Rabbits and camels are a deadly danger in Australia. History of wild camels in Australia Where camels were brought to Australia from

"Gold Rush" on the Fifth Continent. - Great discoverers of Australia you need to know - How important it is to leave a notch on a tree. - There was only one survivor. - Camel Australiansmust erect a monument

What is this? A horse in the heart of unexplored Inland Australia? Great was the surprise of Alfred William Howitt, who went in search of Burke's missing expedition, when he first discovered hoof marks in the sand, and then saw a horse, a real domestic horse, grazing in the middle of the uninhabited steppes. Yes, it was quite a sensation, which excited everyone a lot at the time.

The Cooper Creek, which crosses the border between the present states of South Australia and Queensland, is a deceptive river and cannot be trusted. Its banks seduce the traveler with the greenery of grass and tall silent eucalyptus trees, looking at their reflection in the water mirror, however, both the water and the greenery here are short-lived. Water fills the riverbed only during the rainy season, and then disappears, dissolving in the hot rocky sandy desert, always thirsty for moisture. Inland Australia. During the dry season, only a few pitiful barrels remain of the entire river. And the sad shores abandoned by it stretch to the very horizon into an endless, joyless and merciless desert. A desert without end and edge.

Robert O'Harrah Burke's expedition lost three men in its desperate attempt to break away from the bed of Cooper's Creek, and four more had to be buried in loose sand during the sixty-three-day journey from the Darling River to Cooper's Creek, which William Wright made, hoping to assist the vanguard of this expeditions.

And a little later, Howitt also headed there, who, having reached the appointed place on Cooper Creek, was supposed to let Melbourne know if he had managed to discover any traces of Burke’s expedition. To communicate with Melbourne, four carrier pigeons were captured, which, together with everyone else, made a difficult, tiring journey of several hundred kilometers in wooden boxes attached to camel saddles.

But when Howitt took the pigeons out of the boxes, it turned out that on the way they had severely frayed their tail feathers and were not able to fly. Then he came up with a brilliant idea. Having shot several wild pigeons, he pulled out their tail feathers, cut them at the base and, dipping them in melted wax, put his Melbourne pigeons on the shafts of frayed feathers.

Against all expectations, the experiment was a success. "Repaired" so in an unusual way The “postmen” were ready to depart the very next morning. Each pigeon had a metal sleeve with a note attached to its leg and was released into the wild. As soon as they soared upward, as if from the blue skies, out of nowhere, several large falcons rushed at them. But the predators managed to catch and strangle only one pigeon. The other two rushed headlong away, and the fourth escaped by diving into the crown of a tree nearby. He was found barely alive from fear under a bush. He hid there, barely breathing, because a falcon was sitting nearby, watching for him. This pigeon was so frightened that subsequently it stopped flying altogether and, when it was thrown up, it immediately descended onto the nearest tree. It was never possible to get him to fly home.

And Howitt, although not without difficulty, managed to catch the lonely horse grazing alone. She turned out to be quite well fed, but very feral. Later it turned out that she had a broken rib (apparently from a blow from a boomerang or club), and during the catch she was wounded again, so, unfortunately, she soon died.

This was the same horse that 16 years ago escaped from the explorer of Inland Australia, Charles Sturt, who was traveling here. But horses, like people, are herd creatures that need to communicate with their relatives. Therefore, one can imagine how painful these endless years of silent loneliness were for her. Wandering through the dusty green valley of Cooper's Creek, surrounded on all sides by endless desert, she must have watched with longing the spring migration of black and white pelicans and herons, the flocks of noisy pink cockatoos flying from north to south. This spring migration occurs here in October. And in May, at the beginning of winter, when the beneficial rains finally begin, all these birds appear again, but now they fly in the opposite direction - from south to north. And so on year after year. Sixteen for long years this lonely, wild horse had not seen any other horses or white people. So, in any case, one could assume.

And this is how she appeared here. God-fearing Charles Sturt, the son of a British judge, born in India in 1795, planned to cross Australia. In 1844, he left the capital of South Australia, Adelaide, and headed straight north. He was accompanied by 12 people, 11 horses and carts, 30 oxen and 200 sheep. He also took a sailboat with him, because he hoped to discover a huge lake in Central Australia, about which there were many different rumors at that time.

Here, near Cooper's Creek, he had to endure a terribly dry summer. At this time (from December to February) the average monthly temperature reached 40 degrees in the shade. The dryness was such that all the screws fell out of the dry boxes, the horn combs and tool handles were split into small plates, the leads fell out of pencils, the hair on people's heads and the wool on sheep stopped growing, and nails became brittle like glass. Flour lost eight percent of its weight, and other foods lost even more. It became almost impossible to write and draw, because the ink in the pens and the paint on the brushes instantly dried out.

When the heat subsided somewhat, Sturt, together with his young assistant Joseph Kaul, made persistent attempts to penetrate north, deep into the continent. They managed to cross the terrible Simpson Desert and penetrate into an area located northwest of the now popular resort of Alice Springs. To save water, they began to make their forays from the main camp on foot, leading only one single horse and cart, which contained a supply of provisions and water. On their way, they left canisters of water at a certain distance so that they could use them when returning.

“I was forced to limit the amount of water for the horse to twenty-seven liters,” writes C. Sturt in his diary, “although she was used to drinking from 1 to 135 liters and, therefore, such a small amount was clearly not enough for her. We had not gone very many miles when the animal began to show obvious signs of complete exhaustion, the horse now stumbling more than walking. But nothing changed all around: all the way to the horizon, the same sand and the prickly spinifex plant. It seems amazing to me that such a monotonous landscape can last so indefinitely and without the slightest change. Joseph and I walked all day, our legs were all pricked by spinifex thorns, but I still wouldn’t have stopped if our poor horse Punch wasn’t feeling so bad. We came to the conclusion that dragging the cart further along with us meant the inevitable death of the faithful Punch.

The next morning we barely managed to get the horse to his feet, despite the fact that I tried to give him as much water as possible. Her resourcefulness and persistence in finding anything edible was simply amazing. While we sat on the ground and drank morning tea, she walked around the cart several times, diligently sniffing all the boxes and trying to stick her nose into the cracks, while she unceremoniously stepped right over us and gradually became more and more intrusive. It was impossible to look into her eyes - they begged for help, and there was such a silent reproach in them that only animals are capable of.

And yet, I am even pleased that a horse does not have that selfless affection for a person that a dog shows. A horse is a selfish and selfish animal. No matter how carefully you treat her, the most important thing for her is food. When a horse is hungry, it tries to break free and be caught in the wild. There is no horse in the world that, like a dog, would relentlessly accompany its owner until his very bitter death, without leaving him a single step, and, exhausted from hunger and thirst, would be ready to go to certain death for the sake of the one who owns it. once fed. There is no such horse. Just let the horse go unharnessed at night - and where you will find it in the morning, and whether you will find it at all - it’s hard to say. But there are times when your life depends on it.

On the way back we reached the river bed on the 14th in the morning. We only had five liters of water left. True, it had settled and now looked much cleaner than in that dirty puddle from which we collected it. Our exhausted horse could barely move his legs, but when he saw the old track, he clearly cheered up, pricked up his ears and quickened his pace. Everyone in the camp was amazed at how thin she had become. The horse never recovered from this trip.”

During all subsequent forays, Sturt's expedition found itself in endless valleys, densely overgrown with thorny spi-nifex, and the horses had to move very carefully so as not to get hurt by its sharp thorns. One of the horses could not bear the hardships of the expedition and ran away. All members of the expedition fell ill with scurvy, from which two even died. In 1846, a discouraged Sturt had to break camp and return without ever reaching the north of Australia and without discovering the lake supposed to be in the very center of the continent. Nevertheless, the journey brought him world fame; he was awarded a gold medal from the Royal Geographical Society of London. In 1853 he returned to England, where he died sixteen years later.

Meanwhile, the horse that ran away from him whiled away his days on Cooper Creek.

