Black Bull Camel on a Simpson Desert Cattle Station in 2010

Black Bull Camel on a Simpson Desert Cattle Station in 2010 Another old vid from back in the day... This feral camel was spotted near a set of yards and a water trough on a hot January day in 2010, filmed with an old Sony video camera. It's cool to revisit old footage and be amazed at how far technology has come, with iPhones being just as good (although the zoom on the old handheld was probably better). Feral camels in Australia are wonderful, destructive creatures, part of a complex and magnificently flawed history of people and animals trying hard to make a living. Camels were a vital part of opening-up the interior to stations, mines, missions and towns back in the old days, helping deliver supplies. When mechanised transport took their jobs away, the camels were let loose by their owners, who understandably couldn't imagine the future environmental problems they would cause. These days camels need management in the form of culling and mustering. Mustering, while desirable, is often logistically impossible, and the market isn't always there. As a result, culling is an important part of camel management on cattle stations and Indigenous land. I almost forgot: Most camels are brown in colour, but they do come in a variety of shades from white to black, and this one was one of those rare black colours.