Camels help eradicate invasive prickly acacia in outback Queensland trial
Dozens of giant creatures with stomachs of steel have proved a powerful enemy to one of the most invasive plants in the Queensland outback.
Over four years, camels have been introduced to prime grazing paddocks to eat a thorny weed called prickly acacia.
The invasive plant, introduced to Queensland in the early 1900s, is estimated to cost landholders $27.5 million yearly in lost production.
The acacia's prolific spread means eradication is no longer considered an option.
The trial began in Muttaburra in Western Queensland, and the results are in — the humped mammals have beaten, and eaten, the weed.
More than 30 camels have been dining on a 40,000-hectare property as part of the trial, and while they failed to kill the plant, they did keep it at bay.
Desert Channels Queensland (DCQ) operations manager Geoff Penton said the trial proved how effective the camels could be in slowing the weed's spread.
"It's an effective method."
Unlike cattle or sheep, when a camel eats the prickly acacia's flowers, the seeds do not pass through into their faeces.
It means the weed's spread is stopped in its tracks.
Mr Penton said one camel for every 1,000 prickly acacia plants was an ideal ratio.
"We found that grass makes up roughly only a third of their diet, so they predominantly will eat the prickly acacia," he said.
According to DCQ, prickly acacia is one of Australia's worst weeds, and under good conditions can produce more than 170,000 seeds per tree in a year, completely taking over landscapes.
Left uncontrolled, it is estimated that within five years, the weed could dominate 95 per cent of Mitchell Grass Downs, which spans more than 470,000 square kilometres across Queensland and into the Northern Territory.
Mr Penton said the second stage of the DCQ trial was underway, evaluating the camel's impact during seasonal changes, and more landholders wanted to join the program.
Paul Keegan has been a cameleer for 40 years at his property near Mount Isa in North West Queensland.
Mr Keegan supplied some of his 300 camels to the DCQ trial and said the results were exactly what he expected.
"Unless you implement something to take the flower and seed out, landholders are going to keep going around spraying and spraying [herbicides]," he said.
Camels have had a bad reputation in some parts of rural Australia, with feral populations stealing feed, destroying fences and drinking water meant for cattle.
But Mr Keegan said if landholders wanted to get on top of prickly acacia, they should swap out herbicides for the herbivores.
"Inside the fence at the trial site there was no [prickly acacia] grass thanks to the camels, and outside the fence the grass is up around your knees," he said.
For 25 years, camels have eaten prickly acacia across David Batt's 80,000-hectare cattle and sheep station, west of Winton.
Mr Batt said he could not quantify how much money he had saved on herbicides by using camels, but it would be substantial.
"It's well worth it," he said.
While camels may "get a bit of a bad rap" as pests in Australia, Mr Batt said he had no problem with them mingling with his stock.
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