Camels are increasing at the rate of 80,000 a year. Photo / Getty Images Expand

Camels are increasing at the rate of 80,000 a year. Photo / Getty Images

CANBERRA - Feral camels have given the tiny Outback hamlet of Docker River the hump.

Known locally by the Anangu name of Kaltukatjara, the township nestling at the western foot of the Petermann Ranges, connected to the rest of the world by a long dirt road, has been invaded by 6000 rampaging beasts.

The have smashed water mains, damaged homes, buildings and the local airstrip - threatening emergency medical evacuations - and scared local residents from venturing outside.

"The community of Docker River is under siege," said the Northern Territory's Local Government Minister, Rob Knight.

"This is a dire situation which requires immediate action.

"These feral pests are putting community safety at risk, damaging properties and causing health issues by contaminating water.

"It's inappropriate that the safety of Territorians is being put at risk by these feral camels, which are preventing some locals from safely moving around the community."

Docker River is not the only community under threat.

Wild camels - descendants of animals imported to help open the Outback and connect east to west - have become a plague that now afflicts 3.3 million square kilometres of central Australia.

At least a million now roam the Simpson Desert and the vast region surrounding the confluence of the borders of the NT, Western Australia and South Australia.

They are doubling their numbers every nine years, growing by about 80,000 animals a year, devastating fragile desert ecosystems, scare water supplies, rare plants and animals, Aboriginal cultural resources, remote communities and pastoral stations.

"Because camels are cautious creatures and beautifully camouflaged, and because these areas are sparsely settled, most people are simply unaware of the sheer numbers of these introduced pests, or the extent of the damage they're causing," said Glenn Edwards, of the NT Department and Natural Resources and Environment.

Edwards was the lead author of a landmark study into feral camels by the Desert Knowledge Co-operative Research Centre, handed to federal and state governments last year.

The report found that camels were causing damage of about A$15 million ($18.4 million) a year to an area covering one-third of the continent.

This includes smashed pastoral water points, windmills and fences, and the draining of waterholes and wetlands that native birds and wildlife depend on for their survival.