BACK STORY - Rethinking Invasion Ecologies from the Environmental Humanities - page 25

in Australia in 1840, but the ship of the desert was not integrated into the economic
life of the colony (or colonies) for several decades (see Rangan and Kull, 2009). In
the 1860s, just as the Civil War deflected official interest from the American camels,
their Australian conspecifics were beginning to flourish, their manifest utility
outweighing the perception of some who used them, that they could be spiteful,
sulky, and insubordinate (Winnecke, 1884: 1-5). They even received appreciative
notice in the imperial metropolis: by 1878, Nature reported approvingly that they
worked well when yoked in pairs like oxen, and that they remained very useful in
exploring expeditions, though most labored in the service of ordinary commercial
purposes (Anon, 1878: 337). They also carried materials for major infrastructure
projects that brought piped water and the telegraph to the dry interior. A camel
breeding stud was established in 1866; overall, in addition to homegrown animals,
approximately 10,000 to 12,000 camels were imported for draft and for riding
during the subsequent half century. 7 Their importance continued until the 1920s,
when they were supplanted by cars and trucks—the same fate that had already
befallen horses in Europe and elsewhere.
Suddenly, what had seemed an unusually successful adventure in acclimatization
took on a different cast. As in the American southwest, once the camels lost their
utility, they became completely superfluous. A camel-sized pet is an expensive
luxury, and there was no significant circus or zoo market for animals that had long
ceased to be exotic. So some were shot and others were set free to roam by kinder-
hearted owners. At this point the Australian story diverged from the American one
once again. Camels had lived in Australia for at least as long as many of its human
inhabitants (that is, the ones with European roots) in terms of years, and in terms
of generations, they had lived there longer. They were well adapted to the harsh
terrain, where they foraged and reproduced, rather than dwindling and dying. As
of 2009, according to the Australian Government, their feral descendants numbered
close to one million—by far the largest herd of free-living camels in the world; a
year later the Meat Trade News Daily estimated the camel population at 1.2 million. 8
They competed for resources with other animals, wild and domesticated, and it
was feared that they were disrupting fragile desert ecosystems. Like some of the
elephant populations of south and southeast Asia, they were occasionally reported
to terrorize small towns. After helping to build the nation, they had, it was asserted,
'outstayed their welcome'. 9 At least until recently, culling did not keep up with
new births; and the market for camel meat that had arisen in the 1980s made even
less of a dent. Unsurprisingly, in a pattern that had also emerged with regard to
feral horses, burros, and pigs in North America, as officials contemplated more
drastic methods that would quickly reduce the population by two-thirds, human
resistance also emerged, whether based on regard for the welfare of individual
camels, the hope the camels could be converted dead or alive into a profit center
(meat or tourism), or the fear that large-scale eradication would require the
violation of property rights. 10
The acclimatization agenda in New Zealand was somewhat different with regard
to its objects, but at least equally enthusiastic and even more persistent. Since the