DINKUM DINING
Feral feast
OUTBACK's "nomadic chef" visits far western New South Wales and spit roasts a wild goat
Story and photos: Adrian Millman
The
setting for our campfire is Scotia Sanctuary deep in the mallee sand dunes
of far-western New South Wales. It is a place people visit to enjoy the wildflowers
and try to spot a rare mallee fowl. It isn't where you would normally go
to try a meal of goat - a meat unfairly regarded as being about as tender
as a pair of R.M. Williams boots.
But the result is a memorable meal.
Scotia sanctuary was founded as part of John Wamsley's visionary quest to return parcels of degraded, arid Australia to their natural state. It wasn't set up as a goat farm. In fact, one of John's aims is to rid the area of all feral animals.
But, ironically, one of the unexpected by-products of his efforts is the availability for consumption of large populations of wild goats.
Thousands of them have been evicted from the 4200 ha stage one of Wamsley's Scotia Sanctuary, a former sheep station on the NSW-SA border, south-west of Broken Hill.
These animals, along with large populations from neighbouring properties, are filling a high-demand export market, with 4000 carcases shipped weekly from Broken Hill processors to Asia.
The Scotia goats are a windfall from Wamsley's latest venture under
his Earth Sanctuaries banner. 
Full story Issue 5, June-July, 1999
