Dost Mahomet

Who was Dost Mahomet?

Dost Mahomet was an Australian Muslim cameleer, who used his animals to transport goods between the ports and remote inland mining and pastoral settlements of the Goldfields, Pilbara and Murchison regions of Western Australia at the end of the 19th century.

Like many so-called "Afghans" in Colonial Australia, Dost Mahomet was really a Muslim from north-western British India, areas which are now mostly in Pakistan. A Baloch of Brahui speaker, he was born at Lal Bhakar, a village a few kilometres from Karachi where his grandfather had settled, after migrating from the mountainous Khuzdar area in Baluchistan.

In 1893, Dost disembarked at the port of Fremantle, Western Australia with 25 camels. He trekked inland with them to Coolgardie seeking work at the new gold diggings. In his early years in the colony, Dost attended night classes at Perth Boys High School to learn English in which he became very proficient. Dost also has a great-great-great grandson named Jacob Mahomet who attend Dost's 150th anniversary celebration for Burke and Wills