Australian feral camels are introduced populations of dromedary, or one-humped camel (Camelus dromedarius—from the Middle East, North Africa and the Indian subcontinent).
Imported to Australia as valuable beasts of burden from British India and AfghanistanAustralia, home to the world's largest camel herd – BBC News during the 19th century (for transport and sustenance during the exploration and colonisation of the Red Centre), many were casually released into the wild after motorised transport negated the use of camels in the early 20th century. This resulted in a fast-growing feral population with numerous ecological, agricultural, and social consequences. Australia has the largest population of feral camels, which is notable for being disease-free and the only herd of dromedary camels exhibiting wild behaviours in the world.
In 2008, the number of feral camels was estimated to be more than one million, with the capability of doubling in number every 8 to 10 years.Managing the impacts of feral camels in Australia: a new way of doing business. Desert Knowledge CRC Report Number 47. Accessed 8 May 2014.Northern Territory > Department of Land Resource Management > Feral Camel . Accessed 8 May 2014. An AU$19 million culling program was funded in 2009, and by 2013 a total of 160,000 camels were slaughtered, estimating the feral population to have been reduced to around 300,000, with an annual growth of 10% per year. A post-kill analysis projected the original count to be around 600,000.
Consequences Effects on the environment
Camels are known to cause serious degradation of local environmental and cultural sites and native vegetations, particularly during dry conditions. They directly compete with endemic animals, such as kangaroos and other marsupials for food sources and shelters; camels may further thrive as they are able to digest many unpalatable (to other mammals) species of plants. Camels are known for their abilities to survive without water, however, when a source of hydration is available, even a small herd can consume much of the available water, and soil the water in the process (making it unsafe for drinking by other animals, and creating a pathogen-fostering environment).
Although their effects on the environment are not as severe as some other introduced species, camels ingest more than 80% of the plant species available. Degradation of the environment occurs when densities exceed two animals per square kilometre, which is presently the case throughout much of their range in the Northern Territory where they are confined to two main regions: the Simpson Desert and the western desert area of the Central Ranges, Great Sandy Desert and Tanami Desert. Some traditional food plants harvested by Aboriginal people in these areas are seriously affected by camel-browsing. While having soft-padded feet makes soil erosion less likely, they destabilise dune crests, which can contribute to erosion. Camels also have a noticeable effect on salt lake ecosystems, and have been found to foul waterholes.
Australian feral population is (one of) the last wild herds of the dromedary, and some researchers think the camels (and other introduced animals) may actually benefit their ecosystem in various ways. They may fill lost ecological niches of extinct Australian megafauna, such as Diprotodon and Palorchestes, a theory similar to the concepts of Pleistocene rewilding, and contribute to a decline in wildfires.Chris Johnson, 2019, Rewilding Australia, Australasian ScienceArian D. Wallach, Daniel Ramp, Erick Lundgren, William Ripple, 2017, From feral camels to‘cocaine hippos’, large animals are rewilding the world, Misha Ketchell, The ConversationErick J. Lundgren, Daniel Ramp, John Rowan, Owen Middleton, Simon D. Schowanek, Oscar Sanisidro, Scott P. Carroll, Matt Davis, Christopher J. Sandom, Jens-Christian Svenning, Arian D. Wallach, James A. Estes, 2020, Introduced herbivores restore Late Pleistocene ecological functions, PNAS, 117 (14), pp.7871-7878, Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of AmericaRobert Sleep, 2024, Horses, camels and deer get a bad rap for razing plants – but our new research shows they’re no worse than native animals, The Conversation Additionally, camels can be an effective counter against introduced weeds.
Economic and social consequences
Feral camels can cause damage to sites of cultural significance to Aboriginal people, such as burial sites, ceremonial grounds, and water places. Damage to seasonal food sources, outstations and infrastructure, and native biomes causes further disruption to communities. Direct camel control and management costs, restoration of damaged infrastructure, and agricultural and livestock disruption can be financial burdens.
Australian feral camels can be aggressive when they encounter herds of domestic livestocks, and can also be dangerously territorial towards people particularly in the mating season, having sensitive females with newly born calves, and rutting males. Pastoralists, representatives from the Central Land Council, and Aboriginal landholders in the affected areas were among the earliest complainants.
Infrastructure Camels can do significant damage to infrastructure such as taps, pumps, and toilets, as a means to obtain water, particularly in times of severe drought. They can smell water at a distance of up to five kilometres, and are even attracted by moisture condensed by air conditioners.Camel cull in South Australia's remote APY Lands to begin, following sharp increase in population ABC News, 7 January 2020. Retrieved 8 January 2020. They also damage stock fences and cattle watering points. These consequences are felt particularly in Aboriginal and other remote communities where the costs of repairs are prohibitive.
The carcasses of camels trampled by herds while searching for water near human settlements can cause further problems.
