WEBVTT 00:00:00.000 --> 00:00:02.140 Okay, so for this deep dive, I want to start 00:00:02.140 --> 00:00:05.620 with a little mental edit. If you can, just picture 00:00:05.620 --> 00:00:09.740 the Australian outback, late 19th century, the 00:00:09.740 --> 00:00:12.519 frontier era. What's the image that pops into 00:00:12.519 --> 00:00:14.800 your head? I think for most people, it's, you 00:00:14.800 --> 00:00:16.460 know, the classic archetype. You're picturing 00:00:16.460 --> 00:00:20.719 a drover on horseback, a swag man, probably endless 00:00:20.719 --> 00:00:23.219 flocks of sheep. That classic red dirt landscape, 00:00:23.539 --> 00:00:25.960 very Anglo -centric. Exactly. It's the man from 00:00:25.960 --> 00:00:29.300 Snowy River image, a very rugged... individualist 00:00:29.300 --> 00:00:31.679 kind of picture. Right. But what if I told you 00:00:31.679 --> 00:00:34.479 that image is missing maybe the single most critical 00:00:34.479 --> 00:00:37.359 piece of the puzzle? What if instead of a horse, 00:00:37.399 --> 00:00:39.920 the real engine of that supply chain was a long 00:00:39.920 --> 00:00:42.939 train of camels and the men walking beside them 00:00:42.939 --> 00:00:45.359 weren't wearing a Cobra hats, but turbans. And 00:00:45.359 --> 00:00:47.920 at sunset, they'd stop, unroll prayer mats and 00:00:47.920 --> 00:00:50.600 face Mecca right there in the middle of the desert. 00:00:50.719 --> 00:00:52.479 It just creates a complete different texture 00:00:52.479 --> 00:00:54.619 to the history, doesn't it? It reframes the whole 00:00:54.619 --> 00:00:56.899 story. That is exactly what we are unpacking 00:00:56.899 --> 00:00:59.299 today. We're doing a deep dive into the Afghan 00:00:59.299 --> 00:01:01.240 cameleers. We're talking about, what, roughly 00:01:01.240 --> 00:01:03.619 3 ,000 men who arrived in Australia between the 00:01:03.619 --> 00:01:07.040 1860s and the 1930s. And our mission here is 00:01:07.040 --> 00:01:10.239 to really understand how this group became the 00:01:10.239 --> 00:01:13.200 literal backbone of the Australian inland economy. 00:01:13.439 --> 00:01:17.040 And backbone is not an exaggeration. Not at all. 00:01:17.359 --> 00:01:20.280 Before cars, before the train lines really pushed 00:01:20.280 --> 00:01:23.239 deep into the interior, these men and their animals 00:01:23.239 --> 00:01:25.280 were the only thing connecting the continent. 00:01:25.439 --> 00:01:27.980 They were the fiber optic cables of the 19th 00:01:27.980 --> 00:01:29.920 century. And yet, and this is the tension we 00:01:29.920 --> 00:01:31.980 see in all the source material, their legacy 00:01:31.980 --> 00:01:36.000 was just... It was systematically obscured, written 00:01:36.000 --> 00:01:38.140 out of the popular history. So today we're pulling 00:01:38.140 --> 00:01:41.840 from historical records, logistics data and personal 00:01:41.840 --> 00:01:44.620 biographies to figure out who these men were, 00:01:44.760 --> 00:01:47.159 how they engineered the infrastructure Australia 00:01:47.159 --> 00:01:50.519 relies on today, and I think crucially, why they 00:01:50.519 --> 00:01:52.200 were treated the way they were. So let's start 00:01:52.200 --> 00:01:54.560 with the basics, the identity. We call them the 00:01:54.560 --> 00:01:57.420 Afghan cameleers or the guns. But looking at 00:01:57.420 --> 00:02:00.590 the notes, that name is. a bit misleading. It 00:02:00.590 --> 00:02:02.829 is. It's a classic case of colonial shorthand. 