It's a Big Paddock: Diary of a Pack Camel

Camels have been employed on numerous journeys of exploration across the Australian inland.
We have, of course, never heard the point of view of one of these powerful beasts of burden.
Now, Dean Koopman has granted a voice to Shabby, the singleminded lead camel on Koopman’s extraordinary 2004 one-man, three-camel expedition from Broome across the Great Sandy Desert to Alice Springs and on to South Australia’s Spencer Gulf.

Shabby turns out to be an astute observer of the ageless beauty of the inland, its perils and its lonely heart breaks, where time is measured only in the plodding spaces between camps - 181 of them.

He is also a droll and affectionate humourist concerning his human companion, Koopman, known to Shabby as “the greenhorn”, who protects his team from attacks by wild bull camels, sews them up when the track turns close to deadly and keeps them fed and watered across thousands of tough kilometres.

Dean Koopman has given us a unique and unforgettable new voice in the great Australian story. Shabby: a bush philosopher for the ages. You’ll fall in love.