Stop a 5-year camel rides licence
Image: BFC Website
About the Eurobodalla Shire Council, Bushfield Farm Camels, Camel Rides Proposal
Eurobodalla Shire Council (ESC) is proposing to grant a five-year licence, and renewals, to Bushfield Farm Camels (BFC), to conduct camel rides at Corrigans Beach Reserve, Batehaven, in the Eurobodalla Shire Council Local Government Area. Corrigans Beach is a Crown Reserve. The proposal, reference no LLC0635, is currently on public exhibition to allow public submissions up to 4pm, Monday 22 December 2025. This is our opportunity to have our say. Please join us to advocate for these camels by taking a few minutes of your valuable time to lodge a personal submission.
Take urgent action for the Bushfield Farm camels
We've made it easy for you by creating a flexible submission guide which you can personalise into your own words and experiences. If we unite and enough of us speak up for these camels, we can stop the ESC from granting the proposed five-year licence to BFC.
We need your help - anyone can lodge a submission or multiple submissions - you do not need to reside in the Eurobodalla Shire Council Local Government Area.
Will you help us to change hearts and minds to stop the ESC granting of a five-year licence to BFC? Your voice is important and powerful in helping to create a kinder world for the animals. Please join us in taking action and lodge a submission to stop this proposal in its tracks. Take action now.
About the applicant - Bushfield Farm Camels
Bushfield Farm Camels is located at Gundaroo NSW, around 30 minutes from the Australian Capital Territory. The owners and operators, the Finn family, claim, “their love of animals and passion for camels motivated them to create an exciting experience for the public to endure”.
The Finn family farm includes 11 camels, donkeys, a pig, a Welsh Mountain pony, sheep, lambs and goats. In between camel rides, some of the BFC camels are exploited as petting zoo-style 'objects' where humans can touch them and take selfies. Some are further degraded as decorative props, trucked to other venues , adorned with trinkets for the festive season, and events like the recent Yass Community Carols. They can also be hired out for weddings, children’s birthday parties, and school groups.
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Image source: Bushfield Farm Camels Facebook page
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Image source: Bushfield Farm Camels Website
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Image source: Bushfield Farm Camels Facebook page
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Image source: Bushfield Farm Camels Website
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Image source: Bushfield Farm Camels Facebook page
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Image source: Bushfield Farm Camels Webpage
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Image source: Bushfield Farm Camels Facebook page
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Image source: Bushfield Farm Camels Webpage
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Image source: Bushfield Farm Camels Webpage
Welfare concerns
Many of the BFC camels have been nose pegged - 'Aber', 'Jazzy', 'Trevor', 'Queen Tess', 'Bogharty' and 'Flynn'. Our ongoing investigations into exploitative Australian animal-tourism ventures, including camel rides businesses, confirms that many of these camels are re-sold from one business to another. This is what we believe happened to 'Trevor' and 'Bogharty', previously named 'Zina', who began their lives of human servitude at Uluru Camel Tours (UCT).
‘Trevor’ was the first camel BFC owned and is their most senior camel, currently in his early 30’s. According to BFC’s website, “Trevor originally came from Central Australia, where he worked with his mates, taking tourists out into the desert to see our most famous landmark, Uluru.”
This is Trevor today
Source: Bushfield Farm Camels Website
This was Trevor at UCT
Source: Animal Liberation - ‘Breaking the camel’s back’
Animal Liberation’s ‘Breaking the camel’s back’ exposé
In 2024, Animal Liberation shared our ground breaking Australian-first investigation exposing the dark side of camel tourism through our 'Breaking the camel's back' campaign. The shocking and deeply distressing footage shows wild camels, captured, roughly handled, expressing pain and distress, psychologically ‘broken’, and forced into servitude by UCT in Yulara, Northern Territory (NT).
TRIGGER WARNING: This footage includes graphic and potentially distressing material.
According to BFC’s website, ‘Bogharty’ came from the Central Australian Desert and was bottle-fed as a baby camel at the Uluru Camel Farm, where she was named Zina. ‘Aber’ came from Gympie, along with ‘Bob’, ‘Jazzy’, and ‘Flynn’— obtained together as a camel team. ‘Aber’ had previously been exploited giving rides at Noosa.
According to Bushfield Farm Camels, ‘Bob’s’ claim to fame was that he spent a few years in Steve Irwin’s Zoo in Queensland. Bob’s experience highlights the serious animal welfare risks for camels, where they can be relocated, as was ‘Bob’s’ experience, going from Australia Zoo and ending up at a camel rides business. ‘Annie’ and ‘Crackers’ were purchased from the South Coast, and according to the Finn family, ‘Crackers’ could make an excellent racing camel; again highlighting the many types of exploitative abuses camels can be subjected to, because of the human normalisation of these ventures.
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Image source: Bushfield Farm Camels Website (Aber)
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Image source: Bushfield Farm Camels Website (Bogharty)
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Image source: Bushfield Farm Camels Website (Annie & Crackers)
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Image source: Bushfield Farm Camels Facebook (Queen Tess)
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Image source: Bushfield Farm Camels Website (Trevor)
The ESC will be familiar to many of you - this is the same NSW Council that approved a five-year licence for the Moruya rodeo operated by the Rodeo Association of Moruya Inc. Over recent years, we have continued to document and report alleged animal cruelty and breaches to NSW's animal cruelty and protection laws that we have observed at the annual Moruya rodeo events.
The Corrigans Beach Reserve is a Crown Reserve. According to the NSW Government’s Crown Reserve Code of Conduct, the “Crown reserve system is owned by the NSW Government on behalf of the people of NSW. The broader community expects that Crown reserves will be managed with transparency, integrity and good governance.” The Corrigans Beach Reserve is enjoyed by locals, visitors and tourists and also serves as an off-leash area for dogs and their human companions.
Source: ESC website: The proposed site for the Bushfield Farm Camels camel rides along Corrigans Beach Reserve, Batehaven.
Apart from naming the Applicant, Bushfield Farm Camels, and the proposed camel rides location, the ESC has failed to include any other relevant information about the proposal on public exhibition, making it extremely difficult to compile and lodge an informed submission.
About Australia’s dromedary camel population
Australia's dromedary camel population are wild and free-roaming beings - they are not domestic 'pets'; yet many are frequently captured from the wild, and exploited for animal-human tourism ventures like camel rides. They live an unnatural life of servitude, often suffering abuse for human entertainment. All sentient beings and particularly wild animals are here with us, not for us. They deserve respect and the freedom to live their life, free from human harm. They should not endure ongoing exploitation for human entertainment and commercial profits.
How to report animal tourism cruelty
Have you witnessed animal cruelty at a tourist location?
Please report it to our team, or send us an encrypted email at animallibnsw@protonmail.com.
How to be our eyes and ears for the camels
Have you witnessed any advertising for camel rides or other animal-tourism ventures?
Please report it to our Regional Campaigns Manager, Lisa Ryan: lisa.r@animal-lib.org.au.