Muslim Cameleers on ABC tonight

What they carried was incredible. Even reports of pianos to out back stations.

Thanks for the heads-up.

I think it was Mary Durack who said that camel trains were better than bullock teams not cos of the camels but cos of the teetotal drivers!

Gday,

Maybe its just me but I've always referred to them as Afghan Cameleers not Muslim Cameleers...........I thought they were recognisable by their middle eastern appearance and skills with camels and desert survival, not their religion?
Might have to rename that train the Musso or something. LOL

Cheers

Thanks for the heads up Equinox. It is an important and often neglected part of our history.

cheers.

It would be far more polite to refer to their race or country rather than their religion.

How do we know if they were ALL Muslims

Thanks for that Alan. I have been driving today from home (Melb) to Sandigo in the Riverina and it so happens that the book AUSTRALIA'S MUSLIM CAMELEERS: PIONEERS OF THE INLAND 1860s-1930s is sitting right beside me. I am about a quarter the way through. Will watch this tonight it should be very interesting.

Alan,
I am led to believe that a well known & respected president of an august historical society may be interviewed....................;-)

Just finished watching. That was a superb documentary. Many thanks for the headsup.

Thanks equinox
Have just finished watching it - very interesting and moving documentary.
Nothing has changed really - same fear of difference and prejudice, followed by discrimination -
Cheers
Andrew

Hi Equinox
If you ever come this way again, I will show you a few tracks and old camel cart parts and pieces that are laying not from from here.
Regards
Marc

Hi All,

I missed it because I forgot, and just caught the last end of it and seen faces of a few Afghan descendants that I know from Marree. S..t !
I can't seem to find the full story on the compass program, so did anybody tape it, as I will buy a copy on a DVD if you have.

Cheers P&J

Thanks equinox. I just watched it - a great program.

Cheers

Hi Alan.
Thanks for the heads up. Only read your post as the program was starting. Often the ABC doesnt list whats on their programs like compass, four corners, australian story etc.

Cheers Graeme.

Thanks Alan,

Missed a few minutes, so will give iView a re-run shortly.

Good to see comments from descendants, as well as the old footage.

Bob

I was under the impression that the largest number of "Afghan" cameleers in Australia came from the province of Balochistan? - and accordingly, were actually Pakistanis, not Afghans.
The vast majority of them appear to have been law-abiding individuals (as well as being tough buggers) - unlike the ruthless, lawless, terrorist breeds who seem to have increased in numbers in that region, and further North, in recent decades.

I'll put in a minor claim to some kind of fame here - my Dad was amongst the last of the camel team owners!
He owned several camels and used them to pull his percussion boring plant and dray around the Murchison and even as far South as Kalannie, between 1934 and 1937.
In addition, the dray he owned was one of the original drays used by Charles Canning to put in the CSR!

In Dad's photo collection is a photo of a 32-camel-team-drawn waggon, loaded with 15 tons of wool bales, being dragged through the dry bed of the Gascoyne River. The teamsters appear to be Europeans, not "Afghans", due to their style of clothing.

That wool-hauling camel team would have also been amongst the last of their kind (the photo was taken in 1929) - as a later to be well-known bloke, by the name of Charles Kingsford Smith - had put nearly all the wool-hauling camel teams in the Murchison, out of business by that time, with his trucking business known as the Gascoyne Trading Co!

Cheers, Ron.

Great programme, missed it last night, but just watched it on ABC iView By Compass & Quran

If you miss it there, it will rpobably pop up on the Compass website shortly too.

We are going to the Marree Camel Cup 2015 on the way to BV in early July, it's on Sat 4th and should be a great 3/4 day before we head up to Mung to camp that night.

G'day Equinox

From Stevens, C. The Mosques and Ghantowns. A History of Afghan Camel Drivers in Australia. Oxford University Press. 1989.

"On close examination of records, the earlier 'Afghans' proved to have been indeed that: Afghans and not Indians. Most of them were tribesmen from the eastern provinces, or from Kabul or Kandahar, or Karachi - Afghanistan's port . . . They were not Indians, as is recent theory, though some were in fact Baluch. Baluchistan was a province of Afghanistan until the Durand Line cut it into two sections, one of which is now in present-day Pakistan. The Baluchis themselves are Afghans, one of the numerous tribal groups of Afghanistan. I hope this book will elucidate the mystery of these men, and settle the controversy of their origins."

The funny side: I only have this book because we were dog-sitting at a friend's place in Cairns, and they gave me the book to read. I left it on a table while we went out, and the dog (a Golden Retriever) chewed the bloody book. It's still readable , but I replaced it via eBay for our friends. $60.00!!

Sir, the dog ate my homework.

Cheers
John

could it be some of the borders from back then have changed --- or even have been very vague in areas?