{"id":2355,"date":"2024-04-14T10:08:37","date_gmt":"2024-04-14T00:08:37","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/thingstodoexploringaustralia.com.au\/?p=2355"},"modified":"2024-05-12T10:19:30","modified_gmt":"2024-05-12T00:19:30","slug":"camel","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/thingstodoexploringaustralia.com.au\/?p=2355","title":{"rendered":"Camels in Australia"},"content":{"rendered":"\t\t
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What are they?<\/span><\/span>
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Camels (Camelus dromedarius<\/em>)<\/strong> were first imported from India and the Canary Islands to Australia in the 1840s as a beast of burden for exploration and development in arid areas. By the mid-1890s, more than 4500 had been introduced for use in the goldfields of Central Australia and Western Australia (DPIRD, 2023). They are declared pests under the Biosecurity and Agriculture Management Act 2007 (WA). When cars were introduced in the 1920\u2019s many camels were released into the wild as they were no longer needed for the transportation of goods (DPIR, 2021).<\/p>

There is estimated to be 300,000 feral camels in Australia with the distribution throughout central Australia (DPIRD, 2023). The Northern Territory in 2024 stated that there is over one million feral camels throughout Australia (The Territory, 2024).<\/p>

They can destroy plants and infrastructure:<\/p>