A18-Sunday News, February 24, 1980

eyes -\ustralian

racing camels

BY BRIAN DEWHURST

ALICE SPRINGS, Australia
(UPI) - When you consider
Britain has sent tom-toms to
Nigeria and bird whistles to
the Canary Islands, it is easy
to believe that Australia
exports camels to the Middle
East.

In a land that imported
camels helped to open up
160 years ago, they have not
only survived but have
improved on their species.

Australian camels have
built up an immunity over
the years to most of the
diseases that plague their
Middle East cousins.

Some cattle ranches still
use camels to pull supply
wagons to desert camps.

The camels — a domesti-
cated species which now run
wild — are on the increase.
About 30,000 of them
~wander Australia’s deserts.

The first dromedary or
one-humped camel was
introduced to Australia from
Afghanistan where tribes-
men for centuries ran
caravans for Persians,
Greeks, Mongols, Russians
and Indians across moun-
tains and deserts in searing
heat or bitter cold.

Without them, early
explorers of Australia could
not have paved the way for
pioneers to settle the often
hostile Australian outback.

The graceful “ship of the

desert” survived on one
bucket of water in 17 days,
carrying loads of up to 1,000
pounds and eating nothing
but thorny bushes garnished
with bark.

The camel was invaluable
as transportation when the
single overland telephone
line was looped over 36,000
telegraph poles in 1875,
linking north and = south
Australia.

For a time, camel dealers
had a market in the United
States and about 900
Australian camels were
exported to America bet-
ween 1955 and 1970 to
appear in Hollywood movies
or at zoos. High freight
charges put an end to this
trade.

But Noel Fullerton, who
runs a camel “spread” near
Alice Springs hopes a new
breed of racing camel he
developed will see the
Australian beast once again
being shipped to the United
States.

He already has one order
from a U.S. buyer for an 8-
foot tall dromedary named
“Lucy” and her two-month-
old offspring, “Uacle Sam.”

Fullerton keeps his
permanent herd to about 38
prime specimens but he
handles shipments through-
out the world from the
reservoir of camels that
roam wild around his
homestead.

MOSCOW: Alexia'Kosygin, member of the CPSU CC
Politburo, Chairman of the USSR Council of Ministers,

is pictured making his election speech in an election

“Most of them go to zoos
and wildlife parks, but there
is a strong and growing
interest among the Arab
countries for the much
healthier Australian camels,
particularly the special
breed of racing stock which
Gan sustain speeds above 40
miles an hour for remarkable
distances,” Fullerton said.

“But exporting camels to
the Middle East is still
frought with — sensitive
problems of pride and
prejudice.”

He said moves are afoot to
circumvent that problem
through artificial isemi-
nation of the Arab breed.

The high regard for
Australian camels in the land

The Tropik Sun
Fruit & Nut Store

SEO et bo ek ESS RS

3a ey

Located on the second level - south side of

Park Royal Shopping Centre

is

Come in and meet the Owen Family
Evan, Betty, Roxanne, Shannon & Paddiann

Long time North Shore residents

Bring a little Tropik Sun into your home with
Freshly roasted nuts and dried fruits

that are

The Best Available Under The Sun’’

meeting in Moscow on Thursday. (UPI wirephoto)

of their forebears was
illustrated in 1975 when the
son of the first Afghan
Jimmyhdar tribesman to go
to Australia, Sallay
Mahomet, presented the
king of Saudi Arabia with
four prime racing specimens
while ona visit to Mecca.

The camels, a gift from
the then Australian Labor
government, rated celebrity
treatment on arrival.

Your
small fortune locked

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