00:02:02.909 --> 00:02:05.010 The British colonists just tended to group people 00:02:05.010 --> 00:02:07.150 together based on appearance or, you know, the 00:02:07.150 --> 00:02:08.770 general direction they came from. So they weren't 00:02:08.770 --> 00:02:11.710 all from Afghanistan. No, not at all. Some were, 00:02:11.849 --> 00:02:14.330 but the demographic data shows a much more complex 00:02:14.330 --> 00:02:16.770 picture. The majority actually came from the 00:02:16.770 --> 00:02:18.689 western parts of British India. So we're talking 00:02:18.689 --> 00:02:21.650 modern day Pakistan. Exactly. A huge number of 00:02:21.650 --> 00:02:24.069 men from Balochistan and the northwest frontier 00:02:24.069 --> 00:02:27.090 province. So while Afghan was the catch -all 00:02:27.090 --> 00:02:30.810 term, ethnically you had Pashtuns, Punjabis, 00:02:30.849 --> 00:02:33.729 Balochs, Sindhis. And the records even show smaller 00:02:33.729 --> 00:02:36.349 numbers from much further afield. Egypt, Turkey, 00:02:36.669 --> 00:02:39.770 Persia. It was incredibly diverse. But there 00:02:39.770 --> 00:02:42.129 was one unifying factor for most of them. They 00:02:42.129 --> 00:02:45.229 were Muslim. Yes. Most were Muslim. And that 00:02:45.229 --> 00:02:48.080 is a crucial detail. Their arrival established 00:02:48.080 --> 00:02:51.080 the first permanent link between Islam and the 00:02:51.080 --> 00:02:53.099 Australian interior. They weren't just bringing 00:02:53.099 --> 00:02:54.900 labor. They were bringing a whole culture with 00:02:54.900 --> 00:02:57.300 them. Okay, so let's look at the timeline. When 00:02:57.300 --> 00:02:59.319 does this all really kick off? There were some 00:02:59.319 --> 00:03:01.819 early experiments in the 1830s and 40s, but the 00:03:01.819 --> 00:03:04.439 data really points to 1860 as the inflection 00:03:04.439 --> 00:03:07.599 point. That's when the major influx begins, and 00:03:07.599 --> 00:03:09.780 it was driven by pure necessity. The Burke and 00:03:09.780 --> 00:03:12.159 Wills Expedition. The Burke and Wills Expedition. 00:03:12.379 --> 00:03:14.479 The organizers looked at the desert they were 00:03:14.479 --> 00:03:17.379 trying to cross and realized horses simply couldn't 00:03:17.379 --> 00:03:20.120 cut it. They needed a logistics solution that 00:03:20.120 --> 00:03:22.520 matched the terrain. So they imported camels, 00:03:22.520 --> 00:03:25.159 and just as importantly, they imported the men 00:03:25.159 --> 00:03:27.360 who knew how to handle them. And that kicked 00:03:27.360 --> 00:03:31.120 off a system. Men were shipped in, usually on 00:03:31.120 --> 00:03:33.180 three -year contracts. I want to pause on that 00:03:33.180 --> 00:03:35.710 detail. Three -year contracts, that creates a 00:03:35.710 --> 00:03:38.490 very specific kind of social dynamic, right? 00:03:38.689 --> 00:03:40.909 It absolutely did. It created this demographic 00:03:40.909 --> 00:03:44.189 that was almost entirely male. They usually left 00:03:44.189 --> 00:03:46.270 their families behind. They arrived alone. The 00:03:46.270 --> 00:03:49.330 goal was purely economic. Come here, work hard, 00:03:49.469 --> 00:03:51.930 send money home, and eventually leave. Though 00:03:51.930 --> 00:03:54.009 eventually leaving wasn't always how it worked 00:03:54.009 --> 00:03:55.930 out. No, it wasn't. But before we get to that, 00:03:56.050 --> 00:03:58.289 let's just drill down into the why camels part. 00:03:58.530 --> 00:04:00.770 From a biological perspective, was the difference 00:04:00.770 --> 00:04:03.289 between a horse and a camel really that stark? 