Dervish Bejah

Dervish Bejah Baloch (1862–1957), also known as Bejah Dervish, or simply Dervish, was a camel driver who played a significant role in the exploration and development of outback Australia, before settling in Marree, South Australia and growing date palms.

Life Darvish Bejah was born in Baluchistan, then part of British India (since 1947 part of Pakistan). He served with British forces at Kandahar and Karachi under Lord Roberts, where he attained the rank of sergeant. At that time, communities of so-called Afghan (in fact hailing from a number of countries and ethnicities) cameleers were already established in Australia and involved in exploration and transport, having helped to construct the Overland Telegraph Line and open up the Western Australian Goldfields, amongst other accomplishments.

In 1896 Bejah was engaged by Lawrence Wells to manage the camels used for transport on the ill-fated Calvert Scientific Exploring Expedition to the Great Sandy Desert of north-central Western Australia.

He is lauded in the poem "Afghan" by Douglas Stewart, published in 1955 The book details Madigan's 1939 Simpson Desert Expedition.

He was depicted in Megan Machin's radio serial Bejah Plants a Date Seed.

Descendants In 1891 he had a son, Ben Murray, with an Aboriginal (Arabana and Thirari) woman known as Annie Murray who was living in Marree. He would later teach his son, who also became a cameleer, some of his skills.

He also had a son with his wife Amelia, Abdul Jubbar (Jack).