Marcus Williams and Eric Sultan walking the Oodnadatta Track with their camels. Photo by Steve Strike.
Marcus Williams is a cameleer. Last week we heard about his first encounter with camels on Cable Beach in Broome in the early 1980s. Marcus learned about working a camel team with his friend and mentor Cas. Having only worked with Cas and his camels, he decided to go to Rajasthan in India to find out if what he’d learned in Broome was the right way to work with camels.
It was!
With a deeper confidence and more experience of working with camels and with tourists Marcus went to Alice Springs, with a determination to get his own camel team together. He also found another cameleer, Hal Duell, who was able to help him on this journey.
This is the second of a two-part Centralian Yarn, and we hope you enjoy it!
Broadcast: Tuesday 17 September 2013 at 5.30pm on 8CCC Community Radio 102.1FM and streaming live on on the world wide web!
Repeated: Following Friday at 9am and Sunday at 5.00pm
Producer: Joy Taylor
Photos: Steve Strike http://www.stevestrike.net
Music: ‘Inland’ by Bark, from the Album ‘Music from the Centre of Australia’, 1995
More Information
A brief history of camels in Australia http://www.camelsaust.com.au/history.htm
A history of the Afghan Cameleers http://australia.gov.au/about-australia/australian-story/afghan-cameleers
Pyndan Camel Tracks http://www.cameltracks.com/index.html
The Simpson Desert http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Simpson_Desert
Marcus Williams with his camel team. Photo by Steve Strike.