00:04:03.740 --> 00:04:06.360 Oh, it was night and day. The Australian interior 00:04:06.360 --> 00:04:08.419 is one of the harshest environments on Earth. 00:04:08.740 --> 00:04:11.460 A horse is a beast of burden, sure, but it's 00:04:11.460 --> 00:04:14.120 high maintenance. It needs gallons of water regularly. 00:04:14.460 --> 00:04:17.360 It needs good feed. In a desert crossing, a horse 00:04:17.360 --> 00:04:20.600 is a liability. A huge liability. If the water 00:04:20.600 --> 00:04:22.879 hole is dry, your transport engine literally 00:04:22.879 --> 00:04:26.319 dies. A camel, on the other hand, is designed 00:04:26.319 --> 00:04:28.839 for exactly that scenario. A ship of the desert. 00:04:29.180 --> 00:04:31.120 Precisely. They can go weeks without water if 00:04:31.120 --> 00:04:32.860 they have to. And it's also about their feet. 00:04:33.480 --> 00:04:36.279 A horse's hooves just cut into the sand. Camels 00:04:36.279 --> 00:04:38.439 have those sauced spreading pads they float over 00:04:38.439 --> 00:04:40.980 it. Before the combustion engine, the camel was 00:04:40.980 --> 00:04:43.120 the only heavy transport technology that worked. 00:04:43.259 --> 00:04:45.360 So what were they actually hauling? Everything. 00:04:45.519 --> 00:04:47.439 They were hauling everything required to build 00:04:47.439 --> 00:04:50.779 a nation. Massive wool bales from remote stations 00:04:50.779 --> 00:04:53.300 back to the railheads. Heavy mining machinery 00:04:53.300 --> 00:04:56.000 out to the gold fields. I was reading about the 00:04:56.000 --> 00:04:58.600 Overland Telegraph line. That seems like a monumental 00:04:58.600 --> 00:05:01.569 task. It cannot be overstated. The telegraph 00:05:01.569 --> 00:05:04.329 line was the internet of its day. It connected 00:05:04.329 --> 00:05:07.269 Australia to the world. The cameliers hauled 00:05:07.269 --> 00:05:09.949 the poles, the wire, the insulators, the supplies 00:05:09.949 --> 00:05:12.490 for the workers across thousands of kilometers 00:05:12.490 --> 00:05:15.189 of nothing. Without them, that project would 00:05:15.189 --> 00:05:17.910 have been, what, maybe impossible. Infinitely 00:05:17.910 --> 00:05:20.009 harder, at the very least. It's interesting, 00:05:20.069 --> 00:05:22.209 though, looking at the learning curve, the notes 00:05:22.209 --> 00:05:25.930 mention the very first camel in Australia, a 00:05:25.930 --> 00:05:28.899 creature named Harry. And it didn't go well. 00:05:29.040 --> 00:05:33.279 Ah, yes. Poor Harry. It's a bit of a dark anecdote, 00:05:33.339 --> 00:05:35.459 but it shows the early friction. Harry arrived 00:05:35.459 --> 00:05:39.459 in 1840. By 1846, he's on an expedition with 00:05:39.459 --> 00:05:41.800 an explorer named John Horrocks. And Harry had 00:05:41.800 --> 00:05:45.519 some behavioral issues. You could say that. The 00:05:45.519 --> 00:05:47.459 account says that while Horrocks was loading 00:05:47.459 --> 00:05:50.899 a gun, Harry lurched or snapped at him. The gun 00:05:50.899 --> 00:05:53.240 went off. Horrocks was shot and eventually died 00:05:53.240 --> 00:05:55.259 from the wound. And the camel. They executed 00:05:55.259 --> 00:05:58.000 him. Harry got the death penalty. A tragic, almost 00:05:58.000 --> 00:06:01.019 absurd start. But the industry clearly moved 00:06:01.019 --> 00:06:03.339 past that. You get these essential figures like 00:06:03.339 --> 00:06:06.079 Das Mohammed, who is with Burke and Wills, or 00:06:06.079 --> 00:06:08.560 Mohammed Sale. Exactly. The explorers get the 00:06:08.560 --> 00:06:10.699 statues, but the cameleers were the ones keeping 00:06:10.699 --> 00:06:12.680 them alive, finding water, managing the whole 00:06:12.680 --> 00:06:15.019 operation. They were the experts in the room. 00:06:15.319 --> 00:06:16.939 And by the turn of the century, this was big 00:06:16.939 --> 00:06:19.879 business. We see the rise of Muslim entrepreneurs. 