Cameleers’ history to feature in new documentary

The role of cameleers in shaping Australia’s multicultural history has become the focus of a young documentary maker who has embarked on a fact finding mission throughout the outback.

Saad Khalid visiting the Alice Springs camel farm as part of his documentary project. Picture: JAMAL BEN HADDOU

The role of cameleers in shaping Australia’s multicultural history has become the focus of a young documentary maker who has embarked on a fact finding mission throughout the outback.

Filmmaker and Canberra based radio presenter Saad Khalid found himself in Alice Springs last week tracing the long but tangible history of cameleers in Alice Springs.

His upcoming documentary, Kings of the Desert: the Forgotten Chapter of Australia’s History, traces the path and plight of Australia’s Afghan cameleers during the 19th and 20th centuries.

Mr Khalid who works with radio station 1CMS in Canberra said he wants to raise awareness across Australia.

“Many people think multiculturalism started in the 1970s at the end of the White Australia policy,” he said.

“The cameleers were the earliest Muslims here and one of the earliest signs of Australian multiculturalism.”

Cameleers provided a vital contribution to the accessibility of vast land masses in Central Australia by supporting early pastoralism, mining and transport industries.

Traces of this extensive history are present today with the suburb Sadadeen named after a prominent cameleer and the Council lawns the site of a former mosque and garden.

The project has also taken Mr Khalid to Adelaide, Darwin, Perth and Kalgoorlie but Alice Springs has been the focus of his story with hundreds of descendants of cameleers in Alice Springs including members of the Satour family.

“My story will focus on the descendants of the Afghan Cameleers, the lives that they live and their views of what they can remember of their forefathers,” Mr Khalid said.

Marcus Williams who is the owner of the Pyndan Camel Track (Alice Springs camel farm) has made a modern career out of cameleering and operates tours by camels along the backdrop of the MacDonnell Ranges. Mr Williams said it was interesting to note the interaction of Cameleers with Australia’s Indigenous population.

“I think the cameleers were more gentle and understanding with Indigenous culture because the Afghans came from tribal groups themselves,” he said.

“A lot of Afghans married Aboriginal people too. They knew Aboriginal people had their own laws and culture.”