Outback CamelCompany

Andrew Harper OAM has owned the Outback Camel Company since 2000, when he bought it from its founder, the late Rex Ellis, who led Australia's first commercial camel expedition across the Simpson Desert in 1976. Harper's own path began as a hired hand on Ellis's 1995 Simpson Desert expedition; he has since walked and explored the Australian deserts for three decades, crossing the Simpson twelve times and covering more than 20,000 kilometres across the continent's nine major deserts, on foot and leading commercial camel treks. Expeditions depart Alice Springs and travel entirely under camel power: pack camels carry swags, food and water, with no backup vehicles and no wagons. Guests walk beside the string and take on camp duties. The company is explicit about what the experience is not — not a camel-riding safari, not a conquest of the desert — describing itself instead in the tradition of the nineteenth-century Afghan cameleers who first worked camels into Central Australia. Harper received the Order of Australia Medal in 2015 for service to environmental science, research and adventure tourism; in 2007 he founded Australian Desert Expeditions, pairing his trekking routes with university ecological surveys. 2026 marks the company's fiftieth year.