00:06:20.319 --> 00:06:22.600 This is where the economic agency really shifts. 00:06:22.699 --> 00:06:24.879 You get men like Fazli Ahmed and Faiz Mohammed. 00:06:25.259 --> 00:06:27.160 They weren't just drivers. They were logistics 00:06:27.160 --> 00:06:29.980 moguls. They owned the camel trains. They controlled 00:06:29.980 --> 00:06:32.680 the supply lines for the entire outback. The 00:06:32.680 --> 00:06:35.480 Amazon delivery of the 1890s. That's it. If you 00:06:35.480 --> 00:06:37.319 wanted something moved in the interior, you dealt 00:06:37.319 --> 00:06:40.579 with them. So with all the success, where did 00:06:40.579 --> 00:06:42.740 they live? Did they integrate into the European 00:06:42.740 --> 00:06:46.339 settlements? Generally, no. The sources describe 00:06:46.339 --> 00:06:48.980 a pattern of segregation. They lived in specific 00:06:48.980 --> 00:06:51.240 communities on the outskirts of towns, which 00:06:51.240 --> 00:06:54.759 became known as Gantowns. Gantowns. Yes. You'd 00:06:54.759 --> 00:06:57.360 find them near places like Udinadada or Maree. 00:06:57.740 --> 00:06:59.779 Maree in South Australia is a really interesting 00:06:59.779 --> 00:07:02.439 case. It was nicknamed Little Asia or Little 00:07:02.439 --> 00:07:04.800 Afghanistan. Little Asia in the middle of the 00:07:04.800 --> 00:07:07.060 desert. That implies a real cultural density. 00:07:07.339 --> 00:07:09.420 It was a hub. Yeah. And because they were there 00:07:09.420 --> 00:07:12.000 for long periods, they built their own infrastructure. 00:07:12.810 --> 00:07:15.610 specifically religious infrastructure. They built 00:07:15.610 --> 00:07:18.550 Australia's first mosques. The notes mention 00:07:18.550 --> 00:07:21.769 a simple mud and tin structure in Murray as early 00:07:21.769 --> 00:07:25.089 as 1861. That was a first. But then you get the 00:07:25.089 --> 00:07:27.949 Great Mosque of Adelaide in 1888, which is this 00:07:27.949 --> 00:07:29.889 beautiful structure that's still in use today, 00:07:30.110 --> 00:07:33.240 and the Perth Mosque in 1905. They were building 00:07:33.240 --> 00:07:35.660 for permanence. There's another social layer 00:07:35.660 --> 00:07:38.259 here that I found really compelling, their relationship 00:07:38.259 --> 00:07:41.699 with indigenous Australians. Yes, this is a very 00:07:41.699 --> 00:07:44.199 positive aspect that comes through in the source 00:07:44.199 --> 00:07:46.740 material. It suggests the relationship between 00:07:46.740 --> 00:07:49.819 the Cameliers and Aboriginal Australians was 00:07:49.819 --> 00:07:52.079 often much more respectful than what you saw 00:07:52.079 --> 00:07:54.000 with European settlers. What was driving that 00:07:54.000 --> 00:07:56.899 difference? Well, part of it was shared marginalization. 