Camel Man John Arthur Elliott ends national trek in Geraldton, raising awareness of skin checks

After more than three years travelling on foot across Australia with six big personalities, the Camel Man John Arthur Elliott finished his national trek with a bang in Geraldton on the weekend.

After discovering a melanoma on his back, Mr Elliott decided to work alongside charity partner Skin Check Champions to offer free skin checks across Australia while travelling with six camels.

On Saturday, free skin checks were made available to Geraldton residents on the foreshore from 11am during the Camel Man’s Sunset Event.

Perth-based Mr Elliott began the camel trek on the east coast, and travelled on foot with six camels for three years, six months and four days before arriving at his final destination of Geraldton.

“I thought it was better to walk towards home, friends, family as opposed to away from it,” he said.

Mr Elliott said he had travelled around 12,000km, and passed through every state and territory — including Tasmania — visiting seven out of 10 major Australian deserts.

“I checked my step counter on my iPhone the other day, and we’ve done 26,117,000 steps to get here,” he said.

Mr Elliott said he purchased the first four camels during a buy three, get one free sale for $500 each through Facebook, and acquired two more along the way.

Charlie is the baby camel from Goondiwindi in NSW. He is the youngest animal to have ever walked through every state of Australia.

Mr Elliott said the lead camel, Cam, was a gentle giant from Broken Hill. Then there’s Bill the Bastard, the noisiest and laziest camel of the lot. Jackson was the camel who would cuddle up by the campfire every night. And then there’s Arthur.

“Arthur is that bloke that’s really good at his job, but you wouldn’t go for a beer with him after work,” Mr Elliott said.

Mr Elliott said the idea to finish the journey in Geraldton was sparked during a conversation with Mayor Shane Van Styn on his first trip to Geraldton. The two had become travel buddies, making a trip to Kyiv in Ukraine to complete a dignitary protection course on military, private security operatives and law enforcement personnel.

“I had a couple of drinks with the Mayor, and he planted the seed of finishing here. I said I wasn’t going to, but that seed grew into a tree and half way down the Canning Stock Route in the middle of the Gibson Desert I gave him a call on the sat phone,” he said.

Aside from almost being taken out by a train, running into the Canberra bush fires, nearly falling off a cliff and getting trapped in a snowstorm, Mr Elliott said the journey was completely worthwhile.