So who was responsible for this? The camel is definitely not a native to Australia – even my limited scientific knowledge extended to that, so whose fault was it? Well, it turns out it started in 1839 with Lieutenant-Colonel George Gawler, second Governor of South Australia. He thought it would be a good idea to import camels to work in the semi-arid parts of the country (which is quite a lot of it!). The first camel arrived in Australia in 1840 and was imported from the Canary Islands. Actually it was camels, plural, which left the Canary Islands, but all but one of them died on the voyage. The one who survived was brought ashore at Port Adelaide – he was called Harry.
In these circumstances, it was clear there wasn’t going to be the patter of little tiny camel feet. Men on their own can achieve a lot (!), but there are limits. So, this camel was used for inland exploration by explorer John Ainsworth Horrocks. Harry was clearly not happy with the arrangement as he shot Horrocks – yes – you read that right – the camel shot his owner. Horrocks was preparing to shoot a bird near Lake Torrens and while he was reloading his gun Harry knelt down and caught Horrock’s fingers on the trigger. Actually he didn’t die immediately but lived long enough to request that Harry was shot which hardly seemed fair.
So, the early history of camels was not a happy one, but they persisted. The first major inland expedition to use camels as a main form of transport was the Burke and Wills expedition in 1860 – the Victorian government imported 24 camels for the expedition. Following this gradually more and more camels were brought in and also camels did what camels do, further swelling the numbers. However, once motorised transport took hold the camels were released and became feral camels.
By 2008, it was feared that Central Australia’s feral camel population had grown to about one million and was projected to double every 8 to 10 years. Camels are known to serious environmental degradation, especially during dry conditions. So, in 2009 a AU$19 million management programme was introduced to cull them. By the end of the programme in 2013, the feral population was estimated to have been reduced to around 300,000.
Now though they seem to have appeared in Port Stephens. Actually these ones had tourists on their backs, so may not have been totally feral! The camels were one of the attractions, along with 4WD trips to go sandboarding on the sand dunes at Birubi Point. These were incredibly impressive stretching several miles into the distance behind Birubi Beach. The traditional custodians of the area are the Worimi people and in their language Birubi means ‘Southern Cross’.
As well as this, we spent just over an hour snorkelling in port Stephens marine park – a great place to spot all sorts of fish. We even saw a ray, though we’d have to admit we saw that on the beach before we even got in. Once we got in we didn’t see any more!
