Vodka is the latest product in a drive to make camels mainstream.
Story + Photos Mandy McKeesick
It is vodka, but not as you know it. There are notes of caramel and malted cream, a purity derived from triple-distillation and a smooth finish courtesy of maturation in French oak. This is Camel Milk Vodka, the latest offering from Summer Land Camels in the Scenic Rim, south-east Queensland. Summer Land is Australia’s leading camel dairy and incorporates a tourism venture, where an array of award-winning artisan products are used to promote the camel as a viable economic proposition.
The vodka is made with camel milk whey. “The whey is a by-product of our cheesemaking and, consistent with our ethos of not wasting a thing, we wanted to find a commercial outlet for it,” Summer Land CEO Paul Martin says. “Whey is often used in protein shakes, but we didn’t have enough volume to supply the gym junkies, so we looked around at other avenues and found sheep whey was being used to make vodka. We have modified the idea to create the world’s first vodka made from camel whey.”
Paul is a cattleman turned camelman. He hails from a station near Springsure in Central Queensland, where he first introduced camels to his 10,000 cattle herd for beneficial gut biota transfer. The hardy microbiota of the camels, dropped into communal watering points and taken up by the cattle, allows the bovine to digest rougher forage. Paul also used camels on his property near Mt Garnet, where they were employed for weed control.
This story excerpt is from issue #165
Outback Magazine: Feb/Mar 2026