Which of us Europeans can boast of being well acquainted with the history of the discovery of Australia and knowing its discoverers? The names of these brave people somehow passed us by, because they were overshadowed by the famous explorers of Africa, about whom so much has been written and spoken about in the last century. There were no black kingdoms in Australia, like those at the sources of the Nile, that could be discovered and conquered, there were no huge inland lakes, and there were no excitingly rich and varied fauna. None of this happened in Australia. However, Australian explorers are no less worthy of fame and recognition than African explorers, because they were just as obsessed with their idea, selfless and infinitely courageous.

It is possible that the “Robinson horse” still saw white people and his relatives - the horses accompanying them, two or three years later, but no one will know this now. And that's why she could see them.

Friedrich Wilhelm Ludwig Leichhardt, a native of Prussia, while studying in Göttingen and Berlin, met the Englishman John Nicholson. Soon he was invited to stay with a friend's family, and Leichgard went to England. Since the times of reaction had come in Germany at that time, the free-thinking young man, not wanting to recognize the military service that awaited him in Prussia, decided not to return home. He became interested in traveling and wandered around France, Switzerland and Italy for a long time. And in 1841, the Nicholson family, who took a friendly part in it, provided him with money for a trip to Sydney.

There he hoped to get a position as a scientific consultant to the government, but he did not succeed. Then Leichgard, at his own peril and risk, decided to go (completely alone) into the interior of the continent. He passed more thousands of kilometers of completely wild terrain - from New South Wales to Moreton Bay in Queensland. A year later, he was appointed leader of a privately funded expedition. This expedition had to travel an incredibly long distance from the Darling Range to Port Essington, located on the northern coast of Australia.

Having walked about five thousand kilometers through tropical Northern Australia, F. Leichgaard in 1845 reached the goal of his journey - Port Essington. They met him there with all due honors. He was declared a national hero, received gold medals from geographical societies in London and Paris, and the Prussian government forgave him for evading military service. His companion, the English ornithologist John Gilbert, was killed by the natives during this expedition.

In December 1846, Leichgard led a new expedition, which, leaving Sydney, was supposed to cross the entire continent from east to west and reach the main city of Western Australia - Perth. However, he had to return. In February 1848 he made a second attempt. It is believed that this time the expedition reached the bed of the Coopers Creek river. But no one still knows what happened to her after that. Seven people with all their pack animals and equipment disappeared, as if they had disappeared into the endless desert of Inland Australia. And to this day, more than a century later, no one has managed to find out anything about the fate of this expedition.

Until Sturt's obstinate horse, grazing on the banks of Cooper's Creek, had to see his relatives again, another 12 years passed. During this period of time, between 1850 and 1860, important events took place in Australia.

We have all heard a lot about the “gold rush” in California. However, we were not taught about what was happening in southern Australia at that time in history lessons, and therefore we are not up to date. And the events that took place there were by no means uninteresting and very significant for the whole country.

In January 1851, after an eighteen-year absence, a certain E. Hargreaves returned from the United States to his homeland in New South Wales. He came from the California gold mines and therefore was in the nervous state of the “gold rush” characteristic of those places. Without any geological knowledge, he imagined that since the hills of New South Wales were remarkably reminiscent of the “gold-bearing” landscape of California, then there must be gold in the Australian soil. And, not paying attention to general distrust and ridicule, he hired an experienced Aboriginal guide (who, by the way, also did not believe in this whole idea) and went with him to look for gold. Arriving at a tributary of the Macquarie River, Hargreaves declared that the gold must lie here, right under their feet. Having dug up the earth and poured it into a sieve, he washed the rock in a nearby barrel and shouted:

“Here it is! Remember, this day will be significant in the history of New South Wales! I will be made a baron, you will be a nobleman, and my old horse will be posthumously made into a stuffed animal, which will be exhibited in a glass box in the British Museum!”

On May 15, 1851, a report of this sensational discovery appeared in the Sydney Morning Herald. Now the whole city was gripped by a “gold rush”. The same thing that happened in America was repeated: civil servants, workers of various firms and factories - everyone abandoned their jobs and rushed headlong in search of success. Prices for food products began to rise every day. Many stores switched to selling equipment for gold miners: Californian wide-brimmed hats, picks, sieves.

In August, rich gold deposits were discovered near Ballarat, and the gold rush moved to Melbourne and Geelong, from which almost the entire male population soon left. In the ports, unloaded ships rocked on the waves, because all the teams, led by captains, scattered in search of “gold lying under their feet.” But already in December, when the summer heat began to become more and more unbearable, most of the gold miners began to return back, unable to withstand the difficulties and hardships of camp life. But the daughters of successful miners increasingly floated along the streets of Melbourne, dressed in the latest dresses of the most colorful designs, and respectable matrons, as they passed, left behind them a trail of the smells of the most expensive perfumes. The gold miners themselves, clutching thick wads of banknotes in their hands, reveled in pubs.

News of Australian gold mines quickly spread throughout the world. In Europe, they began to fight for places on ships departing for the new continent. The Australians, who had once been lured to California by the “gold rush,” quickly returned to their homeland, and many Americans came with them.

Gold miners usually hunted in groups of four to six people. They slept in the open air or, at best, in a canvas tent, worked like animals, and could not afford anything extra in these harsh conditions. In addition, the government established a special police force, which was supposed to maintain order among such a random, motley public. To finance such protection, the government established a fairly large tax (one pound), without which permission to mine gold would not be issued.

At first, gold was indeed “lying underfoot” in some places: sometimes it was possible to lift a whole ingot from the ground at once. But soon everything was ransacked, and in order to find gold, it was necessary to dig deeper into the ground and wash the rock more and more thoroughly. Therefore, it became more difficult for gold miners to pay government taxes. They united into a kind of corporation, which led the fight for universal and equal suffrage, while the old-timers - landowners and burghers of the new colonies - wanted to have their own “House of Lords” according to the English model, in which seats would be distributed depending on rank and property status. And this struggle flared up after the British government invited the growing Australian colonies to develop their own constitution.

In the autumn of 1854, things came to an uprising in the gold mines, and in December the miners rebelled so much that the commander of the military unit of the city of Ballarat gave the order to shoot at them. At the same time, 25 people were killed and 30 wounded: only with great difficulty was it possible to keep the soldiers from further bloodbath.

By the end of the decade, excesses began with the Chinese, a huge avalanche of which poured into the gold mines of Victoria. Among the 23 thousand Chinese there were only six women, and Chinese men began to be accused of immoral behavior - harassing Australian women. But the main reason for the population's discontent lay in the fact that the uninvited guests were exporting all Australian gold to China.

As in America, the “gold rush” caused the rapid growth of the new continent. From 1851 to 1861, the population here increased by more than two and a half times (from 437 thousand people to 1168 thousand). Victoria, a former district of the colony of New South Wales, became an independent colony, soon surpassing the “mother” colony in population and importance in the British Empire. The population of Victoria increased during this decade from 97 thousand to 589 thousand, while the population of New South Wales increased from 197 thousand to only 337 thousand.

In 1853, an American imported new carriages on springs into the country. From this time on, the distances between Sydney and Melbourne and from there to the gold mines began to be covered much easier and faster. In 1854, the first steam locomotive left William Town for Melbourne; in 1855, commuter trains appeared connecting Sydney with nearby areas, and in the early 60s the track went even further, into the interior of the new continent. In 1856, a sailing ship powered by a steam engine sailed from London to Melbourne for the first time. Now this long sea journey began to take less time - 65 days. By 1858, telegraph communication had already been established between Sydney, Melbourne and Adelaide. By the end of the decade, universal equal suffrage was achieved everywhere without taking into account property qualifications.

