Dear Peter.
Your posting was very informative, I will try to get the Book from my local library, it may give a clue to the Goat problem.
Thanks again, Roger.
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> Date: Tue, 14 Jul 2009 08:37:52 +0930
> From: [log in to unmask]
> Subject: Re: More pack animals!
> To: [log in to unmask]
>
> Camels were imported from Afghanistan and Pakistan to Australia from
> the 1860s onward and used for transport in arid outback regions,
> principally by the pastoral industry, but also to support mining
> operations. Skilled Afghan cameldrivers came with them, and set up
> bases at the railhead towns like Broken Hill in New South Wales,
> Cloncurry in Queensland, Coolgardie in Western Australia, and Marree
> and Oodnadatta in South Australia, from where they carried goods to
> and from outlying cattle stations and mining towns until about the
> 1920s, when motor lorries began to replace them. Camels were much
> more hardy than horses, carried heavier loads, didn't need shoeing
> and could work on rough feed. The best book on the subject is
> Christine Stevens, Tin Mosques and Ghantowns, a History of Afghan
> Cameldrivers in Australia, Oxford University Press, Melbourne, 1989.
> The traditional Afghan practice was to load the camels with a pack on
> either side and lead them as a string, nose to tail. When Europeans
> operated camels they usually treated them like horses, and harnessed
> them in teams to haul a wagon. There are tens of thousands of feral
> camels in the Australian outback today; there is an industry
> exporting them to Saudi Arabia as racing camels, because they are in
> better health than the wild camels of the Middle East.
>
> Turning to the subject of goats, they were also prolific in rural
> Australian towns until about the 1960s, principally for milking, but
> I have never seen or heard of goats being used for commercial or
> mining transport. They could potentially have been; there are
> photographs of children with goat teams harnessed to small carts for
> entertainment and tasks like carrying firewood.
>
> Peter Bell
>
> On 14/07/2009, at 4:16 AM, Roger Hutchins wrote:
>
>> I take back the remark about camels and elephants. I have just
>> remembered that camels were taken to Australia as pack animals, and
>> still roam wild in some places.Were the camels used in mining
>> operations? I am sure that some one out there knows.
>> Roger.
>>
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