Australia is home to the largest population of feral dromedary camels (Camelus dromedarius) in the world. Estimated at between 300,000 and over one million individuals, these imposing desert animals roam across approximately 3.3 million square kilometres of the Australian outback, spanning the arid and semi-arid regions of Western Australia, the Northern Territory, South Australia, and western Queensland. Originally imported as essential beasts of burden during the nineteenth century, Australia’s feral camels are now a significant environmental, cultural, and economic concern.
A History of Service
Camels were first brought to Australia in 1840, when a single animal was imported to assist with the exploration of the continent’s vast interior. Over the following decades, thousands more camels were imported from India, Afghanistan, and the Middle East, along with their handlers — the Afghan cameleers, or “Afghans” as they became known. These men and their camels played an indispensable role in opening up the Australian interior, transporting supplies, building the Overland Telegraph Line, and supporting the construction of railways across some of the most inhospitable terrain on Earth.
The camel’s extraordinary adaptation to arid conditions made it perfectly suited to the Australian outback. Capable of travelling long distances without water, carrying heavy loads, and thriving in extreme heat, camels were the backbone of transport and supply in inland Australia for more than half a century. At the peak of the camel transport era in the early twentieth century, an estimated 20,000 domesticated camels were working across the continent.
However, the advent of motorised transport in the 1920s and 1930s rapidly rendered the camel obsolete as a working animal. As trucks and railways replaced camel trains, thousands of camels were released into the wild or simply abandoned in the desert. These released animals, perfectly adapted to the harsh Australian interior, thrived and began to reproduce, forming the foundation of the feral population that exists today.
Population Growth and Range
Feral camel populations in Australia have the potential to double every eight to ten years under favourable conditions. With no natural predators in Australia and access to vast expanses of suitable habitat, the population grew steadily throughout the twentieth century. By the early 2000s, the feral camel population was estimated at approximately one million individuals, prompting growing concern among land managers, conservationists, and Indigenous communities.
Feral camels range across the central and western deserts of Australia, including the Simpson Desert, the Great Sandy Desert, the Gibson Desert, and the Tanami Desert. They are highly mobile animals, capable of travelling hundreds of kilometres in search of food and water, and their movements often bring them into contact with remote communities, pastoral properties, and environmentally sensitive areas.
Environmental Impacts
The environmental impact of feral camels is substantial and wide-ranging. As large herbivores, camels consume a diverse array of native plant species, including many that are culturally significant to Indigenous Australians and ecologically important for desert ecosystems. Camels can strip vegetation from areas surrounding waterholes and springs, degrading these critical water sources and reducing their availability to native wildlife and human communities.
During drought conditions, camels congregate around the few remaining water sources in large numbers, causing severe damage to the surrounding environment. They foul water supplies with their excrement, trample vegetation, and physically damage water infrastructure such as bores, tanks, and pipelines. In some cases, camels have been known to break into buildings and community water supplies in their desperate search for water, posing significant risks to human safety and community infrastructure.
Research conducted by the CSIRO has documented the impact of feral camels on native vegetation communities, including the degradation of mulga woodland, the destruction of desert oaks, and the suppression of native shrubs and grasses. By reducing vegetative cover, camels contribute to soil erosion and the loss of habitat for native animal species, further compounding the ecological damage caused by other feral herbivores such as rabbits, goats, and donkeys.
Cultural and Social Impacts
For Indigenous communities in central and western Australia, feral camels are more than an environmental nuisance — they are a direct threat to cultural heritage, food security, and quality of life. Camels damage sacred sites, destroy bush tucker plants that are important food and medicine sources, and degrade the waterholes and rock holes that have sustained Aboriginal communities for thousands of years.
The physical presence of large numbers of camels near remote communities also poses safety risks. Camels can be aggressive, particularly during the rutting season, and collisions between vehicles and camels on outback roads are a serious hazard. The damage to fences, water infrastructure, and buildings caused by feral camels imposes a significant financial burden on remote communities that often have limited resources to repair and maintain infrastructure.
The National Feral Camel Action Plan
In response to the growing camel problem, the Australian Government funded the National Feral Camel Action Plan, a coordinated management programme that operated from 2009 to 2013 with a budget of $19 million. The programme aimed to reduce the environmental and social impacts of feral camels through a combination of aerial and ground-based culling, mustering for commercial use, and the development of improved management strategies.
The programme achieved significant results, removing approximately 160,000 camels from the landscape during its four-year operation. Aerial culling, conducted from helicopters, proved to be the most cost-effective method for reducing camel numbers across the vast and remote areas where they are found. However, the programme also generated controversy, with animal welfare organisations raising concerns about the humaneness of aerial shooting and the ethical implications of large-scale culling operations.
Since the conclusion of the formal action plan, feral camel management has continued through a combination of state and territory government programmes, pastoral industry initiatives, and Indigenous land management activities. The Department of Climate Change, Energy, the Environment and Water continues to coordinate national policy on feral camel management and provides guidance and resources to land managers across the affected regions.
Commercial Utilisation
One innovative approach to managing feral camels has been the development of commercial industries based on feral camel products. Camel meat, marketed as a lean, sustainable protein source, is now exported to markets in the Middle East, Southeast Asia, and Europe. Camel milk, which is rich in vitamins and minerals and lower in fat than cow’s milk, has gained popularity as a niche health food product, and several small-scale camel dairy operations have been established in Australia.
The live export of feral camels to countries in the Middle East, where they are valued for racing, breeding, and cultural purposes, has also provided an economic incentive for mustering and removing camels from the wild. While the commercial camel industry remains relatively small, it represents a creative and potentially sustainable approach to reducing feral camel numbers while generating economic value for remote and Indigenous communities.
Climate Change Considerations
An emerging concern related to feral camels is their contribution to greenhouse gas emissions. Like all ruminant and pseudo-ruminant animals, camels produce methane as part of their digestive process. With a population of several hundred thousand animals, feral camels are estimated to produce a significant quantity of methane annually, contributing to Australia’s overall greenhouse gas emissions profile. The CSIRO has conducted research into the methane emissions of feral camels, and this issue adds another dimension to the case for effective population management.
Looking ahead, the management of feral camels in Australia will require a sustained and multifaceted approach that combines population control, commercial utilisation, community engagement, and ongoing research. The challenge is significant — the vast scale of the camel’s range, the remoteness of the landscape, and the logistical difficulties of managing a highly mobile species across millions of square kilometres all present formidable obstacles. However, with continued commitment from government, industry, and communities, it is possible to manage feral camel impacts and protect the environmental and cultural values of Australia’s arid interior for future generations.