00:07:57.100 --> 00:07:59.459 Neither group was white, but it was cultural 00:07:59.459 --> 00:08:02.589 too. Intermarriage was quite common. Many cameleers 00:08:02.589 --> 00:08:05.069 married Aboriginal women. And the oral histories 00:08:05.069 --> 00:08:07.389 from descendants today suggest these were seen 00:08:07.389 --> 00:08:10.389 as honorable unions. Exactly. It stands in pretty 00:08:10.389 --> 00:08:12.430 stark contrast to the violence and exploitation 00:08:12.430 --> 00:08:15.089 happening elsewhere on the frontier. It created 00:08:15.089 --> 00:08:18.149 this unique demographic blend, a true melting 00:08:18.149 --> 00:08:21.389 pot in the desert. So we have this thriving economy, 00:08:21.750 --> 00:08:24.920 essential infrastructure, but then... The political 00:08:24.920 --> 00:08:27.100 climate shifts. The white Australia sentiment 00:08:27.100 --> 00:08:30.199 is growing. How did that hit the Kamloirs? It 00:08:30.199 --> 00:08:32.580 hit them with devastating force. You can track 00:08:32.580 --> 00:08:35.200 it in the newspapers. During droughts, they were 00:08:35.200 --> 00:08:37.659 hailed as saviors. They saved towns like Kunamula 00:08:37.659 --> 00:08:39.940 from starvation because horses just couldn't 00:08:39.940 --> 00:08:42.559 make the trip. They were indispensable. But once 00:08:42.559 --> 00:08:44.759 the emergency passed... The narrative flipped. 00:08:44.919 --> 00:08:48.039 They became cheap labor curses, economic competitors 00:08:48.039 --> 00:08:51.120 to the white bullock drivers. And in that era, 00:08:51.240 --> 00:08:55.059 economic anxiety always turned into racial legislation. 00:08:55.440 --> 00:08:58.620 We see laws passed in 1895 in Western Australia 00:08:58.620 --> 00:09:01.059 banning them from mining. And they justified 00:09:01.059 --> 00:09:03.500 it with fabrications. They accused the cameleers 00:09:03.500 --> 00:09:05.700 of polluting water holes, which the historical 00:09:05.700 --> 00:09:08.159 record shows just wasn't true. It was a convenient 00:09:08.159 --> 00:09:10.379 lie to demonize them. And then comes the big 00:09:10.379 --> 00:09:12.840 one, the Immigration Restriction Act of 1901. 00:09:13.159 --> 00:09:16.000 This was the legal backbone of the white Australia 00:09:16.000 --> 00:09:18.600 policy. For the cameleers, it was catastrophic. 00:09:18.860 --> 00:09:21.500 It made naturalization, becoming a citizen... 00:09:22.019 --> 00:09:23.820 impossible for many of them. So you could live 00:09:23.820 --> 00:09:25.980 there for 30 years, build the country's infrastructure 00:09:25.980 --> 00:09:29.000 and still not be a citizen. Okay. And it had 00:09:29.000 --> 00:09:31.059 a trap door. If they went home to visit family, 00:09:31.220 --> 00:09:33.919 the act could be used to stop them from reentering 00:09:33.919 --> 00:09:36.080 Australia. It trapped them. The case study of 00:09:36.080 --> 00:09:38.320 Abdul Wade really puts a human face on this. 00:09:38.440 --> 00:09:40.799 Oh, it's heartbreaking. He did everything right 00:09:40.799 --> 00:09:43.100 by the standards of the time. He was a huge success. 00:09:43.360 --> 00:09:46.200 He owned a massive camel station. He was wealthy. 00:09:46.340 --> 00:09:48.919 He assimilated. He dressed in European clothes, 00:09:49.220 --> 00:09:52.100 sent his kids to private schools. He even offered 00:09:52.100 --> 00:09:54.159 his entire stock of camels to the government 00:09:54.159 --> 00:09:57.519 for World War I. He tried to be a patriot, but 00:09:57.519 --> 00:10:00.259 it didn't matter. The sources show he was ridiculed 00:10:00.259 --> 00:10:02.320 in the press, marginalized by business interests. 00:10:02.539 --> 00:10:04.460 They attacked him because he was successful. 00:10:04.720 --> 00:10:06.879 Eventually, he was forced to sell up and leave. 00:10:07.059 --> 00:10:09.600 That pressure cooker environment eventually boiled 00:10:09.600 --> 00:10:13.360 over. The Battle of Broken Hill in 1915. That's 00:10:13.360 --> 00:10:15.840 the extreme end of the persecution. Two men, 00:10:15.919 --> 00:10:18.639 Mullah Abdullah and Gulbacha Mohammed, opened 00:10:18.639 --> 00:10:21.440 fire on a picnic train. They killed four people 00:10:21.440 --> 00:10:23.620 before being killed themselves. Shocking event. 