Among the various weird artifacts and outcomes of British imperialism: the largest population of wild camels in the world is in the Australian Outback.
From Al Jazeera …
Camels were brought to Australia from Pakistan and India by the British to help with exploration and load-carrying in the mid-1800s.
Given the Australian outback’s vast, arid landscape, camels were the only animals strong enough for the job.
But by the early 1900s, there were trucks and trains to do this work, and camels were no longer useful. So the South Australian government ruled that they be destroyed.
This was unthinkable for the Asian camel herders. They disobeyed the order, and set the animals loose in the outback.