However, the new burgeoning colonies still looked like small oases on the edges of a large unexplored continent. Their citizens, who had become wealthy, no longer wanted to be considered backward provincials: they built theaters, museums, cathedrals, and established various scientific societies. When newspapers reported significant new discoveries in Africa and other parts of the world, many here felt wounded. In addition, rumors continued that somewhere inside the continent there should be rich, fertile lands still waiting to be discovered, and a huge lake of fresh water - something like the Mediterranean Sea. This idea arose a long time ago, at the very beginning of the settlement of Australia. And it arose because large rivers in the east of the country flowed from the mountains of the Great Dividing Range in a westerly direction, deep into unexplored territory. True, the famous traveler Charles Sturt, back in the 20s, descended either the Macquarie River or the Murrumbidgee and each time ended up in the Murray River, which on the southern coast flows into the ocean near Adelaide. But maybe there are other rivers that do not flow to the south, but carry their waters to the heart of the continent?

And so in the colony of Victoria, the richest among all Australian colonies, by the end of the decade the idea arose to organize a research expedition into the interior of Australia.

A special committee was created, which in 1857 collected 9 thousand pounds sterling - a fairly significant amount for that time. However, when all the necessary expenses were calculated, for example for rescue teams and for providing for the families of the expedition members, the amount rose to 60 thousand pounds (this was more than Stanley ever spent on his grand expeditions in Africa). The main emphasis was on ensuring that this huge expedition would certainly be considered an event of the Victoria colony. It was because of this that she was not allowed to quickly and more conveniently ascend the Murray and Darling rivers (after all, then it would be considered that she started from the colony of South Australia). No, it’s better to walk hundreds of miles, but from Melbourne. Candidates for the post of expedition leader were also selected according to this principle: people with experience of working in the interior of the country were rejected only because they were citizens of other colonies. They were looking for a leader through advertisements in a Melbourne newspaper. Finally, the Committee, by a majority vote, chose police quartermaster Robert O'Harra Burke, a man who did not have the slightest experience in such matters.

Burke was of Irish descent; in his youth he served in the Austrian cavalry, where he quickly achieved the rank of captain. He arrived in Australia just during the unrest caused by the “gold rush”, and thanks to his impeccable service, he very soon took the place of a police officer. When the Crimean War broke out in Europe, he resigned to take part in it, but due to the distance he was late: by the time he got to Europe, the war had already ended.

The expedition he led was “the most expensive, best equipped, but most unprofessionally organized of all Australian expeditions.” Only four thousand pounds were allocated for Sturt's expedition, therefore, it cost 15 times less than Burke's expedition, and only one man and two horses died during it.

What was new was the participation of camels in Burke's expedition. First, six “ships of the desert” were purchased from a traveling circus, then a certain Georg Landell was sent to India to purchase 25 more pieces there.

Lundell reached the camel markets of Afghanistan, from where, accompanied by three Indian drovers, he drove the purchased animals under his own power to the coast. They walked 80 kilometers a day. Before embarking in Karachi, Lundell persuaded the young Irishman John King to take part in the expedition. John King, who joined the British army as a fourteen-year-old boy, had recently witnessed terrible atrocities during the suppression of the Indian uprising. He saw the rebels tied to cannon muzzles and torn to pieces by volleys. Therefore, the young man willingly agreed to leave. By the way, this was the only person from the entire expedition who survived after crossing the continent.

Lundell delivered the camels and Indian drivers completely safe to Melbourne, where he made his arrival very pompous, appearing in colorful Indian attire.

However, no one knew how camels would fare in Australia. There was talk that some type of wild pea might be poisonous to them. Their acquisition, or rather, Lundell's trip and delivery of all transport to Melbourne, already cost a huge amount of money - 5,500 pounds. Lundell was included in the expedition as an expert in caring for “ships of the desert.” For example, he argued that they needed to be given rum every day, so he had to drag 270 liters of this drink with him.

Probably the committee chose Burke as the leader of the expedition because he was unusually energetic, courteous and modest. For example, he meekly agreed that Lundell (a very selfish fellow) receive a much larger salary than himself. They hoped to compensate for Burke's lack of experience and scientific knowledge by sending two German scientists with him as assistants: the Munich physician and botanist Dr. Hermann Beckler and the naturalist Ludwig Becker. Unfortunately, Becker, this very conscientious scientist (by the way, one of the best experts on birds and scoundrels), turned out to be too old for such a grueling journey - he was already 52 years old.

On August 19, 1860, all shops in Melbourne closed, people poured out into the streets to carry out an unprecedented expedition on the road. All 18 participants rode horses and camels, followed by 25 horses and 25 camels (six sick camels had to be left in the city) pulled by specially equipped carts that were supposedly capable of swimming. The entire cargo weighed 21 tons. It included, among other things, 120 mirrors, two pounds of beads, 12 tents, 80 pairs of shoes, 30 hats, seed material, books, eight tons lemon juice against scurvy, 380 “camel boots”, camp beds and a huge amount of dried and canned food. A fourth of this luggage had to be abandoned upon departure, and yet each camel was loaded with approximately 150 kilograms.

As this grandiose caravan passed through the colony of Victoria, curious people came running from all sides. Even a two-meter carpet python lying near the road stared in surprise at the unprecedented sight. Since the horses could not get used to the camels and always shied away from them, they had to be led in single file in a separate column at a respectful distance from the camel caravan.

It was still winter, there were continuous rains, the roads were washed out, and several carts soon broke down. By the end of September, the head of the caravan finally reached Menindee on the banks of the Darling River, that is, the extreme point of the lands inhabited at that time: the rest of the expedition was hopelessly behind.

Serious controversy arose in Menindee. Burke soon realized that he was carrying too much extra luggage with him, and began to sell some of the products to settlers and sheep farmers along the way, in particular, he sold all the rum that Landell insisted on. Then Landell and several other people defiantly left the retreat. Instead, Burke enlisted new people in the expedition whom he met on the way, and among them a certain Charles Gray and the completely illiterate William Wright, former owner sheep farm. He instructed this man, on whom Burke had high hopes, to wait for the lagging part of the expedition in Menindee and follow with it to the Coopers Creek River.

And Cooper Creek was located about 700 kilometers to the north; The area along this entire length was unexplored and, in all likelihood, waterless, and the hot tropical summer was approaching. However, Burke, in spite of everything, decided to set off - most likely out of fear that he would be ahead of him by a certain John McDuall Stewart, who headed another expedition from Adelaide to the same region with the same goal - to cross the mainland.

So, Burke set off on his further journey with a much smaller detachment: he was accompanied by 8 horsemen, 16 camels and 15 horses with luggage.

After 22 days, on November 11, 1860, they managed to reach the dry bed of Cooper's Creek. They were extremely surprised to notice the hoof marks of a lone horse there, but they never found any suitable explanation for this.

When the party set up their camp, they were attacked by hordes of rats. All provisions had to be kept suspended from trees. However, the impatient Burke was not happy with the prospect of spending a hot summer here as his predecessor Charles Sturt had done 15 years earlier. He wanted to get to north coast Australia, to the Gulf of Carpentaria. Together with the young Englishman William John Wills, he more than once made rather long forays from the camp.

Meanwhile it was getting hotter. Temperatures reached 43° Celsius (109° Fahrenheit) in the shade. Despite this, Burke moved north with Wills, King and Gray on December 13th. Animals were used almost exclusively for transporting luggage - food and water. Four men walked 2,600 kilometers to the ocean and back under the scorching sun. Gray led Billy's horse by the bridle, and King pulled six camels behind him on a rope.

Brigadier William Brahe was appointed head of the detachment remaining on Cooper Creek. To protect ourselves from intrusive interest, and even a possible attack by the natives, the camp was fenced off with a picket fence.

Burke, leaving, ordered Brahe to wait for him here, in this place, for three months. If he and his companions do not return by this time, it means that they are probably dead, because the provisions they took with them will not last them more than for such a period. Unfortunately, Burke did not leave his order in writing, which is why investigations, accusations and lawsuits began. He didn’t even keep a diary, and if it weren’t for Wille, a very gifted, educated and also resilient young scientist, who did it for him, the whole expedition would ultimately have turned out to be almost meaningless.

