![Cable Beach Sunset Camel Ride, Broome str14-goingplacesSCENIC Cable Beach Sunset Camel Ride_ Broome 1 Cable Beach Sunset Camel Ride, Broome str14-goingplacesSCENIC Cable Beach Sunset Camel Ride_ Broome 1](/images/transform/v1/crop/frm/silverstone-feed-data/573e85a8-9f90-454d-908e-7502228cdf28.jpg/r0_0_3483_2324_w1200_h678_fmax.jpg)
CYNICS have called the camel a creature designed by a committee.
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Actually, camels with their huge plodding feet and slow, unhurried gait are very useful. Being able to carry big loads and go without water for ages, they are spectacularly suited to desert conditions.
While not native to Australia, all camels introduced to the outback since the 1840s have adapted exceptionally well to our harsh interior. They're now in pest proportions out in the mulga, far away from their natural homes in Afghanistan, India and Africa.
Estimates of the numbers of feral camels roaming Australia varies from 300,000 to 750,000. One estimate put their numbers at a staggering one million until an aerial cull removed at least 160,000 from Central Australia some years ago.
Australia's wild camel population is now the world's biggest. Camels captured here are in big demand for export, especially to the Middle East, largely because they are so robust and disease-free. There are now more 50 camel farms across our nation and camel sunset rides at places like the famous Cable Beach in Broome are extremely popular.
There are even regular camel rides in our very own Port Stephens, among the Anna Bay sand dunes.
Before the motor car was introduced to the Aussie landscape, it was camels and their cameleers who opened up the outback.
Tourist train The Ghan, travelling through Central Australia to Darwin, is even named after the pioneering Afghan camel drivers.
And back in 1977, Robyn Davidson, the later author of Tracks, entered Aussie folklore with her camels by trekking 2700 kilometres across arid country to reach the Indian Ocean.
As beasts of burden, camels were vital to haul supplies and equipment in major projects such as the Overland Telegraph and building the Transcontinental Railway to Perth.
Earlier, the ill-fated Burke and Wills expedition of 1860-61 imported up to 26 camels from India to cross Australia from Melbourne to the Gulf.
The exploration party of 19 men included four Afghan camel drivers and, rather bizarrely, it carried 270 litres of rum to keep the camels quiet, or to prevent scurvy - or both.
So, it is a surprise to hear of an experiment importing camels into a semi-arid environment which went spectacularly wrong.
To learn more though of the strange tale of the Cariboo Camels, journey to the other side of the world, to the small town of Lillooet, (population 2300) just over the Coast Mountains in British Columbia, Canada.
At first glance it seems to be in the middle of nowhere, being 122 kilometres from the ski resort of Whistler and about 250 kilometres from Vancouver on the coast.
Lillooet is one of the oldest towns in British Columbia and was trail's end, the gateway to 14 surrounding goldfields when the Fraser (River) Canyon gold rush began in 1858.
The frenzy to find the elusive yellow metal lasted until 1871, attracting about 100,000 eager miners. Nestled at the intersection of deep gorges, the town is one of the province's hot spots, with summer temperatures occasionally topping 40 degrees Celsius, and with the least snow, about 27 centimetres, each winter.
Some might think Lillooet's claim to fame today is having the largest source of nephrite jade on Earth, but they would be wrong.
The first hint of an odder story lurking around is driving into Lillooet on Highway 99, over the Bridge of the 23 Camels. Only opened in 1981, there was a town contest to select a suitable name for the bridge and resident Renee Chipman won it by suggesting some ornery critters in the town's past history be commemorated.
For the Cariboo gold rush made remote Lillooet an instant, raucous boomtown with 25 liquor joints and 16,000 people. In 1860, it was the largest city north of San Francisco and one of the largest cities west of Chicago.
Pack horses, mules and oxen were soon hauling heavy freight on the Cariboo Wagon Road to Lillooet. Enter rancher John Calbraith, who believed camels might be more efficient. After all, they required little food and water and could carry twice as much freight as mules.
He imported 23 of the two-humped bactrian camels in May 1862, knowing the US Army had years earlier successfully used camels in the south-west desert.
To learn more, however, I recently went to visit the town's visitor centre and local museum housed in a former old church. Entering it, you pass a large totem pole and a big rusty iron box -the local jail years before - before spotting what's reputed to be the state's largest Rocky Mountain elk head. And there among Chinese gold rush relics, Indian artifacts, old rifles, an impressive cougar pelt stretched out on the wall, more mounted wildlife heads and pioneer objects is a genuine oblong Afghan camel saddle more than 150 years old.
As an experiment, camel trains hauling freight only lasted about a year. Everyone soon hated them, although their story now has legendary status in the region. The stubborn camels had inexperienced handlers, which hinted of everything going to end badly - some time.
The local rocky terrain also ripped the soft pads of the camels and they had to wear boots made of canvas. The irritated, high-spirited creatures, carrying heavy loads, began kicking at anyone who came close and lunging out to snack on clothing of passing miners, even their soap. Worse still, the camels smelled abominably, snorted, gurgled and spat. All this terrified the other pack animals and stagecoach horses. Whenever they saw the camels, the spooked animals all tried to stampede.
Amid threats of lawsuits and one camel sliding off a cliff, the 12 remaining camels were then either set free or sold. The Cariboo's cold winters meant many animals soon perished.
One miner, John Morris, even mistook one camel for a grizzly bear and shot it. Forever more, he carried the nickname Grizzly Morris, amid hoots of laughter.
![The last of the Cariboo Camels, Canada, 1888.This is the only known photograph of a camel from a failed 1863 gold rush freight venture.
Picture courtesy of the Royal BC Museum The last of the Cariboo Camels, Canada, 1888.This is the only known photograph of a camel from a failed 1863 gold rush freight venture.
Picture courtesy of the Royal BC Museum](/images/transform/v1/crop/frm/storypad-36mDshx2U2dAuMR3XyjpW6R/b397ca2a-96b6-472b-b274-6e1c952fef40.jpg/r0_0_583_415_w1200_h678_fmax.jpg)
Some other camels strayed as far as Kamloops, about 170 kilometres away.
Henry Ingram, a former co-owner, took three camels back to his ranch to use as draught horses to clear his land. Two of his beasts later ended up as camel meat, sold to the Hudson Bay Company.
The last of Ingram's Cariboo Camels, Lady, ended up as a gentle, if exotic, household pet, outliving its owner by 36 years. Kamloops historian John Stewart said each year the Ingram family sheared their camel like a sheep with its hair then used to stuff pillows and mattresses. Most reports say Lady died of extreme old age in 1905.
Another reminder today of Lillooet's gold rush era is the Camel Barn/Log Cabin Theatre, where the famous camels were once housed. It became a movie theatre in World War II and written up by the New York Times and Variety as the North American continent's smallest theatre. The movie projector was located in the hayloft.
Sadly though, much of Lillooet's proud past on display may soon disappear. Looming local council cuts are tipped to mean the likely closure of the town's museum and visitor's centre in 2016. Townsfolk and coach guides are devastated, claiming the special little museum is Lillooet's prime downtown attraction, welcoming 30,000 visitors during the six months each year it is open.
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