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Speaker 1: The quirky yarn that's popped up recently. Residents in remote

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Speaker 1: MT communities are being held hostage in their own homes.

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Speaker 1: Bye well, a caravan of feral camels leaving a wave

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Speaker 1: of destruction in their path. McDonald Regional Council CEO Belinda

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Speaker 1: Urcart joins me on the line.

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Speaker 2: Get a Blinda, I'll get Okatie. How are you today?

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Speaker 1: I'm really good. Wonderful to have you on the show.

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Speaker 1: What is going on with these feral camels?

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Speaker 2: Well, it's an interesting story, and yes it is a

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Speaker 2: bit quirky because it's not something that you hear all

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Speaker 2: the time and very appropriate to Central Australia, I must say.

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Speaker 2: But look, what's happened is we know that there is

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Speaker 2: a heat wave on at the moment and we know

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Speaker 2: that we haven't had the rain out bush that is needed.

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Speaker 2: And what that has done is it has basically made

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Speaker 2: the camels move into closer communities and into communities seeking water.

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Speaker 2: It's that simple. They're looking for water.

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Speaker 1: What is that meaning for our Central Australian communities? How

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Speaker 1: are they being impacted by these feral camels?

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Speaker 2: So what has happened is that, as you can imagine,

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Speaker 2: very very dry, very very remote area. So they've come

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Speaker 2: into the communities and they are seeking a drink. Now

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Speaker 2: how do they do that? Because we live in and

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Speaker 2: in central Saties it is desert, so they look forward

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Speaker 2: from infrastructure and let me tell you that they make no,

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Speaker 2: they don't use their discretion. So what I say that

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Speaker 2: is they come through senses, They get into the ento

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Speaker 2: people's backyards and they do things like not because they're

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Speaker 2: such large animals, they have the ability to knock infrastructure

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Speaker 2: off the sides of houses and buildings like for example,

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Speaker 2: taps and air conditioning units that you know, have the

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Speaker 2: water source in their conduite and their pipes to be

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Speaker 2: able to seek that. They will if they see any

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Speaker 2: water on the ground, if the kids have been playing

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Speaker 2: out and there's been a puddle or something like that,

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Speaker 2: they will aim to get that. So that's really the

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Speaker 2: infrastructure that's been heavily impacted, and that is that there's

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Speaker 2: been And when I talk about the number of camels,

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Speaker 2: let me just focus on that for a minute. Our

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Speaker 2: so this started about two or three weeks ago now

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Speaker 2: and at one stage there were seven to eight hundred

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Speaker 2: camels in and outside a community that you know of

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Speaker 2: one hundred people, so you know seven and eight, Yeah,

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Speaker 2: I'm the amount of residents that are there were the camels.

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Speaker 1: So it's actually a bit scary, very.

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Speaker 2: Because what I've learned about camels you would not believe

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Speaker 2: in the last three weeks, is that bull camels can

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Speaker 2: be very aggressive and of course they have a single

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Speaker 2: minded focus on getting into and getting water. When I

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Speaker 2: understand that they're very thirsty, camels I'm told can smell

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Speaker 2: water and what that means is if water pipes are

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Speaker 2: not buried deeply enough, and in our desk communities sometimes

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Speaker 2: that is the case. They have the ability with their

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Speaker 2: weight to be able to smash through the ground and

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Speaker 2: smash those water pipes.

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Speaker 1: Wow.

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Speaker 2: So it wasn't just the infrastructure that we had that

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Speaker 2: were concerns, and I had to raise that with the

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Speaker 2: Northern Territory government and which are wonderful and felc they've

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Speaker 2: all responded beautifully, but it's also been about the concern

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Speaker 2: aroound water quality and contamination and power and water were

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Speaker 2: on the front foot with that to make sure that

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Speaker 2: that everyone came together, which was great, But the destruction

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Speaker 2: caused by these huge animals is nothing I've ever seen before.