00:10:23.860 --> 00:10:26.409 It was horrific. But the archives provide context. 00:10:27.090 --> 00:10:28.889 Mullah Abdullah wasn't just some random attacker. 00:10:29.190 --> 00:10:31.529 He was an ice cream vendor who had been repeatedly 00:10:31.529 --> 00:10:35.149 fined, harassed, and marginalized by local authorities. 00:10:35.590 --> 00:10:37.970 It doesn't justify it, but it illustrates the 00:10:37.970 --> 00:10:40.049 desperate corner these men were backed into. 00:10:40.330 --> 00:10:42.789 So you have the legislative attacks, the social 00:10:42.789 --> 00:10:46.210 racism, but technology was really the final blow, 00:10:46.309 --> 00:10:48.549 wasn't it? That was the inevitable end. By the 00:10:48.549 --> 00:10:51.669 1920s and 30s, you get the truck. The Ford truck 00:10:51.669 --> 00:10:54.740 finally catches up to the camel. Yep. The truck 00:10:54.740 --> 00:10:57.139 doesn't need to rest, it doesn't need water, 00:10:57.299 --> 00:11:00.539 and it carries more. The camel trains became 00:11:00.539 --> 00:11:03.159 obsolete almost overnight. Which leads to this 00:11:03.159 --> 00:11:05.879 really strange chapter in Australian environmental 00:11:05.879 --> 00:11:08.899 history. What happened to all the camels? Well, 00:11:08.980 --> 00:11:11.200 the police instructions were brutal. They were 00:11:11.200 --> 00:11:13.080 often ordered to shoot the animals. Damn them, 00:11:13.139 --> 00:11:16.019 after everything. That was the order. But many 00:11:16.019 --> 00:11:18.879 of the cameleers refused. These animals were 00:11:18.879 --> 00:11:21.080 their companions. So instead of shooting them, 00:11:21.139 --> 00:11:23.259 they just opened the gates. They released them 00:11:23.259 --> 00:11:25.440 into the wild. And that's why Australia now has 00:11:25.440 --> 00:11:27.759 one of the largest populations of feral camels 00:11:27.759 --> 00:11:30.240 in the world. Yes. They are the direct descendants 00:11:30.240 --> 00:11:32.399 of those working animals. It's like a living 00:11:32.399 --> 00:11:35.059 ghost of that entire industry. It is. And speaking 00:11:35.059 --> 00:11:38.860 of ghosts and names, we have to talk about the 00:11:38.860 --> 00:11:43.049 gone. The famous luxury train. Adelaide to Darwin. 00:11:43.190 --> 00:11:45.350 I think most people assume it was named to honor 00:11:45.350 --> 00:11:47.309 these men. That is what the modern marketing 00:11:47.309 --> 00:11:49.970 brochures will tell you. A tribute to the pioneers. 00:11:50.429 --> 00:11:52.789 But the source material tells a different story. 00:11:53.009 --> 00:11:55.590 A much more ironic and frankly cynical story. 00:11:55.870 --> 00:11:58.409 The train was originally nicknamed the Afghan 00:11:58.409 --> 00:12:02.429 Express back in 1923. But it wasn't a compliment. 00:12:02.750 --> 00:12:05.370 It was a joke. It was a joke. Possibly a slur. 00:12:05.690 --> 00:12:08.490 It started because a railway man saw a Muslim 00:12:08.490 --> 00:12:11.549 passenger get off the train to pray. The name 00:12:11.549 --> 00:12:14.090 stuck as a way to mock how slow and primitive 00:12:14.090 --> 00:12:16.730 the service was. So the most famous tribute to 00:12:16.730 --> 00:12:19.750 them is actually a rebranded insult. Essentially, 00:12:19.789 --> 00:12:22.710 yes. It was only in the 1960s that a marketing 00:12:22.710 --> 00:12:25.970 executive decided to spin it as a tribute. It 00:12:25.970 --> 00:12:27.830 was fiction, but it became accepted folklore 00:12:27.830 --> 00:12:29.929 because it's a much nicer story for the tourists. 