Latest news with #camels
Asharq Al-Awsat
20 hours ago
- General
- Asharq Al-Awsat
Najran Cultural House Organizes Event Marking World Camel Day
Najran Cultural House organized an event to celebrate World Camel Day, observed annually on June 22. The event aimed to highlight the historical and cultural significance of camels and related activities, improve veterinary care, contribute to food security, and promote camel products by showcasing their nutritional value, SPA reported. Several camel owners from the region took part in the event, introducing the various types of camels, their characteristics, and products such as camel milk. An innovative section featured handmade crafts blending heritage with creativity, showcasing aspects of camel life. Additionally, an interactive workshop for children provided information about camels and their unique features.
The Guardian
2 days ago
- The Guardian
Why one couple, two kids and 10 camels are trekking almost 6,000kms through the Australian outback
Instead of a dozen red roses, a bottle of bubbly or romantic poetry, Emily Parrott gave her husband a camel to celebrate their first Valentine's Day. 'When he met me, that's when he met camels,' she says of husband, Luke. 'He found his first two loves. 'As long as I don't ask which one comes first, then we don't have a problem.' Nearly 15 years after that fateful February, camels remain the centre of the Parrott family's world. The couple runs the Oakfield Ranch with Parrott's father at Anna Bay in the New South Wales Hunter Valley, hosting camel rides along the picturesque beaches of Port Stephens. Sign up for Guardian Australia's breaking news email They're gearing up to take 10 camels, including Foxy Lady, Polished Copper, Bronte, Barry and Jeffrey on a nearly 6,000km round-trip via South Australia to Queensland for the Desert Champions Way: Outback Camel Trail. Winding through the red dust to the Queensland outposts of Jundah, Birdsville, Bedourie, Boulia and Winton in July, the trail features camel races and rides, live music and markets at every stop. Parrott, who has been around camels since she was a baby and began racing at 14, can get the animals running up to 45km/h. It's a bumpy – or humpy – ride around the dirt track as jockeys skilfully hover above the saddles. 'They're not very nice to sit on at speed,' Parrott says. 'They're quite bouncy, so the less your bottom is in the saddle is probably more comfortable.' Apart from the rollicking races, the trail is a celebration of the outback spirit and pays tribute to the history of cameleers. Camels were brought to Australia from Afghanistan and the Indian subcontinent during the gold rushes, when they were used to transport goods across the arid inland. Cameleers established their own transport and import businesses until cars were introduced in the 1920s. Many of the animals were then released into the wild. An eccentric 'globetrotter' named HD Constantinou spent nine years walking with camels and a cameleer from Sydney to Perth in the 1930s, wearing through 50 pairs of boots. 'He stated he had walked every inch of the way across from Sydney, the camels … carrying his baggage,' Brisbane's Telegraph newspaper reported in 1939. Sign up to Breaking News Australia Get the most important news as it breaks after newsletter promotion Parrott feels an affinity with the creatures, a passion passed down by her father who bought 20 camels to establish his business. 'Animals don't get enough recognition for the amount of effort they've put in for humanity,' she says. 'Donkeys and camels are a huge part of Australia's history. 'They were brought over here to build Australia up.' Her 10-year-old daughter, Abby, who will accompany her parents on the outback trail with her six-year-old brother, Cooper, has observed the deep connection between her mum and the herd. 'About six months ago she said, 'Mum, when do I get my special power?'. 'I said, 'what do you mean?', and she said, 'your special power, how you know what animals are thinking'.' The Desert Champions Way: Outback Camel Trail kicks off with the Jundah camel races on 5 July and ends in Winton on 26 July.
