Moving on to Kings Creek Station for morning tea – scones & cream – gah, I detest those things!
They had a few camels yarded. Ostensibly, they were going to be trucked out once a load was reached. I think they had a long way to go to get truckload numbers…
There are a few camel abattoirs in Australia.
I always find it hard to get a clear story around these types of things. Very often it gets portrayed in glowing terms as an exciting ‘potential’ (that word again…) or emerging industry; discussion of culling is deflected - especially if squeamish/emotional city and overseas folk are in an audience…
I believe that there is some camel meat exported, but it must be tiny because figures don’t appear on the DAFF meat export statistics. And a grand total of 13 live camels were exported in 2022/23, I imagine for breeding purposes. Australia has the largest population of free-ranging camels in the world, and the genetics would date back well over a century.
They are a significant pest, highly destructive of infrastructure around water points, and of natural vegetation and bush tucker. Also, they can be extremely aggressive when in rut or with young calves.
Culling is both a necessity and a conditional requirement of pastoral leases in areas where camels roam – and come in from adjacent Crown Land and reserves. I know of at least one station in far NE WA where they shoot almost 1000 camels in a year, yet they still cause significant destruction, let alone the time and expense put into shooting them.
Then we moved on to the intersection of Luritja Road with Lasseter Highway, the latter being the direct route to Uluru/Eyres Rock from Alice Springs. The loop we were following is the Red Centre Way.
And then the old trick played on every newbie that comes this way.
Wow! There’s Ayers Rock/Uluru! So excited!
Hyuk, hyuk… - nah, that’s Mt Conner – come in, suckers! It’s the perennial joke on that route, coming in from the east.
Anyway, after the usual mirth from those in the know, we carry on to Sails In The Desert Resort at Yulara.
This is typical of the accommodation on the tour.