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Speaker 1: So Belinda, where are things at? Because I in another

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Speaker 1: life I worked for the Minister for Counsel for Regional

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Speaker 1: Councils back in the day, and it was when there

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Speaker 1: were issues probably fifteen years ago with these feral camels

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Speaker 1: and Rob Knight was the minister at that time. He

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Speaker 1: announced that there'll be a camel kull. Where are we

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Speaker 1: at right now? Like, what are the next steps? From

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Speaker 1: your perspective, what are both levels of government sort of

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Speaker 1: saying to.

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Speaker 2: You, sure, yeah, great question, Katie. Look, it's interesting. I

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Speaker 2: love talking to people who've been around for a few

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Speaker 2: years and can talk about the history and experience of

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Speaker 2: things that have happened previously. And you're one hundred percent right,

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Speaker 2: believe it or not. It was somewhere around two thousand

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Speaker 2: and nine twenty thirteen in that area that there was

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Speaker 2: also a plague of feral camels that were in the

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Speaker 2: west that were causing destruction very similarly, and the Minister

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Speaker 2: took it on board and there was a program initiated

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Speaker 2: between the Northern Territory Government CLC and the Commonwealth to

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Speaker 2: do a cling program. That happened and then they got rain,

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Speaker 2: so the camels went back out Bush, the ones that

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Speaker 2: were left behind, and they went out Bush. Now, the

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Speaker 2: other thing that I've had education about is that camel

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Speaker 2: populations double every seven years. So because of the timeline

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Speaker 2: and the length of time between when that last happened

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Speaker 2: and today, we're back to those numbers that you would

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Speaker 2: have seen way back when.

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Speaker 3: Yep.

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Speaker 2: So the hol Terretory government, with the FEDS ANDCLC are

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Speaker 2: initiating a coloring program. They're doing it using best practice.

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Speaker 2: I can tell you that I've been in meetings and

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Speaker 2: I've heard how that is getting rolled out, and I'm

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Speaker 2: comfortable with that. It started this week, it will continue.

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Speaker 2: It's been in consultation, but it is It's a necessary measure, unfortunately.

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Speaker 1: And so you know, how soon do you anticipate that

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Speaker 1: that's going to have an impact, And like you said,

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Speaker 1: you know it is best practice. I remember from all

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Speaker 1: those years ago, you know, when the minister had announced

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Speaker 1: that the color was going to happen, there was animal

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Speaker 1: activists who as people from all over the world basically

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Speaker 1: getting in contact with his office saying you can't do that.

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Speaker 1: But it was also a situation where if the government

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Speaker 1: didn't take some action, it was becoming really dangerous for residents.

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Speaker 1: And it sounds like that's what the situation is like

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Speaker 1: right now. So how soon do you anticipate that you

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Speaker 1: know that that culling is going to have an impact

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Speaker 1: for you guys.

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Speaker 2: I think it's I think it's fairly immediate. I'm not

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Speaker 2: an expert in this, remember, but what I can tell

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Speaker 2: you is that two things have happened at the same time.

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Speaker 2: The first is that the culling and the program has

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Speaker 2: been taken has started and taken place. And the second

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Speaker 2: thing that happened was last Saturday and Sunday out in

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Speaker 2: the west past Mount Leaving, there was a drop of

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Speaker 2: rain and that in itself moved those camels further away.

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Speaker 2: So just mother nature did that and answer that cool,

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Speaker 2: thank god, But that's what happened. But you're one hundred

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Speaker 2: percent right, Katie, in the sense that it was and

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Speaker 2: did become a welfare issue and a safety issue for

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Speaker 2: residents and their pets because and people, look, it was

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Speaker 2: a perfect storm. It was that people were absent from

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Speaker 2: the community because of Christmas and New Year and the

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Speaker 2: lead up to that, there's been a heat wave on,

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Speaker 2: there's been cultural and ceremony business that's happened that made

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Speaker 2: them a little transient and things like that. There's been

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Speaker 2: you know, no rain, so this all has happened, and

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Speaker 2: it was like it happened very quickly, if that makes sense.

