Rather than ships of the desert it was more of a cruise liner of 32 camels harnessed three abreast to a wool wagon that sailed into the record books in the small NSW town of Barellan. Cameleers Rodney Sansom, Anna Bay, NSW, Tom Woodhouse, Boulia, Qld, Peter Hodge, Dookie, Victoria, along with offsiders Peter and Ken Towle, and camel owners Bernie and Heather Rice, Katamatite, Victoria, set the track alight at The Good Old Days Festival on Saturday, October 3 to establish the new Australian record. The 32 camels harnessed to an historic wool wagon eclipsed the previous record of 22 set at the 2024 Good Old Days Festival. The big team padded majestically around the showgrounds capably led by the leaders Thirsty and Bubba, driven by Peter Towle using three sets of reins. What made the spectacle unique on a global scale was the fact the camels were harnessed to a wagon and driven rather than the familiar sight in the Middle East of being ridden or attached in single file nose-to-tail. Mr Sansom recalled how 12 months ago he contacted Peter Hodge to discuss the record attempt. “He said yeah I’m on board and started training camels and getting gear ready straight away,” he said. “Then I thought, oh well, let’s push it. We started getting camels together and thinking about our gear, and lots of volunteers came to help us. “My mates and cameleers have been so good to help us all.” Sansom also approached his camel racing mate, Tom Woodhouse, and horseman Bernie Rice, better known for his team of eight Section A Welsh ponies and miniature Cobb and Co coach. Bernie and his wife Heather trained and contributed two camels to the team. Key to the team working efficiently were brothers Peter and Ken Towle, with Ken on the ground as Rodney’s offsider and Peter driving the team seated on the wagon. “We drove the team with both voice and reins as safety comes first. In saying that, this team drives by voice no problem whatsoever,” Mr Sansom said. The big team was fine-tuned on the stock routes around Barellan in the lead up to the event, drawing nine international visitors from the USA. Doug Baum, Texas Camel Corps, and Valeri Crenshaw, North American Camel Ranch Owners Association general secretary, brought along a group of seven other camel owners and enthusiasts to experience the thrill of riding on the biggest harnessed camel teams in the world in modern history. “We had the visitors stop a team of 14 camels by voice and they couldn’t believe they could yell out and stop them,” Mr Sansom said. “It is good to come to Barellan as we meet up with all these teamsters and bounce ideas off and learn from each other. We get little tips here and there off every teamster – it could be about a rope or voice command. “That’s why we can create this wealth of knowledge among the teamsters.” Mr Sansom said the camels were harnessed three abreast with two in the shafts otherwise the team would have been too long for voice commands to be heard. One of the leaders and racing camel, Thirsty, is known for his antics of drinking out of water bottles. “You need characters in a team to make the team. We have brought together heaps of leaders and followers together and gradually thrashed it out to make a full team,” Mr Sansom said. “I’m really happy with both how the camel and human teams are going.” The team was driven by a set of reins on the leaders, the middle leaders and wheelers. The huge collection of harness was mostly in place before the record attempt. “We have been aiming at this for years really and it’s all folded together at the right time. You can’t get a full team together like this in a couple of months. It’s all about the experience of the camels and cameleers,” Mr Sansom said. The team used around 3 metres of reins for ever camel or almost 100 metres. Known as “Beauty”, the wagon was built by Moffatt’s coach building works at Quirindi, NSW, at the turn of the 20th century and was purchased by Rodney after seeing it at the Surat Cobb & Co run. “We’ve done a bit of work on the wagon to bring it up to working condition and we are privileged to have it. “Australia is unique in the world for harnessing camels to wagons.”
