Afghan cameleers in Australia
Afghan cameleers in Australia, also known as "Afghans" or "Ghans", were camel drivers who worked in Outback Australia from the 1860s to the 1930s. Small groups of cameleers were shipped in and out of Australia at three-year intervals, to service the Australian inland pastoral industry by carting goods and transporting wool bales by camel trains.
Afghans with resting camels, c.1891
Cameleers with visitors, c.1891
Grave of Afghan camel caravanner Zeriph Khan (1871–1903) at Bourke Cemetery, NSW
The Adelaide Mosque (1888–89) in Little Gilbert Street, Adelaide
The Outback is a remote, vast, sparsely populated area of Australia. The Outback is more remote than the bush. While often envisaged as being arid, the Outback regions extend from the northern to southern Australian coastlines and encompass a number of climatic zones, including tropical and monsoonal climates in northern areas, arid areas in the "red centre" and semi-arid and temperate climates in southerly regions. The total population is estimated at 607,000 people.
View across sand plains and salt pans to Mount Conner, Central Australia
Tourism sign post in Yalgoo, Western Australia
MacDonnell Ranges in the Northern Territory are found in the centre of the mainland
Fitzgerald River National Park in Western Australia