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Speaker 2: There was no pre warning. No level of government could

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Speaker 2: have God, oh yeah, we're expecting a thousand camels.

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Speaker 3: To stop in. No one was expecting that knock on

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Speaker 3: the door. I can tell you it was. And for

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Speaker 3: someone like me, I was just looking at the video

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Speaker 3: and looking at the camel's going, oh my god, I've

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Speaker 3: never seen anything like this before, and people hadn't. But

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Speaker 3: it's been managed really well. It's something that I think,

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Speaker 3: I'm very proud of the way that the staff at

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Speaker 3: all levels of government have stepped up to manage this

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Speaker 3: for the safety and well being of the community, and

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Speaker 3: you know, and it's it's been I suppose we're looking

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Speaker 3: now at the positive endiverse getting it managed and being

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Speaker 3: able to maintain that. So it's just going to be

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Speaker 3: a vigilant thing until we get rain, until the management

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Speaker 3: of the camel's takes I don't know that we can

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Speaker 3: say that we're out of the woods yet, but we're

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Speaker 3: certainly heading that way.

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Speaker 1: Well, Belinda, please keep us up to date what a

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Speaker 1: truly territory situation that is unfolding there in central Australia.

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Speaker 2: Look, it is and if you talk to people on

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Speaker 2: the East Coast or into metropolitan areas, they'll say, oh,

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Speaker 2: you're making that up. So I can tell you now, Katie,

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Speaker 2: and you speak from experience as well, this is a

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Speaker 2: territory story. It's something that we need to deal with. Yeah,

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Speaker 2: you know, I call it a resume builder for all

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Speaker 2: the staff because it's one of those things that you

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Speaker 2: can put on your resume and say and people will go, oh,

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Speaker 2: my god, is that true.

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Speaker 1: Yeah, that's exactly right. They won't believe you all of Belinda. Look,

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Speaker 1: and you know, first and foremost, you've got to make

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Speaker 1: sure that those residents are safe and that infrastructure is

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Speaker 1: not being you know, damaged dramatically as a result of

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Speaker 1: these camels. Please keep us up to date with how

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Speaker 1: things are tracking. You know, I think a lot of

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Speaker 1: people will be very interested to hear this story and

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Speaker 1: interested that you know that we've got these camels that

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Speaker 1: are running an absolute mark.

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Speaker 2: Yeah, they are out of control. Yeah, you're exactly right.

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Speaker 2: So hopefully we're on this tail end. And look in closing,

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Speaker 2: I just say to you that again, it took a

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Speaker 2: community and a community of different levels of government to

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Speaker 2: be able to solve this problem, or at least start

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Speaker 2: the process of solving it. And I'm very grateful because

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Speaker 2: from local government, as you know, we're at the grassroots

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Speaker 2: are We're the ones that are sitting there and seeing

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Speaker 2: the impact firsthand. And it was really reassuring to know

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Speaker 2: that I could reach out and say, hey, we need

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Speaker 2: some help and we've got it.

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Speaker 1: Yeah. Good to hear well, Belinda Urkhat lovely to speak

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Speaker 1: with you this morning. The McDonald Regional Council CEO. Thank

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Speaker 1: you so much for your time.

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Speaker 2: Thanks, thanks Katie, thanks many, thank you.

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Speaker 1: Thank you so much. It is just twenty minutes away

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Speaker 1: from eleven o'clock. What a crazy situation that they're dealing

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Speaker 1: with there in that region with those camels, and as

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Speaker 1: I said, it's not the first time that they've had

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Speaker 1: an issue well that area and other areas that have

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Speaker 1: had an issue within Central Australia when it comes to

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Speaker 1: the camel's, but they cause an enormous amount of damage.

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Speaker 1: I mean, then when you talk about as Belinda had said,

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Speaker 1: talking about the way in which the numbers have doubled

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Speaker 1: is pretty crazy stuff. So it sounds as though all

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Speaker 1: tiers of government working together to try and manage this situation,

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Speaker 1: and that management now underway,