Camel-herding trip for Onekaka woman “inspirational”
Looking after a herd of camels in 50-degree heat may not be everyone’s idea of a cool holiday experience, but for Lisa Williams of Onekaka it was a dream come true.
Last Wednesday evening, to a full Onekaka Hall, Lisa shared her slides, video clips and music, souvenirs of the three weeks back in February that she spent near Monkey Mia in Western Australia (WA), managing a herd of nine camels belonging to Shark Bay Camel Safaris.
Lisa traces back her original inspiration for the trip to years ago when she first read Tracks, Robyn Davidson’s account of her epic 2,700km trek across the Australian desert in 1977. But it wasn’t until April last year, when Lisa was on holiday with her husband Geoff visiting her family in WA, that she had a chance to do her first camel safari.
“I just connected with the owners, Henk and Sandra, and they invited me to come back and look after their nine dromedary camels while they went on holiday. They hadn’t had a break in six years! It felt a real privilege to be asked, because those camels were the most precious things they owned, their livelihood.”
Lisa likens her stay as a bit like being a WWOOFer. Because the owners were “camel whisperers”, they didn’t use the usual nose pegs to control their animals, so Lisa had to spend the first week bonding with her charges, learning all the communication techniques so that she could control them using voice commands and halters.
“The first week I worked hard to gain their respect, in particular bonding with the two lead cows, the matriarchs, and the lead bull, which all the other camels followed.” Her days started by feeding them oat straw and camel pellets (specially formulated with salt and selenium), then working and training them before letting them roam and forage for the afternoon. They had 10,000 hectares of hinterland to roam in, so Lisa had to guide and track them to make sure they returned to their enclosure at night. After three or four hours she would turn the lead cow and bull around, and the others would all follow behind in a line.
“It was the hottest time of the year; one afternoon it hit 51 degrees. The sweat pours off you. Being out there was hard work.”
Unlike the well-cared-for camels Lisa looked after, most camels in Australia are now wild. Between 1840 and 1907, between 10,000 and 12,000 camels were imported into the country, from India and Pakistan, along with 4,000 Afghan cameleers, to help with outback transportation. It is not known when the first feral population established, but some escaped during the Burke and Wills expedition in 1860. The feral population increased substantially after the 1920s when motor vehicles became common and camel owners sadly had to abandon their animals. Estimates put the wild numbers roaming Australia as anywhere between 500,000 and 700,000, making them now the world’s biggest wild camel stock.
Looking back, Lisa sees her three weeks with the Shark Bay Camels as a life-changing experience.
“It was amazing, to be in that outback environment with those animals; it took me back to a primitive way of life. It was inspirational!”
Gerard Hindmarsh