Only thanks to the unusually mild summer of 1860/61 did Burke manage to cross the continent and reach the Gulf of Carpentaria, and then return back the same way. For a long time he walked along monotonous, endless, smooth as a table plains, on which not the slightest landmark was visible until the horizon, more than once made his way through sandstorms that turned day into night, and finally came out to the northern tropical coast, where rare palm trees grow and other types of eucalyptus than in the south.

Since the soil was becoming wetter and soon turned into a real swamp, Burke decided to leave King and Gray with the camels in place, and make their way to the ocean shore only with Wills and Billy’s horse. They reached it on February 10, 1861. True, they only reached a canal in the swamps, but the water in it really tasted salty and rose 20 centimeters during high tide. They never managed to see the open sea, the Gulf of Carpentaria itself. However, the lands around the bay had already been crossed by Leichgard 17 years before, only from east to west.

It was especially hard for Billy the horse. This is what Wille wrote in his diary: “When we were moving the horse across the river, on one of the shallows it got stuck so deep in the quicksand that we could not get it out of there. Finally, we figured out how to dig under it from the deeper side and push it into the water with all our might so that it would float. We safely hid our luggage and walked further along the river bank. However, the soil almost everywhere was so viscous and unsteady that our horse could not move on it. About eight kilometers later, when we were crossing a stream, she fell into a quagmire again and after that she became so weak that we began to doubt whether we would even be able to make her go further.”

When Wille and Burke returned to their comrades who were guarding the camels, it was decided to set off on the return journey as quickly as possible: in almost two months, which it took to reach the bay, they had eaten more than two-thirds of their food supplies. However, everyone felt cheerful and, without the slightest hesitation, decided to go back with a very small amount of provisions (after all, in a pinch, they could eat several camels).

It was apparently terrible, this return journey. There were fewer and fewer products. Burke divided them daily into four portions, which he covered on top with paper with numbers - everyone chose a number for themselves, without seeing what lay under it.

With this method of sharing, there were no disputes between hungry and weakened people. They felt worse every day, and the entries in Wills's diary became shorter and shorter.

Having reached the Cloncurry River in March, they found there their camel Gola, which they had to leave here at one time due to illness. His appearance was most deplorable: the animal apparently suffered greatly from loneliness and, judging by the tracks, despite complete freedom, did not stray far from the place where it was left. All this time the camel ran restlessly back and forth along the path and compacted the hard, smooth road. Seeing his relatives - other camels, the dromedary immediately calmed down and began to pluck the grass. But apparently nothing could be done to help him. When the expedition set off on its further journey four days later, this camel was unable to follow it, even though the saddle and all the luggage had been removed from it.

“We didn’t leave the camp all day - we cut Billy the horse’s meat into pieces and dried it. The horse was so thin and so exhausted that it became clear to us that she still would not reach the end of the desert. We were so hungry that we decided to slaughter her before she died and feed on the meat of the poor animal. The meat turned out to be tasty and tender, but without the slightest trace of fat.”

One day, Wille accidentally saw Gray secretly, hiding behind a tree, eating flour. But it was he who was entrusted with storing food. Burke gave the offender a thorough beating. And despite Gray’s complaints about the pain and weakness with which he annoyed everyone in the following days, no one believed him, believing that he was simply tormented by remorse. But on the morning of April 17, Gray was found dead in his sleeping bag. Everyone was so weak that they could not bury him deeper than a meter into the ground.

By the evening of April 21, the surviving three men, by moonlight, dragged themselves to the camp on Cooper Creek, dreaming of eating their fill, putting on whole boots and changing their torn, sweaty rags for new clothes.

But the camp was empty.

On the trunk of one of the trees there was a knife carved: “Dig three steps to the northwest.” Burke was so exhausted and shocked that he fainted. Wille and King began to dig in the indicated place and pulled out a box of food and a bottle containing a piece of paper covered in pencil. From the note they learned that Brahe had left the camp today, nine hours ago, and with 12 horses, six camels and all the supplies, moved towards Menindee. It ended with the words: “Except for one person who was kicked by a horse, all the other members of the expedition and the animals are healthy.”

Was it an unfortunate accident or the treachery of fate that Brahe, who had been patiently waiting for his comrades for four months, always hoping for their return, left literally a few hours before they, exhausted and exhausted, dragged themselves to the camp? No one can say this. After all, Brahe could have left earlier, citing Burke’s order to wait only three months. Nevertheless, he remained at Cooper Creek for four more weeks. But when Burke’s detachment did not return after this period, Brahe decided that those four were either killed or escaped by turning east and reaching Queensland. He could not stay longer; he would not have enough food. However, later he could not explain why he wrote in the note that his entire group was in good health. In fact, the seriously ill Patten died a few days after leaving the camp, and the other three suffered greatly from scurvy. This boastful message confused Burke, who decided that they, exhausted and exhausted, would not be able to catch up with the group of cheerful and healthy people. In fact, Braga had to make a halt in the evening of the same day, just 23 kilometers from Cooper Creek.

So, having decided that there was no hope of catching up with those who had left, Burke’s group decided to stay in the camp and, first, to slightly bolster their fading forces with the food they had left behind. And then Burke decided to go south, not along a familiar road, but an unexplored, but shorter one, which was supposed to lead to one of the outlying outposts of the colony of South Australia. This post was located at the foot of the “Mountain of Hopelessness” - Mount Hopeless.

Wille added a few words in the note and again carefully buried the bottle so that the natives could not find it and pull it out. But he left the inscription on the tree without any changes. If only he had known what irreparable harm this would cause to himself and his comrades, he would certainly have tried to add at least one word to it.

One of the main reasons why Brahe decided to set off on the return journey was that Wright, who was assigned to join the rear guard of the expedition to Cooper's Creek, never showed up there. Wright, it turns out, still couldn’t pull himself together, and when he finally set off, he led his detachment in the most inept way possible, along the wrong route and in 69 days never reached Cooper’s Creek, and besides, he also lost three people on the road. Among the dead was Ludwig Becker. Finally he came across Brahe, who was just returning back. Both groups united, heading towards the Darling River. However, dear Brahe, who apparently was still tormented by doubts, persuaded Wright to ride with him on horseback back to Cooper Creek and see if Burke’s group had arrived during this time. Wright agreed, and three days later, on the morning of May 8, they arrived again at the camp on Cooper Creek.

But Burke and his men had already left here 15 days ago in the direction of Mount Hopeless.

Brahe and Wright found the camp as they had left it: camel tracks, dung, the remains of fires, and the same note carved into a tree with a knife several weeks earlier. Nothing has changed since they left these places. At least that's what it seemed to both of them. It never occurred to them to dig out the box and bottle with the note hidden under the tree. After resting for a quarter of an hour, the riders galloped back. And at this time Burke, Wille and King were no more than 50 kilometers from the camp!

Burke walked down Cooper's Creek until the river gradually became a stagnant swamp and then finally disappeared into the desert sands. He made an attempt to cross this desert, but after traveling 100 kilometers, he was forced to return.

“Our march today was very short, because we had not even gone a mile when one of our camels (Landa) fell into a quagmire on the edge of a barrel and began to be sucked in. We tried all means to pull him back, but in vain. The ground underfoot was very unsteady, and the animal sank further and further. We tried to put branches under it, but this camel was characterized by inertia and stupidity, and we could not force it to make even the slightest attempt to free itself. In the evening, we dug a small ditch from a barrel, hoping that the water pouring into it would wash away the layer of sand and the animal would float to the surface. However, this did not happen. The camel, meanwhile, continued to lie completely calmly, as if he didn’t care about all this. It seemed that he was even pleased with the current situation.

The next morning, having found the camel in the same hopeless situation, after several more unsuccessful attempts to pull it out, we lost all hope of success. I had to shoot the doomed animal. After breakfast we began to cut off with knives all the meat we could get our hands on.

Thursday, May 1st. We started at twenty minutes to nine. We loaded our only camel, Raya, with only the most necessary things, and distributed most of the luggage among ourselves.”

