Town lives in fear of marauding camels

AAP November 25, 2009 7:17PM

RESIDENTS in a small central Australian community are being held hostage by a herd of thirsty, marauding camels.

Docker River, 500km south west of Alice Springs, has been inundated by thousands of feral camels in recent weeks.

The Northern Territory Government today said it would conduct an emergency cull of some 6000 feral camels.

As well as the camels smashing water infrastructure in their hunt for moisture, the quality of drinking water in the town is being threatened by the decaying bodies of camels that have been trampled by their herd.

The camels have over-run the airport, making it near impossible for aircraft to land or for medical emergency evacuations to take place.

MacDonnell Shire Council chief executive officer, Graham Taylor said many members of the community were too frightened to leave their homes.

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"The social and psychological impacts on some people about being contained in homes and not being able to step out, so there will be some cost factors for the community there,'' he said in Alice Springs today.

Mr Taylor said residents were not overly concerned when about 30 camels came into the town looking for water a few weeks ago, but that fear had grown as numbers increased steadily day by day.

"We need to get the risk and that threat away from the people.''

NT Local Government Minister Rob Knight said the camels would be mustered away from the town by helicopters before being shot.

"The community of Docker River is under siege by 6000 marauding, wild camels,'' he said.

"They're actually coming up to the houses taking water off the overflow from the rooftop air-conditioning.

"This is a very critical situation out there, it's very unusual and it needs urgent action.''

Mr Knight said the camel carcasses would be left in the desert to decay.

"We don't have the luxury of time because the herd is getting bigger.''

NT Environment Minister Karl Hampton said he hoped the emergency response, which will be activated next week to help the 350 residents in Docker River, would set a bench mark for the Federal Government's $19 million nation camel action plan.

Mr Hampton could not provide any details of the proposed national scheme.

"Maybe it will give us an idea of how we should tackle the bigger or broader problem,'' he said.
``We need to look at whether there are economic benefits of what we can do with camels.''

It is understood the long-term federal camel action plan will be released for public consultation in December.