The Country 05/02/26: Chris Russell talks to Jamie Mackay

Our Australian correspondent comments on the heat wave, bush fires, the dumb Rugby World Cup draw, exporting camel milk to the US, and breeding sterile blowflies.

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
He's our Ossie correspondent, Chris Russell, based out of Sydney,
but he's not there today. He's in Bathurst under the
shadow of Mount Panorama. What a great sporting venue that is, Chris.
This time a week ago when we caught up with you,
you were sitting quite literally in the Murray River to
cooled down. It was so hot. The heat wave was on.
The heat wave has now gone. Unfortunately, it's left some scars,

(00:22):
particularly for Victorian farmers who lost twenty million dollars of
livestock and the recent fires.

Speaker 2 (00:29):
Yes, and that's we're not even sure what a number
of animals have been killed in the fires, but it's
certainly a huge number and they're estimating around about twenty
million dollars worth. And of course the farmers are saying
how do we recover from that? A lot of them sheep,
which is you know, it's just something which I think

(00:52):
they're really regretting, particularly the merino sheep. But the fires
really have ripped through right down in the Otway Mountains
and in various parts for Victoria and you have been
quite devastating. And it wasn't just the heat, it was
also the northerly wind that came with that heat, Jamie.

Speaker 1 (01:08):
What I found devastating, not equally devastating, but devastating was
the Rugby World Cup draw. I thought it was going
to be a given Chris Russell that Australia or the
Wallabies would play the All Blacks at that wonderful OPTAs
Stadium in Perth. I was lucky enough to be their
last October for the Bledisloe Cup test. What a deflating draw.

(01:30):
We're playing Chile and I think you're playing Hong Kong.

Speaker 2 (01:34):
Yes, I don't know who comes up with these, but
why would you put on the first game between Australia
and Hong Kong in an Australian hosted Rugby World Cup.
I don't get that really at all. I mean, it's
not as if it's an elimination thing where you know,
if you lose, you straight out the pool games go on.

(01:55):
But anyway, that's what they've done. It's a mystery to
me and sounds like it's a mystery to you too, Jamie.
I think it's a mystery to everybody. We just no
one understands it. Everyone's criticizing it.

Speaker 1 (02:06):
Australia is set to export camel milk to the USA
as US wellness market surgeres. Is camel milk good for you?
What does it taste like?

Speaker 2 (02:16):
Yeah, slightly salty. I've only ever had it once and
I found it. I wouldn't say it's something that I
walk over the road to buy and preference the cow's milk,
but it's certainly deemed to be something which people have
allergies to cow's milk, are able to use, and the
US apparently of taking to it, and they're about to
export the first sixty thousand liters of whole milk across

(02:40):
to across to Los Angeles as part of a trial shipment,
and then they're saying that that's going to grow. In fact,
the farm that's doing this up in Queensland is going
to now milk twice a day. It's very different milking
at camel. You can't just use an ordinary shed obviously,
you've got to have taller sheds and the camel's a
little bit more finicky. These camels, of course, are not

(03:01):
really camels. They're dromedaries, so they only got one hump
and they came to the original camalias who brought camels
to Australia when the paddle himers couldn't get down the
Daling River with a wall. They said, well, we'll do
it for you when the river's dry. And then they
in Soern got replaced by trains. So all the camalias
just let their camels go in the desert and they've
been hanging around the desert ever since, and people have

(03:23):
been looking for uses for them.

Speaker 1 (03:25):
Something else that hangs around like a bad smell on
Australia are blowflies.

Speaker 2 (03:31):
Yes, well Kagaroo Island. I spoke about this with Hamish
a couple of weeks ago when they were looking to
release these flies. Well they've now released them. They've bred
about two million sterile blowflies over there. The thing that's
unique about Lucilla caprina, which is the Australian blowfly that
causes fly strike, is that it only mates once once

(03:52):
at the beginning of the season. So if you get
in first, it's your babies are going to be the
ones they produce. So by releasing early these huge number
of sterile male blowflies, they mate initially with the females.
Therefore the progeny won't happen because they're sterile, and therefore

(04:13):
they're expecting they can eliminate Lucilla caprina from kangarooland within
two years, which would be amazing. If we could repleat
that in Australia, well you know, that whole stripe problem
becomes much more controllable, Jamie Chris Russell.

Speaker 1 (04:27):
Thanks for your tom We'll catch you back again next week.

Speaker 2 (04:29):
No worries,