‘They are very sweet, like giant dogs’: Brisbane camel farmer on her unique job

Actor Yasmin Brisbane says people are often surprised when they learn that the ‘tiny little blonde’ is also an established farmer.

Camels are beautiful creatures, but they need to be treated with care.

Yasmin Brisbane

Camel farmer and actor, 32, Chermside

It throws people completely when I say I’m a camel farmer. My work as an actor and being a camel farmer don’t really go together. I’m a tiny little blonde girl, 5 foot 4 (162cm), and I like to have my hair and nails and makeup done and be quite glamorous.

On the farm, I’m in overalls, throwing hay bales around, milking camels.

As a woman, I like being physically and mentally strong and I like being underestimated as well. I was born in the ’Gong (Wollongong), in NSW. When I was four, we moved to central Queensland – to Emerald for five years and Moranbah for seven years. My dad (Peter, 64) is a mining engineer and my mum (Lauren, 60) used to work in fashion.

Camel farmer and actor Yasmin Brisbane at her family's QCamel property on the Sunshine Coast. Picture: Hayley Elle Photography

In central Queensland, so many farmers were going under with the drought, so they were looking for an animal that was more drought tolerant.

My parents were founding members of the Australian Camel Industry Association. They didn’t know anything about camels to start with but spent two years researching and writing a feasibility study on the development of the camel industry … it was a way of helping their farming friends.

They used the study to advise the government on the National Feral Camel Action Plan. And that’s how we came into camels.

We moved to the Sunshine Coast in late 2005, and in 2014 they decided to become farmers themselves and started the farm, QCamel. When we set up, we were the first commercial camel dairy in Australia. Like anyone, I thought my parents were absolutely crazy but I quickly fell in love with the camels.

Camels are really interesting creatures and are an untapped resource. They are very intelligent and are more like an elephant than anything. When we started the dairy, we had to go and catch wild camels and train them. At first they are a bit flighty but it takes about six weeks until you domesticate them. In captivity they live for 40-50 years.

People think camels are big, scary creatures but they are
actually very, very sweet.
They are like giant dogs.

If you are lovely to them and are sweet and patient and kind, they will do anything for you. They are different from cattle. With a camel, they have to like you and trust you in order to give you milk. If they don’t like you or they are stressed, something is weird or they are just stubborn, they will not give you a drop.

Camel farmer and actor Yasmin Brisbane. Picture: Hayley Elle Photography

We’ve got close to 100 camels and they all have different personalities and they all look different to us. We recognise them all by sight and face and every single one has a name.

I’m pretty much involved in every aspect of the business – milking, mustering, farm work, all the farm tours, processing and bottling the milk, sales and delivery, marketing, website design, social media. There’s no typical day.

You have to learn to adapt and I think that’s farming in general. And I’m also an actress. It’s the weirdest career mix of all time – camel farmer and actress – but it’s the best of both worlds.

The farm is on the Sunshine Coast but I live in Brisbane because my parents are my bosses and I set my boundaries and live an hour away so I have my space. And if I need to do auditions – and sometimes I do three a week – it’s easier for me to live in Brisbane.

I went to Beerwah State High School for my final two years of high school. Then I had a gap year overseas, working as a house mistress in a girls’ boarding school in England’s Lake District.

When I came back, I did a degree at The University of Queensland (Bachelor of English majoring in Literature and Film Theory), then worked in clothing and retail for a bit, for Flight Centre and reception work, lots of different things, and I’ve always been working in the business in some sort of capacity.

Camel farmer and actor Yasmin Brisbane. Picture: Hayley Elle Photography

I’ve done two years of full-time performing arts study – at the New York Film Academy Australia and at the Warehouse Workshop Screen Acting Studio, both on the Gold Coast. Recently, I’ve been a “scream queen” in the movie Elvis and I was in the trailer. I’ve done stand-in work, a bit of presenting and quite a lot of commercials including Emma mattress, Instant Scratch-Its, Subway, Compare the Market, Catch.com and Tourism Australia.

I’m a very outgoing person, I’m always laughing and making jokes. I like to entertain. I’m very bubbly and brutally honest and I tend to wear my heart on my sleeve. One day, I would love to have my own camel travel show, visiting all the different camels across the world.

Whoever I marry will have to agree to having 10 acres (4ha) with a couple of camels and maybe some donkeys.

I love animals and I absolutely adore camels. They are just beautiful creatures.