ABC News
22-05-2025
- Science
- ABC News
Camels help eradicate costly weed
Andy Park: Dozens of giant creatures with stomachs of steel have been called in to dine on an out-of-control weed in outback Queensland. The camels were brought in to eat the prickly acacia, an invasive plant costing farmers millions of dollars every year in lost production. The first stage of the trial was so successful, more farmers across Australia are hungry to join. Abbey Halter has the story. Abbey Halter: They're not your usual pest control team. But if camels are good at anything, it's eating. A thorny weed called prickly acacia has been plaguing farmland in outback Queensland since the early 1900s. Cattle unintentionally spread the weed when feeding, so experts brought in camels to try and eradicate their costly prickly problem. Geoff Penton is an expert in weed management who helped organise the study. Geoff Penton: The main impact the camels have had is stopping the plants or reducing the plants from setting seed and spreading. Abbey Halter: 30 camels were brought onto a 40,000 hectare property in the outback town of Muttaburra in western Queensland as part of the four-year trial. Geoff Penton: Their predominant diet becomes prickly acacia. About 30% of the plants have been knocked down but not destroyed. So what we've observed so far is that they don't kill prickly acacia plants through their foraging, but they reduce their impact, they stop them from setting as much seed, not entirely, but predominantly stop it from setting seed. Abbey Halter: Paul Keegan has been a camelier for 40 years at his property near Mount Isa in northwest Queensland. He donated some of his camels for the trial. Paul Keegan: When the prickly acacia are flowering, they absolutely hammer the flowers so there's no seeds. It takes a little bit of training but you've got a couple of caged camels, quiet ones that can lead the way, well it doesn't take a hell of a lot of brains to work it out, you know. They do the job but you've got to work with them. The company selling the herbicides are making a fortune out of it and it'll keep on going unless you implement something to take the flower and seed out. So they're going around spraying and treating trees that the camels can take care of. Abbey Halter: David Batt is a sheep and cattle farmer in Queensland's central west. He's not involved in the trial but has been using camels to help control the prickly trees for decades. David Batt: They are effective, there's no doubt, they won't get rid of the prickly bushes, you know, they can't do, oh well they would have yet enough of them, but they will slow it down to a certain extent. The trouble is they only attack the trees when it's really dry, you know, towards the end of light years or droughts, that's when they really hammer them. Otherwise they're eating all the good stuff on the ground that your other livestock are eating, so they're just directly competing with them. Abbey Halter: The trial's organiser, Geoff Penton, says one camel for every thousand prickly acacia plants was an ideal ratio and if left uncontrolled it's estimated within five years the weed could dominate more than 470,000 square kilometres of land across Queensland and into the Northern Territory. The second stage of the trial is now underway and Geoff Penton hopes more landowners will develop an appetite for the strategy. Andy Park: Abbey Halter and friends with that report
ABC News
21-05-2025
- Science
- ABC News
Camels help eradicate invasive prickly acacia in outback Queensland trial
Dozens of giant creatures with stomachs of steel have proved a powerful enemy to one of the most invasive plants in the Queensland outback. Over four years, camels have been introduced to prime grazing paddocks to eat a thorny weed called prickly acacia. The invasive plant, introduced to Queensland in the early 1900s, is estimated to cost landholders $27.5 million yearly in lost production. The acacia's prolific spread means eradication is no longer considered an option. The trial began in Muttaburra in Western Queensland, and the results are in — the humped mammals have beaten, and eaten, the weed. More than 30 camels have been dining on a 40,000-hectare property as part of the trial, and while they failed to kill the plant, they did keep it at bay. Desert Channels Queensland (DCQ) operations manager Geoff Penton said the trial proved how effective the camels could be in slowing the weed's spread. "It's an effective method." Unlike cattle or sheep, when a camel eats the prickly acacia's flowers, the seeds do not pass through into their faeces. It means the weed's spread is stopped in its tracks. Mr Penton said one camel for every 1,000 prickly acacia plants was an ideal ratio. "We found that grass makes up roughly only a third of their diet, so they predominantly will eat the prickly acacia," he said. According to DCQ, prickly acacia is one of Australia's worst weeds, and under good conditions can produce more than 170,000 seeds per tree in a year, completely taking over landscapes. Left uncontrolled, it is estimated that within five years, the weed could dominate 95 per cent of Mitchell Grass Downs, which spans more than 470,000 square kilometres across Queensland and into the Northern Territory. Mr Penton said the second stage of the DCQ trial was underway, evaluating the camel's impact during seasonal changes, and more landholders wanted to join the program. Paul Keegan has been a cameleer for 40 years at his property near Mount Isa in North West Queensland. Mr Keegan supplied some of his 300 camels to the DCQ trial and said the results were exactly what he expected. "Unless you implement something to take the flower and seed out, landholders are going to keep going around spraying and spraying [herbicides]," he said. Camels have had a bad reputation in some parts of rural Australia, with feral populations stealing feed, destroying fences and drinking water meant for cattle. But Mr Keegan said if landholders wanted to get on top of prickly acacia, they should swap out herbicides for the herbivores. "Inside the fence at the trial site there was no [prickly acacia] grass thanks to the camels, and outside the fence the grass is up around your knees," he said. For 25 years, camels have eaten prickly acacia across David Batt's 80,000-hectare cattle and sheep station, west of Winton. Mr Batt said he could not quantify how much money he had saved on herbicides by using camels, but it would be substantial. "It's well worth it," he said. While camels may "get a bit of a bad rap" as pests in Australia, Mr Batt said he had no problem with them mingling with his stock.