The fact that Burke and his comrades had not yet died of starvation was due to the aborigines, the same aborigines who were previously treated with such distrust and suspicion and who were scared away from them by gun shots. Now they have learned from them to collect special edible seeds “nardu” - and, by grinding them between stones, to obtain something like flour. Although this flour clearly did not contain any nutrients, it could nevertheless fill hungry stomachs... The same aborigines shared fish with them and generally tried to provide them with various friendly services. But often these people left their place at night and migrated several kilometers further, and then it was not easy for the three Europeans to find them.

Here is an entry from Wills's diary: “Friday, May 2, Camp No. 7. We were following the left bank of Cooper's Creek in a westerly direction when we suddenly came across a native camp set up right in the middle of a dry river bed. They had just finished breakfast and generously offered us some fish and pie. The only way we could repay them was to give them a few fishhooks and sugar.

Our camel Raya showed signs of complete exhaustion. All this morning she was shaking as if with a fever. Then we decided to lighten her load even more by taking off sugar, figs, tea, cocoa and two or three aluminum plates.

Wednesday, May 7. We had breakfast in the morning, but when we decided to move on, it turned out that the camel was not able to stand up even without any luggage. Having tried every means to raise the animal from the ground, we were forced to leave, leaving it to its fate. After walking about 17 kilometers, we came across several Aborigines who were fishing. They gave each of us half a dozen fish and explained to us with gestures that we could go to their camp, where they would give us more fish and bread. Having shown these people how to light a fire with matches, we gave them obvious pleasure, yet they did not express the slightest desire to purchase them.

On May 30, Wille returned to his old camp on Cooper Creek. He did not find any traces of Brahe and Wright who had been here during this time, dug up the bottle and supplemented his previous entry with new messages.

How can we explain the death of the last camels? After all, they had somewhere to graze, and there was enough food. Why did young Wille, 27 years old, finally ask his companions to leave him alone by the camp fire and die alone around June 30th? Why? Is it because Burke could not overcome his mistrust of the Aborigines? Shortly before his death, which followed a few days after the death of Wills, he drove them away from him with pistol shots, and when they brought him a net with fish, he knocked it out of their hands...

In any case, the last of the three, John King, managed to stay alive only thanks to the selfless help of the aborigines. When he brought them to the dead Burke, they all cried bitterly and began to cover the corpse with branches. From then on, they began to be especially attentive and friendly towards the “last white man.”

A few weeks later, an old native named Sambo told one of the outlying border posts of South Australia, located halfway between Adelaide and Cooper Creek, that there, in the north, on the banks of one of the rivers, lived naked whites who had no food, no guns, but there are camels.

This message, which stirred up memories of the sad fate of the Leichgard expedition, immediately caused general excitement. Four rescue expeditions were equipped at once, one from Adelaide. This expedition, in addition to 24 horses, also used three camels that had escaped from Wills eight months earlier on Cooper Creek. The fugitives, in all likelihood slowly, went down the river, crossed the desert and appeared somewhere near Mount Hopeless, where they were caught.

A ship was also sent to the Gulf of Carpentaria to search for the missing expedition. A third rescue team headed from the Queensland coast across the mainland to the west to try to find traces of Burke somewhere in the Australian interior.

But the greatest hopes were placed on thirty-year-old Alfred William Howitt, who by that time already had quite a wealth of experience in exploring new Australian lands.

On August 14, 1861, he and Brahe rode north from Menindee, accompanied by 37 horses and seven camels. After 25 days they reached Cooper's Creek. The natives he met on the way were very excited about something. When they saw a caravan, they usually ran away as fast as they could. And if they managed to be caught, they pointed in fear in the same direction and made it clear with gestures that the Europeans should hurry up. Finally, Howitt noticed a large camp of aborigines, who fled at the sight of the approaching caravan. Only a lone figure remained in place, waving something that could no longer be called a hat. As the caravan approached, this man, dressed in rags, threw up his arms and fell unconscious to the ground. It was King, the only surviving member of Burke's expedition. A few days later he was so strong that he was able to lead Howit to where the dead Burke and Wille remained.

The dingo dogs had already done a good job on the corpses: the bones of Wills’ arms and legs were scattered around, but his skull could not be found at all. Burke's corpse was missing hands and feet. Over the following weeks, King was so fed that he could no longer look at food. When the young man was solemnly brought into Melbourne, the enthusiastic crowd almost tore him to pieces. A new expedition was sent for the remains of Burke and Wills. They were taken to the colony of Victoria and solemnly, accompanied by a funeral procession, were driven through the streets of Melbourne, after which an equally solemn burial followed. In honor of these two brave travelers, a beautiful monument was erected, depicting them in larger than life size. For some reason they didn’t even remember about the other dead members of the expedition. State Commission, which was tasked with investigating the reasons for the failures of the expedition, after long discussions, came to the conclusion that Wright’s too long delay in Menindee and the indecisiveness of the actions of the expedition committee in Melbourne were particularly blameworthy.

The Aborigines living along the banks of Cooper's Creek were showered with gifts; the Victoria colony even gave them two thousand square miles of land (which, by the way, did not belong to it, since Cooper's Creek is located outside Victoria, and therefore the Aborigines already had every right own these lands, but a gift is a gift!). However, the inhabitants of these places soon completely died out; by 1902, only five people remained. And Burke’s tragically ended expedition was described colorfully and in great detail by Alan Muerhead in his book “Coopers Creek.” It is a pity that this book has not been translated into other European languages, just like the author’s two previous works, “The Blue Nile” and “The White Nile,” which describe the exploration of the banks of the Nile and East Africa.

A city arose on Cooper Creek, and in the 70s a telegraph line was laid across the continent, and it took no more than two years. Menindee is now an important railway junction.

But the tree on the banks of Cooper's Creek, on which Burke and Wille forgot to carve the date of their arrival, which later cost them their lives, still stands today. And to this day, three letters “dig” (dig) can be distinguished on its bark.

Now it turned out that the assertions that there should be a large lake somewhere in the middle of the mainland had a basis in reality. The fact is that Lake Eyre, located between Cooper Creek and Mount Hopeless, was not always dry. It was once filled with water from the Coopers Creek and Diamantina rivers, which were then deep and powerful waterways. It also turned out that some of these waters, flowing from the eastern Australian mountain ranges, still flow towards the lake, but only underground. With the help of drilling, this water is extracted to the surface and reservoirs are built in the steppe for watering livestock. Without this, it would be unthinkable to raise sheep here.

But the camels, which took such an active part in the Berk expedition, and then in the rescue teams, aroused special admiration among the Australians. After Burke and Wills, for the next fifty years there was almost not a single expedition in which camels did not participate. Moreover, they subsequently found a way to force these stubborn and stupid animals to cross rivers. When a camel approaches a river, it certainly lies down and does not want to enter the water. Then he is forcibly lifted to his feet and given a strong kick from behind; Having fallen into the water, a camel will certainly swim. John Forrest (1847-1918), the first Australian-born person to receive a title of nobility, walked from Perth to Adelaide for the first time in 1870. This journey took him five months. However, due to the fact that he took horses with him rather than camels, he always had to stay close to the sea coast. Therefore, this expedition did little to enrich geographical science. And four years later, John Forrest and his brother Alexander walked from Perth to Adelaide by a different route - through the interior of the country. John Forrest subsequently became Governor of Western Australia.

Peter E. Warburton (1813-1889), a former British major in India, departed from Adelaide in September 1872, crossed Alice Springs in the heart of Australia and reached the northernmost tip of the west coast. He took with him only his son, two Afghan camel drivers, two Europeans, a young Australian boy, Charlie, and 17 camels. They captured food supplies for six months, but reached the goal of their journey only after sixteen. They managed to get there alive only thanks to the camels, which they ate one by one. “Those who read our notes,” Warburton wrote in his diary, “will be indignant at such camel slaughter. However, at that moment we had no other choice. All we could do was die, and the camels would die after us, because without our help they would not have been able to get themselves a single drop of water.

