Camels! We have heaps of them!
We appear to be the country that owns most of these creatures. I assume that
this then swayed the judges of the tourism campaign dubbed There's Nothing like Australia where 250,000 people voted for their
favourite entry selected from 30,000 holiday snaps.
The recently announced winning
entry was a picture of the backs of many people riding camels at Ayers Rock –
yes I know it’s called Uluru but to me it is still The Rock!
They may well be right that an
image of camel riders typifies Australia;
after all we have over a million camels here – mainly in the Outback desert.
Our history shows they played a major part in our development and Alice Springs would not be there today were it not for
our humpback friends, in those days driven by a bunch of Afghan cameleers. It is from that word that we also derive the
name for our famous train the Ghan -
I just threw that in case you did not know that. However, is this what tourists
to our beautiful country are looking for? Would this entice you?
But I have a great suggestion
after reading an article published by Reuters. You see the Arabs have a camel
beauty contest where the largest spans ten days. The rules appear to be similar
to our beauty pageants.
Ten golden-coloured camels
adorned with sparkling ornaments line up for the finale of a beauty contest in
one of the UAE's northern emirates, awaiting the selection of two proud
winners.
Gulf Arabs from across the
region gather in a large sandy plot in Ajman
to sit in for a four-hour competition, which will see the selection of the best
out of 150 camels every day. The top two finalists bag luxury cars, while the
remaining eight win cash.
The camels are judged on their
beauty and elegance, the criteria being 20 points each for the body that is divided
into five sections.
After the prettiest camels are
selected, based on the length of neck, curve of the humps, etc the camels' owners
are sworn in to vouch for purity of lineage and proprietorship.
After the pageant some camels
are sold for as much as 16 million dirhams (a cool A$4.36 million), according
to one participating owner.
"With the festival, we want
to encourage cultural tourism and preserve our heritage," said the events
executive director Shalal Rzooqi al-Shimri
Yes, we have camels in Australia. Lots
of them! Besides Australia's
wild camel population being the biggest in the world they certainly are part of
our culture and heritage.
So should we not echo Shimri?
Bring in the tourists to our own “camelrama” and additionally make loads of
money selling the most beautiful of our catwalk camels. A double whammy event!
That’s if the campaign entices
anyone to come here!
Lyndel Elias
Editor, Resort News
Editor's Desk
Our Very Own Camel-lot Camels! We have heaps of them! We appear to be the country that owns most of these creatures. I assume that this then swayed the judges of the tourism campaign dubbed There's Nothing like Australia where 250,000 people voted for their favourite