In the summer of 2025/6, the Anangu Pitjantjatjara Yankunytjatjara (APY Lands) were plagued by feral camels in search of water, causing damage to water infrastructure in the region. Many died, with the disposal of carcasses becoming a problem for affected communities.
History
Camels had been used successfully in desert exploration in other parts of the world. The first suggestion of importing camels into Australia was made in 1822 by Danish-French geographer and journalist Conrad Malte-Brun, whose Universal Geography contains the following:
For such an expedition, men of science and courage ought to be selected. They ought to be provided with all sorts of implements and stores, and with different animals, from the powers and instincts of which they may derive assistance. They should have oxen from Buenos Aires, or from the English settlements, mules from Senegal, and dromedaries from Africa or Arabia. The oxen would traverse the woods and the thickets; the mules would walk securely among rugged rocks and hilly countries; the dromedaries would cross the sandy deserts. Thus the expedition would be prepared for any kind of territory that the interior might present. Dogs also should be taken to raise game, and to discover springs of water; and it has even been proposed to take pigs, for the sake of finding out esculent roots in the soil. When no kangaroos and game are to be found the party would subsist on the flesh of their own flocks. They should be provided with a balloon for spying at a distance any serious obstacle to their progress in particular directions, and for extending the range of observations which the eye would take of such level lands as are too wide to allow any heights beyond them to come within the compass of their view.Conrad Malte-Brun, Universal Geography: Containing the description of India and Oceanica, Volume III 'containing the description of India and Oceanica', Book LVI 'Oceanica', Part IV 'New Holland and its dependancies', p. 568. Longman, Hurst, Rees, Orme and Brown, London 1822.
In 1839, Lieutenant-Colonel George Gawler, second Governor of South Australia, suggested that camels should be imported to work in the semi-arid regions of Australia.
The first camel arrived in Australia in 1840, ordered from the Canary Islands by the Phillips brothers of Adelaide (Henry Weston Phillips (1818–1898); George Phillips (1820–1900); G M Phillips (unknown)). The Apolline, under Captain William Deane, docked at Port Adelaide in South Australia on 12 October 1840, but all but one of the camels died on the voyage. The surviving camel was named Harry. This camel, Harry, was used for inland exploration by pastoralist and explorer John Ainsworth Horrocks on his ill-fated 1846 expedition into the arid South Australian interior near Lake Torrens, in searching for new agricultural land. He became known as the 'man who was shot by his own camel'. On 1 September Horrocks was preparing to shoot a bird on the shores of Lake Dutton. His kneeling camel moved while Horrocks was reloading his gun, causing the gun to fire and injuring the middle fingers of his right hand and a row of teeth. Horrocks died of his wounds on 23 September in Penwortham after requesting that the camel be shot.
"Afghan" cameleers
Australia's 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. The first cameleers arrived on 9 June 1860 at Port Melbourne from Karachi (then known as Kurrachee and then in British India) on the ship the Chinsurah, to participate in the expedition. As described by the Victorian Exploration Expedition Committee, "the camels would be comparatively useless unless accompanied by their native drivers". The cameleers on the expedition included 45-year-old Dost Mahomed, who was bitten by a bull camel, leading to the permanent loss of use of his right arm, and Esa (Hassam) Khan from Kalat, who fell ill near Swan Hill. They cared for the camels, loaded and unloaded equipment and provisions and located water on the expedition.
From the 1860s onward small groups of mainly Muslim cameleers were shipped in and out of Australia at three-year intervals, to service South Australia's inland pastoral industry. Carting goods and transporting wool bales by camel was a lucrative livelihood for them. As their knowledge of the Australian outback and economy increased, the cameleers began their own businesses, importing and running camel trains. By 1890 the camel business was dominated by the mostly Muslim merchants and brokers, commonly referred to as "Afghans" or "Ghans", despite their origin often being British India, as well as Afghanistan and Egypt and Turkey. They belonged to four main groups: Pashtuns, Baluchis, Punjabis, and Sindhis. At least 15,000 camels with their handlers are estimated to have come to Australia between 1870 and 1900.australia.gov.au > About Australia > Australian Stories > Afghan cameleers in Australia . Accessed 8 May 2014. Most of these camels were dromedaries, especially from India, including the Bikaneri war camel from Rajasthan who used riding camels sourced from the Dervish wars in British Somaliland, and lowland Indian camels for heavy work. Other dromedaries included the Bishari riding camel of Somalia and Arabia. A bull camel could be expected to carry up to , and camel strings could cover more than per day.
Camel studs were set up in 1866, by Sir Thomas Elder and Samuel Stuckey, at Beltana and Umberatana Stations in South Australia. There was also a government stud camel farm at Londonderry, near Coolgardie in Western Australia, established in 1894. These studs operated for about 50 years and provided high-class breeders for the Australian camel trade.