Central Australian pastoralists say feral camels are causing massive damage on their properties with numbers at their highest level in years.

Key points: Station owners say they are getting hundreds of feral camels on their properties

Station owners say they are getting hundreds of feral camels on their properties They say the camels cause significant damage and the cost of controlling them is significant

They say the camels cause significant damage and the cost of controlling them is significant The owners say a lack of feral animal management on neighbouring land is at the root of the problem

Station owners west of Alice Springs said a lack of feral animal management on neighbouring Aboriginal land was at the root of the problem, but the Central Land Council (CLC) insisted it was making the most of limited resources.

Dianne Martin, from Mt Denison Station, said she had seen a huge spike in the number of camels on the property, 320km north-west of Alice Springs.

"Over the years we've had very little problems with camels — there'd only be a handful you'd see in a year," Ms Martin said.

"But in the last year there's been hundreds and hundreds of camels that have come in."

Ms Martin said the camels had caused a lot of damage on their property, and the cost of controlling the population was significant.

"It's had a massive effect and a very expensive one, with fences being smashed down, bores being broken," she said.

"They just drink so much water — when a mob of 50 of them come in they'll suck a tank dry."

Dianne Martin from Mount Denison Station says camel numbers are almost out of control. ( ABC Rural: Jack Price )

Ms Martin said a few hundred camels were shot there last year, but plenty remained on the property, many in a sorry state.

"We have a lot of camels coming in in very poor condition, very weak — some are literally just sitting down and dying," she said.

Ms Martin said even when feral camels and horses were killed on their land, another group would inevitably find its way onto the station.

Asked what she thought needed to be done about the problem, she said better animal management and more regular culling was needed on Aboriginal lands bordering her property.

Ms Martin said the CLC — which managed Aboriginal land across Central Australia under the direction of traditional owners — "only occasionally" conducted feral animal control programs in the region, and they could never fully get on top of the region's camel population.

"They have more of a reaction once it becomes an animal welfare issue, they react to that, but don't have ongoing programs," she said.

Many of the feral camels in Central Australia are in poor condition because of prolonged dry conditions. ( ABC Rural: Jack Price )

Pastoralists want action before camel problem gets worse

About 400km south of Mt Denison, the owners of Curtin Springs station are dealing with a similar camel problem.

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Lyndee Severin said the camels were starting to make their presence known on her station, damaging infrastructure and eating feed before her cattle.

She said the numbers were not as high as they had been before mass aerial culls were conducted between 2009 and 2013, but they were "not all that far away".

"We've had a couple of years where the numbers have been down a bit but we're starting to see increased numbers, increased activity … we're seeing mobs of up to about 50 or so," Ms Severin said.

"They're certainly nowhere near as in 2007-2008 where we had mobs of thousands in one go, but our concern is that we don't want to get to that point again."

Lyndee Severin says workers at Curtain Springs Station shoot feral camels daily. ( ABC Rural: Jack Price )

Ms Severin said Curtin Springs workers shot feral animals daily, but she was concerned the camel population would not reduce without better animal management on the Aboriginal land with which they shared a boundary.

"We simply say that rules need to be the same on both sides of the fence," Ms Severin said.

"We've got a responsibility to deal with the feral animals on the land we're responsible for, and if that's not happening on the all of the different land types then it's going to have an impact on your neighbours."

CLC wants to be more strategic with feral animal management

While pastoralists are upset about feral animal control on the other side of the fence, the CLC said it was grappling to make the most of limited resources for culling.

Peter Donohoe, manager of the CLC's land management team, said the organisation did not have a defined culling program but was constantly trying to stay on top of the camel population.

"CLC doesn't have a budget to do this work [culling]," Mr Donohoe said.

"It's very opportunistic — we're navigating where resources can come from at any given time to try and manage this issue.

"Of course we want to be in a position where we're being more strategic looking forward … so that when there is a drought it's less of an emergency situation."

Mr Donohoe said the CLC had recently conducted an aerial cull near Papunya and only killed 300 camels, which possibly indicated the population was not as large as people thought.

Feral camels damage pastoral infrastructure like troughs and fences. ( ABC Rural: Katrina Beavan )

Without the funding to complete an aerial population survey, Mr Donohoe said it was difficult to know the extent of the problem.

He said any attempt to control feral animal populations required governments, land councils, pastoralists and traditional owners to work together, but there would always be feral animals in the region.

"These animals aren't owned by anyone, they're not really the responsibility of you or me or that pastoralist," he said.

"The areas of land we're talking about are just so huge that I think a total eradication is just unrealistic … we need to try and keep it at a sustainable level."

Camel population may not be rising, simply on the move

Glenn Edwards, the director of wildlife use and pest animals with the Department of Environment and Natural Resources, said he did not expect there had been a big increase in the camel population in the western part of the NT.

"It has been very dry, not just over the past summer but over the two summers prior to that, so the population of camels certainly will not be booming under those conditions," Mr Edwards said.

"I think what's happening is water and possibly food is now becoming scarce out in the remoter desert country and so camels are moving around, particularly after water, which would explain why they're coming more and more onto pastoral leases."

Mr Edwards said feral camels presented unique animal management challenges, given the large area they covered and their extreme mobility.

He believed after aerial culls massively reduced the region's camel population between 2009 and 2013, and landholders were now able to manage the problem without government intervention.

"It is the landholders' responsibility to manage the feral animals on their land, it's not the NT Government's role," he said.

"Now the ball is back in the court of individual landholders to keep on top of the situation and to make sure we don't end up in a similar situation to what we were facing in 2009."