‘MY LIFE CHANGED WHEN I SAVED THESE GENTLE GIANTS'

This mother’s act of kindness turned into a booming business

- Michelle Meehan

When Michelle Phillips’ youngest child was about to start school, the dynamic mother-of-four began wondering how she was going to fill her spare time.

The stay-at-home mum from Muswellbrook, NSW, was already working as a part-time wedding cake decorator but was looking for something more substantial to occupy her days.

She never dreamed the “something substantial” would end up being a herd of wild camels, intercepted on the way to the abattoir and saved from certain death.

“Gabriella was heading off to school and I was a stay-at-home mum making wedding cakes of all things, so it’s quite a contrast,” says Michelle.

“I was talking with some girlfriends who had children with learning difficulties and we were discussing the benefits of camel milk and I said jokingly, ‘How cool would that be: a glass of wine in one hand and milking a camel with the other?’

“[I saw] more stories on TV and articles in the newspaper about camel milk, and I said to my husband, ‘I think someone’s trying to push me in the direction of having these guys’, so we started to do our research.”

RESCUE MISSION

Michelle made the career change from cakes to camels in 2014, and hasn’t looked back.