They may look like harmless desert beasts, but feral camels have a devastating environmental and financial impact on outback Australia.
More than 1 million of them ring up an annual damage bill of over £6 million (US$9.6 million). They also produce as many greenhouse emissions each year as about 150,000 cars.
Now a new project may see some of them meet a new, if unlikely, fate. An Alice Springs businessman plans to use camel hides to make Australian rules footballs in a bid to boost employment in Aboriginal communities.
The Footy Project is the brainchild of entrepreneur Christopher Harms. After looking at several schemes to address indigenous unemployment, which stands at around 95 percent in some communities, he decided to focus on something many Aborigines are passionate about — Australian rules football.
“The organization of [indigenous] families around football is fantastic and I thought if they approached industry with the same passion we might have something that would work for them,” he said.
Aborigines make up just 2.5 percent of the general population, but represent 10 percent to 12 percent of players in the national Australian rules professional league.
Harms has applied for government funding and already has the support of the Russell Corporation, which sells 90 percent of the country’s Australian rules footballs under the Sherrin brand.
“It’s very difficult to produce the leather for footballs and it’s never been done before with camel hide,” Tom Hollis of Russell Corporation said.
“It’s very early stages and a lot of testing would have to be done, but if it’s something that can help solve a problem in the outback, we’re definitely prepared to be involved,” he said.
There is also an urgent environmental need to deal with the feral camel population according to Jan Ferguson, who heads the government-funded camel management project.
“Controlling the numbers will decrease the pressure on the landscape,” she said.
Camels were introduced in the 1800s to open up arid areas of central and western Australia, but their numbers have grown to uncontrollable levels as they have no natural predators.
The government hopes to reduce feral camel numbers by more than half over the next four years through culling. If left unchecked, the population would double within 10 years.
The camel hide prototype footballs look very promising according to Harms.
“They feel as good as cow hide and I’ll be taking samples down to show Russell Corporation and the Australian Rules Football League next month,” he said.
Initially, the Footy Project will give work and training to Aborigines at several townships in central Australia who are on work-for-welfare programs, in vocational education training or in jail. They will be taught to make balls by hand with a view to mechanizing production within two years so the business can compete with imported balls.
“Ultimately, I’m hoping -indigenous-made footballs and other leather products will become a sustainable industry, just like Aboriginal art,” Harms said.
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