September 17, 1873. We walked 17 kilometers to the west. We had to leave two riding camels in the camp, which were not even able to move. At first we thought that they had been poisoned, but then we decided that the sharp night wind had caused them to get lumbago. My son's riding camel began to drag its hind legs, and to stop its suffering, we had to shoot the poor fellow. What a blow for us! Losing the most powerful male and three riding camels in almost one day. If this continues, I don’t know what will happen to us.”

Then three camels ran away from the travelers, and one of the Afghans set off to catch up with them. But he never caught up with them. Gradually, due to the heat, it became very difficult to move during the day, and the expedition made transitions only in the morning and evening hours. It was impossible to go at night because it was difficult to find a watering hole in the dark. Sometimes, not finding the next barrel, they had to return to the previous one. There was so little water in some barrels that sometimes only one bucket, or even less, was filled in three hours. The group had to spend a whole day near one such watering hole so that the thirsty camels could get at least one bucket of water. Then they had to shoot another male, as he was terribly tormented by a festering wound on his back. All seven members of the expedition ate the sun-dried meat of this camel for three whole weeks. It tasted like tree bark. Another camel had to be slaughtered because it was blind.

The Australian boy Charlie ran tirelessly ahead, looking for water. When one day he did not return to the camp at the appointed time, Warburton, who was reeling from hunger and thirst, decided to move on without waiting for him: it would be better for the boy to die in the desert than for the other six. But in the evening, as they set off, they came across Charlie, joyfully running towards them. It turns out that after the last night's march he ran another 30 kilometers and found a good watering hole.

Warburton's son Richard managed to shoot a bird the size of a sparrow, he gave it to his father, and he ate it to the last feather.

“If only it were possible to find at least something edible in this country,” Warburton writes in his diary at this time, “at least some snakes, crows or buzzards. True, there are wallabies (small kangaroos) in the spinifex, but we have never been able to get them, despite the fact that they have the habit of sunbathing in the open during the day, escaping from the ants that pester them in the shade of the bushes. Insects also annoy us. In addition to ants and the usual annoying flies, there is an Australian bee, or honey fly, which literally torments us. Although these insects do not sting, they have a disgusting smell and, as if on purpose, constantly hover around our nostrils.”

Travelers also met individual tribes who did not experience the slightest fear at the sight of white people and camels. On the contrary, they showed great interest in the expedition. Europeans soon learned how to behave in such meetings. To show your friendly intentions, you need to come up and stroke each other's beard. At the same time, the lush beards of Europeans made a very strong impression on the aborigines.

One day, energetic little Charlie, while searching for a watering hole, ended up at one of the Aboriginal sites, where he was received very warmly and treated to fresh water. But when the entire expedition appeared on the horizon and the people saw that the whites on camels were heading towards them, they were terribly afraid, deciding that Charlie had lured them into a trap. They pounced on the poor guy, drove a spear between his shoulder blades and stunned him with a club. It took several weeks before he recovered.

Before reaching 250 kilometers to the coast, Warburton became so exhausted that he could not stand on his feet. Then he sent one of the people with the last two camels for help to the settlers living on the coast. But several weeks passed, and the messenger still did not return.

“We have plenty of water, some tobacco and a few pieces of dried camel meat. From time to time we manage to get a lizard or a cockatoo. I hope that after the rain a thistle or some other plant will come up that we can eat. We all have scurvy, diarrhea and liver pain. We have nothing to fish with, and we are unable to catch any possum or snake, and the birds do not land near us. We are no longer able to get up and approach them. I thought that near the river we would not have any special difficulties with food, but this turned out not to be the case. Every day our strength is fading away.”

Just shortly after this tragic entry in the diary, a messenger appeared with food and six riding horses, on which Warburton and his people were safely transported to the coast.

The Gibson Desert in Inner Australia was discovered in 1874 by Ernest Giles (1835-1897). Now it bears the name of his companion, who got lost in it and never returned. In this desert the following incident happened to Giles:

“The next morning I learned that several camels had been poisoned and were unable to move; one or two of them will probably die. This was terrible news for us, considering that we had just begun our journey and were right on the edge of the desert we were about to cross. Immediately the question arose before us: “What to do?” And just as quickly the decision came: “There is nothing to do, we have to wait.” It would be completely pointless to shift the load from sick animals to healthy ones, which would not be able to carry such a load. And leaving them here unattended was also unreasonable. So, we decided to stay and vigorously treat our patients. The treatment was so successful that by nightfall one of the most seriously ill camels was back on his feet. We gave mustard plasters and enemas to sick animals, gave them hot lotions and fed them butter.

We managed to find out that they were poisoned by the plant Gyrostemon ramulosus. When we made our halt, it was almost dark, and we did not see that such poison was growing all around. Now we moved our camp and drove the animals further away, to a sloping sandy hill, where this damn seed was almost gone. The next morning, to my unspeakable joy, I found the camels almost healthy, although they were not yet very confident on their feet and were trembling greatly. The damned land here is simply suffocating from the abundance of these poisonous plants. True, from Gyrostemon animals don’t always die, but since I had already lost one camel because of it, and all the others, having eaten this dirty trick, were poisoned by it, you can imagine how frightened we were just by the sight of the damned plant. Camels that have not yet gotten sick from it stubbornly try to pick it off. But once they are poisoned, they no longer touch it. The whole horror is that there is nothing else growing around that they could graze on.”

By the way, it was Ernest Giles who crossed the continent from Adelaide to Perth in 1875. After a two-month respite, he repeated this journey in the opposite direction. And although Giles was awarded the gold medal of the Geographical Society, seventeen years later, forgotten by everyone, he died in obscurity and poverty. In his last years he worked as a clerk in one of the provincial towns of Western Australia.

In the decades following the Burke expedition, many camels were imported from India to Australia. By 1900, their number reached six thousand, not counting the offspring they brought in their new homeland. The conquest of the arid lands of Australia by camels was a great success, but, alas, short-lived. Here roughly the same thing happened as in Africa with the domestication of elephants. The domestication of African elephants, considered impossible for centuries and then brilliantly organized in the Congo at the Gangala na Bodio elephant training station, could radically change the transport situation on the mainland. However, the automobile soon replaced elephants in Africa and camels in Australia (as riding, pack and draft animals). But in the most remote and inaccessible areas of Australia, camels are still often used, and even today in the steppe here and there you can see their wild descendants.

Consequently, a new part of the world - Australia - was explored not only thanks to the courage and perseverance of brave travelers, but also the endurance of dromedaries. It is only thanks to both that it has been traversed length and breadth, minerals have been found in it, and it is covered by a network of telegraph and railway lines. And although few people in Australia are now interested in dromedaries, in fairness they should also have a monument erected in Adelaide.

The one who hinders us will help us! It’s best to start with this phrase from Dzhabrail from Gaidaev’s “Prisoner of the Caucasus” about the situation with camels in Australia. From being a source of headaches for local citizens, especially farmers, these ships of the desert are now gradually turning into a source of stable income for Australian farmers.

Until now, it was rightly believed that wild camels pose a huge problem for Australia. Indeed, camels, brought in small numbers to the Green Continent in the 1800s from India and Afghanistan as cheap transport, multiplied to such gigantic proportions that there was no escape from them. Camels in Australia turned out to be even worse than rabbits that multiplied beyond all measure.

The largest herd of camels on Earth

They harm people in seemingly small ways, albeit over large areas, while camels... In some areas they destroy up to 80% of the vegetation, and during a drought, the “humpbacks” seem to break loose - in search of water, they destroy everything they come across in a matter of minutes. minutes dry up artesian wells, dooming sheep and cows, and often people, to mortal thirst.

Australians are not able to accurately count these animals. Some are afraid that millions of wild camels are now “galloping” across the continent, others are reducing their population to a million, others to 300 thousand, but this number is simply prohibitive. Everyone agrees on one thing: only in Australia can you find herds of wild camels - this cannot be seen even in Egypt or the UAE. But it is unlikely that the Arabs envy the Australians for this. But who knows. Since 2002, Australia has exported camel meat to the United Arab Emirates, where it is considered a delicacy, especially the delicate camel thigh fillet.

