ALMOST four decades after racing a half-wild camel across outback Australia, Ipswich GP Jill Colwell has brought the unforgettable adventure to life for a new generation while partnering with local camel institution, Summer Land Camels as part of this weekends Farm Gate Trail.
In 1988, Dr Colwell signed up for the Great Australian Camel Race, a three-month journey from Uluru to the Gold Coast celebrating the remarkable role camels played in opening up inland Australia.
The true story of an unlikely friendship between a determined young doctor and a mischievous camel, has now become children’s picture book, Tiki and Jill and the Great Australian Camel Race.
“I thought it sounded like a great adventure,” Dr Colwell said. “I imagined I’d just be sitting on a camel for three months looking at the beautiful Australian countryside.”
There was just one small complication, Dr Colwell had never ridden a camel and her camel, Tiki, had never carried a rider after being freshly captured from the Great Stony Desert and described as more than half wild, Tiki made his feelings about humans abundantly clear.
A former professional jockey, Colwell said that unlike horses, who respond to subtle leg pressure and body movement, camels are fiercely independent thinkers.
“I weighed about 50 kilograms and he weighed around 800,” she said. “I had to convince him that doing what I wanted was actually a good idea.”
The race soon became far more challenging than anyone had imagined, with most competitors contracting severe shigella dysentery, leaving riders dangerously dehydrated and some close to renal failure before torrential rain across Queensland’s Channel Country led to further hurdles.
“The riders became the weak link,” Colwell said.
By treating Tiki with patience rather than pushing him to exhaustion, Colwell and her mount quietly climbed the leaderboard.
When Tiki became tired, Colwell simply climbed off and walked beside him as the pair increased their pace from 50 kilometres to 200 kilometres per day, racing throughout the night.
Against all expectations, they finished sixth overall, with 28 of the 69 competitors who started officially completing the race, while passing every veterinary inspection and reaching each checkpoint on time.
“The end was wonderful, but also bittersweet because we’d become one big family and suddenly everyone was going home, along with Tiki,” she said.
This Saturday’s event as part of the Farm Gate Trail at Summer Land Camels is a fitting homecoming for Dr Jill Colwell and her book.
Summer Land Camels chief executive Paul Martin said stories like Dr Colwell’s help Australians rediscover one of the country’s most misunderstood animals.
“Books like Jill’s highlight the intelligence, resilience and character of these amazing animals while reminding us of the important role they have played in Australia’s past and the potential they have for our future,” he said.
