The Anonymous Widower

The Oldest Mosque in Australia

In Adelaide, C and I visited the mosque and the associated museum to the Afghan camel drivers, who opened up the middle of the country in the nineteenth century.  I have talked to Australians about this part of their history and few actually know of the story.  It’s here in an article in the Guardian, which offers advice to those visiting for the cricket.

Australia’s oldest mosque (1888) was built in a back street for Afghan camel drivers employed in the South Australian desert. A simple stone affair with whitewashed brick minarets, it now serves city workers and a new wave of Afghani refugees. You can enter (avoid prayer times) but the wood-lined interior makeover now bears unfortunate resemblance to a Swedish sauna. The camels’ descendants have gone feral but their pure bloodline means they are in demand back in the Middle East. Those not exported can end up as camel pastrami at Wild Oz in the Central Market (wildoz.com.au), which also deals in wild goat, wild boar and, of course, Skippy.

In fact the Afghans, were a mix of people from all over those places where camels are a beast of burden, and as soon as they had done their work, they left, leaving behind the camels, wich quickly went feral. At least the Australians have seen fit to call the train that links Adelaide to Alice Springs and Darwin, The Ghan.

One of my regrets is that when I flew round Australia with C, we only allowed four weeks for the trip.  We should have allowed a lot more time.  But then C was a typical barrister, who believed that if you were away too long, your colleagues would nick your best cases. We did fly along the southern part of the route of The Ghan from Adelaide to Alice Springs, with stops at Coober Pedy and Yulara. One day I’ll put all of the Australian photos on the web, but sadly, many are missing and I don’t have the negatives any more.

December 5, 2010 - Posted by AnonW | Transport/Travel | Afghanistan, Australia, Islam