00:12:30.230 --> 00:12:32.629 That just sums up the whole experience. Used, 00:12:32.769 --> 00:12:35.590 abused, and then rewritten to fit a more palatable 00:12:35.590 --> 00:12:37.769 narrative. It does. Are there other physical 00:12:37.769 --> 00:12:40.429 traces left in the landscape besides the camels? 00:12:40.549 --> 00:12:43.610 There are. Biological markers. Date palms. You 00:12:43.610 --> 00:12:45.889 can often find these groves of date palms growing 00:12:45.889 --> 00:12:48.669 near old water holes. They were planted by the 00:12:48.669 --> 00:12:50.330 camelers as a food source. They're still there. 00:12:50.549 --> 00:12:53.389 Researchers have found evidence of Sufism mystical 00:12:53.389 --> 00:12:56.750 Islam out there. Prayer beads, texts, letters 00:12:56.750 --> 00:12:59.490 left behind in old mosques. It shows this rich, 00:12:59.509 --> 00:13:02.149 complex spiritual life that most of white Australia 00:13:02.149 --> 00:13:05.169 was completely oblivious to. So let's step back. 00:13:05.580 --> 00:13:08.460 We have this incredible arc, men imported as 00:13:08.460 --> 00:13:10.700 tools, effectively. They build the country. They 00:13:10.700 --> 00:13:13.580 create unique communities. And then, thanks to 00:13:13.580 --> 00:13:16.139 policy and technology, they're erased. It's a 00:13:16.139 --> 00:13:18.759 classic example of invisible history. You know 00:13:18.759 --> 00:13:21.659 the famous poet Banjo Patterson waltzing Matilda? 00:13:21.779 --> 00:13:24.539 Of course. The voice of the bush. The very one. 00:13:24.639 --> 00:13:27.639 He spent time in places like Bork when the cameleers 00:13:27.639 --> 00:13:30.559 were everywhere. But if you read his work, they 00:13:30.559 --> 00:13:33.159 are almost entirely absent. He wrote them out 00:13:33.159 --> 00:13:34.940 of the national mythology because they didn't 00:13:34.940 --> 00:13:37.240 fit the image he wanted to project. That's the 00:13:37.240 --> 00:13:39.740 ultimate frustration. By any definition, they 00:13:39.740 --> 00:13:41.799 were the Australian Bushmen. They were surviving 00:13:41.799 --> 00:13:43.659 out there better than anyone. We were making 00:13:43.659 --> 00:13:45.500 it possible for the others to be there at all. 00:13:45.690 --> 00:13:47.429 Well, this has certainly shifted my perspective. 00:13:47.789 --> 00:13:50.289 The outback isn't just sheep and horses. It's 00:13:50.289 --> 00:13:54.009 date palms, prayer mats, and camels. It's a much 00:13:54.009 --> 00:13:56.429 richer, more complex tapestry than we're usually 00:13:56.429 --> 00:13:58.669 told. Before we wrap up, here's a final thought 00:13:58.669 --> 00:14:01.519 for you to carry with you. Next time you see 00:14:01.519 --> 00:14:04.039 a documentary about the Australian outback and 00:14:04.039 --> 00:14:07.120 you see a feral camel wandering through the scrub. 00:14:07.299 --> 00:14:09.860 Right. Don't just think of it as a pest or an 00:14:09.860 --> 00:14:12.320 invasive species. Think of it as a living monument, 00:14:12.559 --> 00:14:16.120 a breathing statue for the thousands of men who 00:14:16.120 --> 00:14:18.919 were forced to leave, but whose legacy literally 00:14:18.919 --> 00:14:22.159 refused to die. A legacy that's still wandering 00:14:22.159 --> 00:14:24.399 the desert today. Thanks for listening to this 00:14:24.399 --> 00:14:25.820 deep dive. We'll catch you on the next one.