The sheikhs squint their eyes with pleasure, how delicious it is! The export of camel meat and even racing camels has reduced their numbers in Australia, but not by much. Then the Australians approached the solution to the “camel” problem from the other side. Since 2008, these artiodactyls began to be shot from helicopters. They killed tens of thousands, sparing no ammunition. But animal rights activists immediately intervened, and off we go...

Desert ships have found a new use

Not far from Sydney, literally three hours by car towards Brisbane, there is the town of Port Stephens, nestled among picturesque sand dunes. Enterprising residents make money by giving camel rides to tourists dressed as Bedouins. Such an attraction provided the Australians with the opportunity to at least somehow use the “humpbacks”, but all this is just small things. Large-scale breakthrough solutions were required, and they were found.

It was then that I remembered the phrase of Comrade Dzhabrail from the most popular Soviet film comedy. The sudden demand for camel milk in the United States may help out the Australians, who have had a lot of trouble with camels. Local farmers have already rushed to milk the camels, and milk yields are said to be steadily increasing. Meanwhile, the Americans need more and more camel milk, and the working peasantry of Australia is already seriously thinking about starting the mass domestication of wild camels wandering around the local deserts, something that had never been thought of before. You can make cheese, yogurt, ice cream, skin cream and much more from camel milk.

"Don't be surprised, Australia's camel milk production is set to increase dramatically over the next five years," predicts John Harvey, managing director of experienced livestock farmer AgriFutures Australia. And he adds: “It’s good that we finally tried camel milk. Our ancestors drank it 6000 years ago, much earlier than cows’ milk. Now we are following in the footsteps of our ancestors, camel milk has great potential in Australia!”

By the mid-19th century, exploration of Australia was proceeding at an unprecedented pace. Every month new reconnaissance expeditions were equipped. Travelers sought to explore the mysterious continent, find mineral deposits, new places suitable for life. Gradually, research moved inland, further from the coast, closer to the center. The researchers were faced with the fact that the traditional horses and carts used on such expeditions were completely unsuitable for exploring the inhospitable central part.

Looking for optimal solution transportation problem, the idea of ​​camels arose. Since few people at that time knew how to handle camels, camel drivers were brought to Australia. This revolutionary idea of ​​using "Afghan" mahouts proved to be a turning point in the exploration of inaccessible areas.

In a short period of time, from the 1860s to the early 20th century, camel drivers and their "ships of the desert" became the backbone of Australia's economic growth. They accompanied geological exploration expeditions, supplied food and building materials to places where horses and oxen could not reach. They are indebted to residents of remote settlements who have the opportunity to use imported water. They transported supplies, tools and equipment needed in the construction of early infrastructure projects such as the wire telegraph and the Trans Australian Railway.

The first camel drivers

In the early 19th century, explorers, settlers, pastoralists and prospectors tried to unlock the mystery and harness the potential of Australia's heartland. Horses, donkeys and oxen were traditional beasts of burden during early exploration expeditions. Travelers had to carry large supplies of provisions with them; horses got stuck in sandy soils and were “scared” of the terrain. Many of these expeditions ended in disaster.

Solution

Already in 1839, camels began to be used as a means of transportation. The first expedition using them took place in 1846 under the leadership of John Ainsworth Horrocks. An expedition with a camel named "Harry" proved the value of using this animal. In 1846, the Melbourne newspaper reported that camels could carry up to eight hundred pounds of load, were less than half the cost of pack mules, and were highly adaptable to the Australian climate.

John Ainsworth Horrocks

John Horrocks was born in England in 1818, and in 1839, along with his brother, arrived in Adelaide. He explored the lands near the Hutt River, north of Adelaide, and founded the settlement of Penwortham, naming it in memory of his native Lancashire. But the life of a cattle breeder did not suit John and, wanting to fill his existence with exciting events, he organized an expedition to search for new agricultural lands in the Lake Torrens area. The traveler's team included a surveyor, an amateur artist and part-time botanist, and several mercenaries from among the indigenous inhabitants. They took with them: a camel, two carts, six horses and twelve goats. Horrocks said that the camel was more than temperamental, biting people and goats, but at the same time easily carried 160 kilograms of luggage, which was vital for the trek through the arid desert.

Camel Harry

Now a little about Harry - a camel with his own story. He arrived in Australia in 1840. Harry was the only camel to survive the journey from the Canary Islands to Port Adelaide. Harry's Australian adventure will not end well. Six years later John Horrocks took him on his ill-fated trip. By a fateful coincidence, Horrocks was severely wounded by his own shotgun, stuck in the harness, just as his camel was mounting. He received injuries that forced the expedition members to hastily return. However, Horrocks died from his injuries. He is buried in St Mark's Anglican Church. The camel, which was attacking other animals and people, was shot dead.

Import of camels

The Victorian Expeditionary Commission in July 1860 commissioned George James Landells, a famous horseman from India, for a fee of 600 pounds to select, buy and bring camels to Australia. In addition, George had to hire a sufficient number of drivers, because without proper handling the animals were relatively useless.

That same year, 24 camels and three camels arrived in Melbourne to join Burke and Wills' expedition. Although this expedition ended in disaster with the loss of many lives, camels once again proved their ability to survive in the harsh and dry conditions of the Australian outback.

Burke and Wills Expedition

The Victorian exploration expedition of Burke and Wills aimed to cross the continent from south to north. No one had done this before, and the heart of the continent continued to be unknown. The expedition was organized by the Royal Society of Victoria. The band members left Melbourne during the winter. Bad weather and roads made it difficult to advance along the intended route. The return journey was complicated by monsoon rains. Seven people died, and only one, Irish soldier John King, crossed the continent and returned alive to Melbourne.

During the second half of the 19th century, most Australian states imported camels and camel drivers. In 1866, Samuel Stuckey brought over 100 camels and 31 camels to South Australia. Over the next decade, new trade routes developed, in the development of which new inhabitants of desert places took a direct part. It is estimated that between 1870 and 1900 more than 2,000 drovers and 15,000 animals came to Australia.

Australia's infrastructure development

Camels driven by Afghan camels have played an invaluable role in the success of some of the world's largest infrastructure projects. They were engaged in supplying provisions to the builders of the first wire telegraph, passing through the middle of the continent between Adelaide and Darwin. After the project was completed, the animals were engaged in delivering correspondence to settlements, growing along the communication line.

The ships of the desert were not spared during the development of the railway line between Port Augusta and Alice Springs, which became known as the “Afghan Express”, and later the abbreviation “Gan” remained in use. The road's emblem was a camel driver, in recognition of efforts to develop central Australia.

"Afghan" drovers

Camel drivers were called by the general name “Afghan”. It is worth noting that some of them were from Afghanistan, others came from Baluchistan, Kashmir, Pakistan, Rajasthan, Egypt, Persia, Turkey and India and spoke different languages. They were united by the Islamic religion and their young age.

Almost all drovers, having set foot on Australian soil, faced enormous difficulties. Despite the demand for their work, the young men had to deal with manifestations of racism. They tried to avoid European society and kept to themselves.

The vast majority of drovers arrived in Australia alone, leaving their wives and families behind. As a rule, three-year work contracts were concluded with them. They lived in enclaves on the outskirts of small towns. The settlements of that time were characterized by the division of cities into districts, some of which were intended exclusively for Europeans, others for the aborigines, and others for Muslim drovers. The same social division could be seen in city cemeteries. Having trouble getting along with the settlers, some of the newcomers paired up with local Aboriginal women and started families.

In Afghan settlements, migrant workers built mosques, which became gathering places for fellow believers. The remains of Australia's oldest mosque, built in 1861, are located near Marree, near Hergott Springs station in South Australia. This place was in ancient times one of the most frequently visited camel camps, and in its heyday was called “Little Asia” or “Little Afghanistan”.

