormed off into the desert-only kidding! They were let free and now there are 1.25 million of them doing terrible damage to the vegetation. Apparently they eat trees so the Government are employing people to round them up in helicopters and shoot them. It is causing controversy here as they are being left to rot after being shot. The ones closer to civilisation are being exported live and butchered for their meat which is then exported to Morocco, but the rest are too far away for this to be viable. At the end of the day they estimate that they will cull about 300,000 which means that the number will soon be back up to 1.25 million.
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