president's address. 33 



reasonable cost. It was not until I860, however, that the first 

 camels, twenty-four in number, with their native drivers, were 

 imported from Peshawur, India, by the Committee of the Burke 

 and Wills Exploring Expedition. Of these, Burke took sixteen 

 with him in his reckless dash across to the north, of which only one 

 reached Cooper's Creek on the return march. Camels were not 

 used in the construction of the Transcontinental Telegraph Line 

 (1870-2), but Colonel Warburton took seventeen in his expedition 

 across Western Australia in 1873, only two of which reached the 

 Oakover River. About the same date, Messrs. Smith and Elder 

 imported camels for use on their inland stations from Adelaide, 

 and fitted Ernest Giles out with seventeen camels for his second 

 expedition across Western Australia. From this date, camels have 

 been used in considerable numbers for carrying stores and wool, in 

 the northern and western lands of Australia. They were first used 

 in Western Australia by Mills, who brought thirty from South 

 Australia to Northampton to carry on the construction of the tele- 

 graph line thence to Carnarvon; and later, in 1886, Mr. McNulty 

 (the present Under-Secretary of Agriculture, W.A.), brought, so 

 he informs me, ten camels to explore the country round Nullarbar 

 Plains and Queen Victoria Springs. 



When the Kimberley Goldfields were discovered, camels were 

 imported in large numbers; and, in 1887, one lot of three hundred 

 were landed on the north-west coast, and many of tliem sold at very 

 low rates. They are, at present, used in considerable numbers in 

 the interior, and the latest statistics give their numbers as 3,000 

 in South Australia, 1,200 in New South Wales, and in 



Western Australia. 



Though the introduction of the camel has not done much in alter- 

 ing the natural conditions of the country, it has had a good deal to 

 do with opening up the dry lands of Central Austrtalia, and has 

 thus added to the development of the States. 



The introduction of the rabbit (Lepus cuniculus) has done more 

 to alter the natural conditions of animal and plant-life in Aus- 

 tralia, than the vast herds of cattle and mobs of sheep. The wild 

 rabbit, originally a native of Spain, was introduced into England 