Afghan riot

In some cases, the attitude of Europeans with prejudice towards foreigners was caused by religious views. But the special pride and independence of this eastern people cannot be thrown off the shields. At the time, Afghanistan was known to most Australians as a country that, unlike British India, resisted British forces. The impression of such rumors only increased in the eyes of the settlers when the camel drivers at Beltana Station staged a strike, which went down in history as one of the first successful strikes on the continent.

Conflict in Western Australia

As shipping services became more in demand, many Afghans began setting up their own businesses, often leading to open conflict. One of the most notable examples of this occurred in the Western Australian gold field in the late 1890s. Tensions between Afghan bullock drivers and European oxen carriers escalated to the point that rival companies damaged watering holes. A police investigation ensued, and the state police commissioner ultimately reported that despite reports and rumors that Afghans were polluting the water, there was no evidence of this. In fact, the investigation showed that the only incident was that the driver was injured by a white cab driver for failing to give way.

End of an era

At the beginning of the twentieth century, road and rail transport became increasingly common and horse-drawn transport became virtually unnecessary. By a fateful coincidence, those projects that were carried out with the help of guests of the continent negated the need for desert ships. Faced with the prospect of being left without work, many teamsters returned to their homes. Some stayed and learned a new craft.

5 interesting facts about Australia

Camels, beetroot burgers, rum as currency and Greek restaurants are small Australian delights known only to locals or to travelers who are passionate about the country.

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Camels have become a real disaster for Australia

1. There are more camels in Australia than koalas. The koala is considered a symbol of Australia, but there are about ten times more dromedary camels in the country. The animals were brought to the continent in the 19th century to transport goods across the desert of Central Australia. The pack "ships of the desert" from time to time fought off caravans, ran wild and, in the absence of natural enemies, successfully reproduced. Now they, like rabbits, are considered a terrible scourge, since they dry up drinking springs and destroy rare desert oases. According to local environmentalists, the number of wild dromedaries in Australia will double in the next decade, and the local government is forced to take not entirely humane measures to reduce their numbers.

The same, however, as “pokey”

2. Australians love gambling. Every year, Australians lose around $1,300 per person at slot machines, which is a lot. Slot machines - “pokies”, as the locals call them - have long turned into national entertainment and a national disaster: in New South Wales alone there are about one hundred thousand of them.

Greek restaurant in Melbourne

3. Australia has its own little Greece. Melbourne is often called "the largest Greek city outside Greece" and is home to 47% of Australia's Greek population. Once there, go to one of the local restaurants, For example Stalaktites, 177 - 183 Lonsdale St, and you will be pleasantly surprised by the quality of the cuisine.

Australian rum

4. The only armed coup in Australian history was over Roma. In the 18th century, colonial Australia established a good and convenient tradition of paying farm laborers with rum: the workers and peasants were happy (the same could not be said about their wives), and the employer, the Corporation of New South Wales, was raking in super profits. In 1808, Governor William Bligh decided to combat drunkenness and the growing influence of local landowners by enacting Prohibition. Such a rash decision led to an armed rebellion, which went down in history as the Rum Riot - the governor was arrested and forced the English authorities to recall him.

Australian beetroot burger

5. In Australia they serve beetroot burgers. Burgers with goat cheese or chorizo ​​sausages are considered unusual in Australia, while burgers with pieces of canned beetroot are common. Burgers there are served with pineapple, egg, cheese, and onions, but it is beets that make their taste so “Australian.”

Living on the edge of the world, Australians consider themselves safer than Europeans or Americans. It is believed that even in the event of a nuclear war, they have the best chance of surviving. But mortal dangers did not spare this country either. But here too, unique Australia is unique in its own way. Today, rabbits and camels are considered the biggest danger to the country.

Bloodthirsty rabbits

Tom Austin's favorite pastime in England was hunting. The fearless gentleman chose as his opponent not a peaceful bear or a powerless wolf, but an evil, bloodthirsty rabbit. Every time he emerged victorious in a fight with a “strong and dangerous beast,” Tom Austin felt a sense of pride. Great ancestors could be proud of their descendants.

Arriving in Australia in 1859, Austin brought with him 12 pairs of these “bloodthirsty animals” and released them in Barwon Park, which he owned (to at least occasionally give vent to his hunting passion).

The rabbits quickly realized that they were simply in heaven. Vast plains with low vegetation proved to be an ideal habitat, mild winters allowed rabbits to make love all year round, and the local predators turned out to be stupid and clumsy. By the beginning of the 20th century, rabbits in Australia numbered in the tens of millions. There were more of them than people; for every Australian there were 70-80 animals.

"Death to rabbits!"

It turned out that rabbits are not only meat and skin, but also serious problems. The huge pastures where farmers grazed their sheep were turned into semi-deserts by rabbits. Having “gobbled up” the pasture, the herd of rabbits moved on in search of something new, and the farmer was faced with a massive death among the sheep from lack of food.

Farmers have declared war on rabbits. Long-eared animals were shot, poisoned with chemicals, and their burrows were destroyed. The authorities also got involved. For keeping and selling a rabbit, a fine of 40,000 Australian dollars was imposed. (And for the rabbit released into the wild, farmers threatened to kill those responsible and they didn’t care what the authorities had to say about it.)

However, the rabbits multiplied faster than they were destroyed. In 1901, Western Australia capitulated and began building Rabbit Proof Fence No. 1.

Great Wall of Australia

In 1907 the fence was built. Three defense lines (total length 3253 km) crossed the continent from south to north. A dirt road was laid along the fence, along which employees of a specially created service patrolled. Job description read: if the fence is lopsided - fix it, if you find a tunnel - fill it up, if you see a rabbit - kill it without mercy.

Horses were expensive and several dozen camels were purchased for patrol service. In the hot weather of Western Australia this was a very wise decision. When the service became rich, the linemen bought cars, and camels were no longer needed. And guess what they did with them? That's right, RELEASED!!! Well, who said that man is a rational being?

Australian camels

Camels, of course, did not reproduce like rabbits, and yet their numbers grew every year. Soon they began to walk around Australia in herds, which is not the case in either Egypt or the UAE. And a herd of camels is another gift. Where the camels have passed, there is no one and nothing left, not even rabbits: they will trample everything and eat everything. A camel can go 8 days without drinking, but once it reaches water, it can drink up to 100 liters of liquid within 10 minutes. Therefore, when 200 camels approach the oasis at once, the oasis is already condemned: they will drink all the water to the last drop and eat all the greenery to the last blade of grass.

Camels are not rabbits. No fences will stop them. In search of water, camels demolish all fences and posts, break water towers, and destroy toilets.

The number of camels increased, and the “ship of the desert” became a symbol of Australia along with the kangaroo. In 2002, Australia began exporting camel meat, which is so prized there, to the UAE; Arab experts believe that the best racing camels in the world are Australian ones.

Will camels eat Australia?

Today in Australia, according to various estimates, there are from 200,000 to 300,000 camels. Figures of 500,000 or more are mentioned. A solution to the “camel” problem is not visible even in the future. Since 2011, authorities have been conducting campaigns to shoot camels from helicopters. But everyone admits that this is not a solution to the problem. The camels, hearing the noise of the helicopter, now start running. It is only in the movies that a camel competes with a turtle in speed. In reality, 45-60 km/h is the norm for a “humpback”.

Biologists warn that if urgent measures are not taken, in 10 years their numbers will increase and then all of Australia will turn into a desert, as some areas where camel herds have already turned into it. So literally three hours from Sydney there is a real sandy desert. Here, for a very small fee, you can imagine yourself in Egypt, try on a Bedouin outfit, take a photo in it as a souvenir, and even ride a camel.

What about rabbits?

In 1950, the myxoma virus was artificially spread among rabbits, which led to mass mortality among lagomorphs. Of the 6 sick people, 5 died. The government celebrated the victory.
But! The survivors acquired immunity, which was fixed at the genetic level (i.e., passed on to offspring). And everything repeated itself (see the beginning of the article).