The Docker River Saga

Saturday, November 28, 2009

For those of you who didn't know, Perth is the most isolated capital city in the world. Australia's land mass is pretty close to that of the continental USA, so the boundary between Western Australia and the others is roughly that separating the USA along the EASTERN edge of the rocky mountains.

Think South Dakota, Nebraska or, in a pinch, Denver CO.

It is a toss-up between Adelaide and Perth as to which is closer to the Docker River and the township of that name, but you can bet there's not much water in the river most days of the year.

The annual rainfall of Kaltukatjara (Docker River) is about 286 mm.

If you have any doubts, read one of Len Beadell's books such as "Bush Bashers", "Too Long in the Bush" or "End of an Era"

So now various reports of the Camel Cull ( Telegraph , DailyChilli , ABC ) are coming in.

6,000 camels are to be rounded up and shot. Good riddance, I say.

Camels were brought to Australia 150 years ago, with their Afghan drivers, as the motive force behind exploration. With the advent of cars and trains, the need for camels declined, they were turned loose, and found themselves in paradise.

It's a dry and desert area but, I suspect, slightly better than Afghanistan, so let's reproduce!

Now Australia and New Zealand pioneered the frozen meat trade, especially in terms of keeping meat frozen for a trip around the world, and you'd think that the Aussies and the Kiwis would have developed a bit of expertise in this sort of thing.

I grew up in Western Australia, so I have a fair idea of the distance, quality of roads and so on but ….

I'm left pondering 6,000 camels, each weighing up to 2,000 lbs, much of which is bone and hoof, being left to rot 15 miles outside of town.

If only half of the camel can be recovered as meat a.k.a. valuable protein, that still leaves 6 MILLION pounds of camel flesh.(*)

I know that Docker River is a long way from anywhere that is itself a long way from anywhere, but I dream of a fleet of half a dozen semi-trailers pulling into town, the insulated trailers being bolted end-to-end to form a 6-trailer long factory, camel carcasses being hauled in one end and frozen slabs/cubes/shredded camel meat coming out the other end and being flown to Perth, Adelaide or even Melbourne or Sydney.

Six million pounds of protein has to be worth something, no?

And this is just one town.

I mean, they are sending several helicopters to do the roundup. How much extra can it cost to drive 6 trucks and a bus full of trained slaughterhouse employees up there?

I have no idea how camel meat tastes after being marinated in crushed tomato pulp for four hours; perhaps not too good.

But don't we have pigs and things that are good at recycling waste protein and turning it into bacon?

(*) Later: A moment's reflection reminds me that these are drought-stricken animals, so perhaps they do not weigh as much as an animal-in-prime. Maybe only two million pounds of protein going to waste here ….

P.S. For a fascinating exercise, fire up Google Earth and travel to lat. 24°51'58.01"S and long. 129° 5'41.58"E. There you will find the Docker River as it crosses the Great Central Road.

Observe that there are more trees IN the river than on its banks. There's a clue!

Scroll back and forth to determine whether the river flows from the SE to the NW, or from the NW to the SE.

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