Jerrems Journal – May 2016 Edition 134
Introduction by Ray Jerrems,
Above is a photo of twelve camels itching to show their versatility by towing a house, a significant change of subject from my recent articles about the Small families. I thought it was time to have a break from genealogy. This article is the story of camels in Australia, a subject which has few parallels in the histories of other countries. My interest in camels emanated from my First World War research on the forbears of Journal readers. Camels were used by Australians in that war. Camels are much more interesting than I had previously thought, and their longstanding adaptation to desert environments made them particularly useful in Australia, which has a high proportion of arid country.
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(2) The Afghans come to Australia
Afghans without camels are reported to have reached Australia as early as 1838. The first expedition to use a camel was the 1846 Horrocks expedition in South Australia (the camel’s name was Harry). Other small successes followed and by 1858 many prominent Australians were calling for the introduction of camels. The first Afghan cameleers arrived in Melbourne in June 1860, when three men arrived with a shipment of 24 camels for the Burke and Wills expedition.[ The total number of Afghans to settle in Australia was approximately 3,000, with over 2,000 arriving between 1870 and 1900. From the 1860s to the early 1900s, the cameleers and their redoubtable ‘ships of the desert’ became the backbone of the Australian Outback economy. They accompanied exploration parties, carrying supplies and materials where horses and bullocks could not. They carted supplies, mail and even water to remote settlements, and they transported the supplies, tools and equipment needed for the surveying and construction of some of Australia’s earliest infrastructure projects, such as the Overland Telegraph constructed between Adelaide and Darwin in the 1860s and the Trans-Australian Railway (see later). Other contributions to the Outback are set out later in this article.
(3) Who were the Afghans? Although one’s normal assumption would be that “Afghans” came from Afghanistan, the term was generic, including people from Afghanistan, modern day Pakistan, and Saudis and Egyptians. |
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(4) Camels used for carrying supplies from river ports
This photo shows a camel caravan relaxing at the river port of Wentworth, at the Murray River-Darling River Junction. Wentworth was a major paddle steamer port and a jumping off point for the sheep stations on the western side of the Darling River. The camels are probably waiting to be loaded with general supplies for the sheep stations and settlements further north. Camels proved very successful as beasts of burden and an estimated 10,000 to 12,000 camels were imported between the 1860s and early 1900s to provide transport services in the interior.
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(5) Camels used for hauling wool
From an economic viewpoint the most profitable contribution of camels was to haul wool waggons from the Outback sheep stations to the river ports on the Darling River (mainly Menindee, Wilcannia, Louth and Bourke).
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(6) Camels used for carrying construction materials
Here is a camel train carrying timber for the Trans Australian Railway, which would eventually link Adelaide to Darwin. Construction on this south-to-north line reached Oodnadatta in South Australia in 1891, being extended north to Alice Springs in the 1920s. In the 1980s it was upgraded and extended further north to Darwin. In recognition of the contribution of Afghans and their camels to the construction of this railway it is called “The Ghan”. It provides one of the greatest railway journeys in the world. Camels are deceptively strong, as demonstrated by the above photo. The heavy wooden saddles used on camels allowed unusually shaped loads to be carried, where the loads would otherwise have had to be placed in horse carts or bullock waggons. Another advantage with camels was that they were loaded while seated, in the positions shown in the Wentworth photo. This meant that the loads did not have to be lifted up, as was the case with horses and mules. Teams of up to 100 camels are reported to have been used to carry material to build the rabbit-proof fence in Outback Queensland.
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(7) Camels used for transport (buggies, carts etc)
Pulling a light buggy was child’s play for a camel. Here is a photo of a daydreaming camel harnessed to a quite fancy buggy in a town. An interesting aspect is that rural property owners in farming country would normally travel to town by horse and cart because it would enable them to carry a load, or carry a family. The owner of this buggy chose to use a camel, probably because camels were easier and cheaper to maintain in such a dry area.
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(8) Advantages of camels compared with other animals
Camels are of course famous for their ability to go without water for days. I have a photo of a camel which was reputed to have set a world record in Western Australia in 1895 by travelling an amazing 600 miles (1000km) without water.
In the early 1860s the explorer Ernest Giles travelled 350 kilometres in eight days without giving water to his camels. Camels eat most plant material, including grasses, succulents, shrubs, saltbush and acacias. They actually prefer roughage to cultivated grass and they have a high need for salt and therefore eat salty plants like saltbush, even devouring thorny, bitter or toxic species avoided by other herbivores. Their unique physiology enables them to extract the maximum amount of moisture from their food. In addition to this, food for six months can be stored as fat in their humps. In contrast horses are comparatively fussy eaters, needing grass and supplementary feed like oats to maintain condition. Working bullocks are easier to feed because they can live on grass foraged at night. Camels also have splayed feet which help them obtain traction on loose ground. Their feet also mean that they do not require horseshoes or farriers. A downside is that camels smell terrible. Horses would often bolt when they smelt them, requiring stockmen to quickly restrain their horses if they saw a camel train coming. A feature of the camel trains was that the calves came along as well, trotting along next to their mothers. Female camels, in addition to being quite tractable if raised from birth, were very maternal and were comparatively contented if accompanied by their calves. Like most wild animals the calves could keep up with their mothers almost as soon as they were born.
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(9) Imperial Camel Corps
After the evacuation of Australian troops from Gallipoli early in the First World War some of the companies in the Australian Light Horse Brigades were assigned to the Imperial Camel Corps, which became a joint force of British, Australian, New Zealand and Indian troops. The initial impetus for the formation of the Imperial Camel Corps was provided in Palestine by the depredations of the Senussi tribesmen, who were allies of the Turks. These tribesmen used their camels for transport in the desert terrain, forcing the British authorities to do the same. The Corps served with distinction, specialising, after the Senussi were defeated, in patrolling desert country and carrying out guerrilla raids against the Turks. (10) Advent of the motor car Camel trains were eventually superseded by motor trucks. Some Afghans returned to their homeland, but some stayed on in Australia, often as itinerant merchants calling in at the Outback homesteads. They became somewhat of an institution, some of their descendants still living in remote towns like Broken Hill. Most camels were released in the 1920s when motor vehicles became more common; the freed camels established feral herds scattered throughout Australia’s arid interior. The total population is estimated to now be at least 400,000 with half of them in Western Australia. (11) Conclusion I hope you liked reading about camels, who played such an important part in Australia’s Outback history.
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From Donald Jerrems, Publisher in North Carolina.
We had a close call this month when Ray’s monthly sendings to me bounced back to him, Unfortunately, I failed to check my back up email address. (Ray had sent the copy and photos to the back up address.)
In order to keep our publishing streak going, Ray contacted our long-time subscriber Leila Menzies in Los Angeles. She called and forwarded Ray’s previous emails regarding the bouncing.
And so, the streak continues – every month since June 2005 – thanks to Leila. And I will check my backup email more carefully in the future.
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