DON’T LOOK AT MOI!
This mother’s act of kindness turned into a booming business
While Whil hi his alter lt ego D Dame Ed Edna Everage is an international superstar, when Barry Humphries appeared on the show in a guest star role, he surprised his co-stars by how nervous he was. “I was surprised how insecure he was in terms of, ‘Was that OK? Did I do that the right way? Was that funny?’ He was really strange like that,” Peter revealed. Over the series, plenty of big names lined up to appear on the show, with international superstars Michael Buble, Eric Bana, Kylie Minogue and Shane Warne all popping up in Fountain Lakes.
It’s the real-life nightmare that has tormented parents around the world ever since sweet young Madeleine Mccann was snatched from her parents’ holiday apartment in Praia da Luz, Portugal, 13 years ago.
And finally last week came a sensational breakthrough, with police confirming that their marathon $22 million investigation had zeroed in on a convicted German paedophile, who was in the holiday town the night Maddie disappeared.
The German police leading the new investigation are treating it as a murder, but Maddie’s heartbroken parents Gerry and Kate Mccann still have a glimmer of hope, despite the evidence e mounting against this new suspect.
“All we have ever wanted is to find her, uncover the truth and bring those responsible to justice,” they said last week in a statement released by Scotland Yard after the news broke that their soul-destroying quest to find d Maddie may finally be drawing to a close. “We will never give up hope of finding Madeleine alive, but whatever the outcome may be, we need to know as we need to find peace.”
The prime suspect is a 43-year-old German, who was convicted last year of the rape of a 72-year-old American woman and jailed for seven years. He also has two convictions for sexual contact with girls, according to Christian Hoppe, of Germany’s federal ede a criminal c a po police ce office. o ce.
The blond-haired suspect, who police have not named, would have been 30 years old when Madeleine vanished from the apartment her family was staying in some time after 9pm on May 3, 2007 – just nine days before the little girl’s fourth birthday.
‘We expressly ask people to report and share their knowledge’
Her parents, heart doctor Gerry, 51, and his ex-gp wife Kate, 52, had left her asleep alone with her younger twin siblings while they had dinner with friends at a nearby tapas restaurant. Maddie would be 17 years old now.
The man police are investigating is also a suspected drug dealer and burglar, who was at one point living just three kilometres from the Mccanns’ holiday apartment, on a hill above the beach where Maddie played.
SUSPICIOUS VEHICLES
The path to the local beach went past his ramshackle farmhouse, which the “transient drifter” had rented out to a fellow German, while he lived nearby in a VW T3 Westfalia campervan with a white upper body and yellow trim, at the time of the disappearance.
He also owned a 1993 British model XJR6 Jaguar, which police believe may hold the key to the investigation because the suspect re-registered the car in someone else’s name in Germany the day after Maddie disappeared, even though the vehicle has never left Portugal.
German police say there is evidence he may have used one of these vehicles to transport Maddie, and mobile phone records show he made a 33-minute call, which places him in Praia da Liuz at 7.30pm the night she was snatched.
German police have appealed for witnesses who may have previously been too scared to come forward.
“There is reason to believe there are other people beside the perpetrator who have concrete knowledge of the scene of the crime and possibly where the body is stored. We expressly ask these people to report and share their knowledge.”
JOINT INVESTIGATION
They believe the suspect, who former neighbours described as an “angry car dealer type” may have entered the Mccanns’ holiday apartment, intending to burgle it, and then snatched Maddie in a crime of opportunity.
“We have been working with colleagues in Germany and Portugal and this man is a suspect in Madeleine’s disappearance,” confirms detective chief inspector Mark Cranwell, who is leading the British investigation.
“We know a lot about the suspect, but we need to know more about his movements on the night Madeleine vanished and in the days before and afterwards,” he says.
“It’s more than 13 years since Madeleine went missing and none of us can imagine what it must be like for her family, not knowing what happened or where she is.”
When Michelle Phillips’ youngest child was about to start school, the dynamic mother-of-four began wondering how she was going to fill her spare time.
The stay-at-home mum from Muswellbrook, NSW, was already working as a part-time wedding cake decorator but was looking for something more substantial to occupy her days.
She never dreamed the “something substantial” would end up being a herd of wild camels, intercepted on the way to the abattoir and saved from certain death.
“Gabriella was heading off to school and I was a stay-at-home mum making wedding cakes of all things, so it’s quite a contrast,” says Michelle.
“I was talking with some girlfriends who had children with learning difficulties and we were discussing the benefits of camel milk and
I said jokingly, ‘How cool would that be: a glass of wine in one hand and milking a camel with the other?’
“[I saw] more stories on TV and articles in the newspaper about camel milk, and I said to my husband, ‘I think someone’s trying to push me in the direction of having these guys’, so we started to do our research.”
RESCUE MISSION
Michelle made the career change from cakes to camels in 2014, and hasn’t looked back.
After saving 11 wild camels from being sent to slaughter, she spent the next few months taming them with the help of a South Australian camel training expert, before receiving a licence in 2015 to open NSW’S first camel dairy, Camel Milk NSW.
“The first herd we got, we actually intercepted a truck on the way to the abattoir in
Victoria,” Michelle explains. “I’ve always been an animal lover, so I’m glad I was able to save them from being slaughtered. We got them in 2014, and we were producing milk by Easter the following year.”
MILKING THE BENEFITS
Following successive breeding seasons and more rescue efforts, her initial herd of
11 wild camels has grown to 60 “gentle giants”, who roam happily around her picturesque 40-hectare property in the NSW Upper Hunter region.
Michelle’s range of products has also grown – from the fresh milk she pasteurises on-site before delivering it to customers and retailers across
NSW and around the world, to a line of camel milk soaps, lip balms and moisturisers, as well as an award-winning range of haloumi and labna cheeses, which are made seasonally.
Late last year, after importing a freeze dryer from the US, she began producing camel milk powder, which she says has greatly opened up her potential markets and will allow her to expand her range by Christmas to include chocolates made from her powder.
Diversifying her business even further, Michelle also offers tours of her Muswellbrook farm, as well as camel rides on a select group of the male camels trained especially for the purpose.
REWARDING WORK
Demand for camel milk across Australia is growing quickly as more people consume the alternate dairy product for cultural reasons, or because of its supposed health benefits for people with allergies, diabetes and behavioural problems.
Michelle says that while the transition to becoming a camel farmer hasn’t always been an easy ride, the rewards she has reaped make it worthwhile.
“Some days it’s nothing for me to spend 16, 18 hours working on the farm, especially in summertime when the sun doesn’t go down till 8 o’clock and we’re up at five in the morning and outside till dark,” she says.
“It would have been easier for me to get a nine-to-five job... but they’re a part of my life – they’re part of our family, they’re just not animals any more. They all get names except for the ones that we sell off because it’s really hard when you get attached to them – it just breaks my heart.
“Some days I question why the hell I am doing this, but this is our sixth year we’re going into now, and to look back and see what I’ve achieved is pretty amazing.
“We’re here for the long haul and as hard as it is, it’s also amazingly rewarding with the people that we’ve met along the way, just helping people’s lives by providing this milk.
“To get a phone call and hear a mother crying on the other end, saying that she just can’t believe the changes in her child because of camel milk, it helps to get you through the day.”
‘I’m glad I was able to save them from being slaughtered’