Damon Mcknight
Australia is home to many deserts, and a large portion of these are found in Western Australia. The Western Australian deserts are known for their rich biodiversity and cultural significance to Indigenous Australians. The unique geological history of the region has contributed to the formation of these arid landscapes, which, despite their harsh conditions, support a diverse range of flora and fauna. The fluctuating climate of the region, ranging from extreme droughts to flooding rains, poses a challenge to the resilient plant and animal life that has adapted to survive in these environments.
| Characteristics | Values |
|---|---|
| Number of Deserts in Western Australia | 5 |
| Desert Names | Tanami, Great Sandy, Little Sandy, Gibson, Great Victoria |
| Size of the Great Victoria Desert | 348,750 km² |
| Percentage of the Great Victoria Desert in Protected Areas | 31% |
| Average Temperature in Summer | Above 35°C |
| Average Night-time Temperature in Summer | Around 30°C |
| Average Temperature in Winter | Below 15°C in the south and 25-27°C in the north |
| Average Night-time Temperature in Winter | 3-6°C |
| Lowest Night-time Temperature | -7.5°C in Alice Springs |
| Highest Temperature Recorded | 50°C in the Pilbara region |
| Indigenous Presence | Yes, for at least 50,000 years |
| Natural Resources | Iron, Aluminum, Manganese, Uranium, Gold, Nickel, Copper, Lead, Zinc, Diamonds |
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What You'll Learn
- The Gibson, Great Sandy, Little Sandy, Tanami, and Great Victoria Deserts form a large contiguous desert area
- The Great Victoria Desert is the largest desert in Australia
- The Little Sandy Desert is located in the centre of Western Australia
- The Great Sandy Desert was first crossed by Peter Egerton Warburton
- The Argyle diamond mine in the Kimberley contributes one-third of the world's natural diamond supply
The Gibson, Great Sandy, Little Sandy, Tanami, and Great Victoria Deserts form a large contiguous desert area
The Great Sandy Desert, first crossed by Peter Egerton Warburton, is the second-largest desert in Australia. It is dominated by spinifex vegetation and is home to animals such as feral camels, dingoes, bilbies, mulgara, marsupial moles, rufous hare-wallabies, and red kangaroos. The Great Sandy Desert is characterised by sand-dune systems, sandstone mesas, and rocky plains. The landscape is covered by hummock grasslands with scattered eucalypt trees and Acacia shrubs.
The Little Sandy Desert, located in the centre of Western Australia, borders the Great Sandy and Gibson Deserts. The traditional owners of the region are the Mandilara and Martu people. The Little Sandy Desert has a biodiverse ecology, with over 2,000 plant species, 116 bird species, and small to medium mammals. The landscape is characterised by rocky plains and red sand dunes, with sandstone mesas scattered throughout.
The Tanami Desert, named by explorer and prospector Allan Davidson, features The Granites and Coyote gold mines. The region bordering the Tanami Desert experiences light frost during winter, with minimum temperatures dipping to 6 °C (43 °F). The Tanami Desert is part of the larger contiguous desert area in Western Australia, along with the Gibson, Great Sandy, Little Sandy, and Great Victoria Deserts.
The Great Victoria Desert, named by Ernest Giles, extends from the Eastern Goldfields region in Western Australia to the Gawler Ranges in South Australia. It is the largest desert in Australia and is home to Aboriginal people of the Kogara, Mirning, and Pitjantjatjara groups. The Great Victoria Desert is part of the Western Desert, a cultural region of Australia's indigenous people, which also includes the Gibson, Great Sandy, and Little Sandy Deserts.
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The Great Victoria Desert is the largest desert in Australia
The Great Victoria Desert spans from the Eastern Goldfields region of Western Australia to the Gawler Ranges of South Australia, almost touching the Northern Territory border. It is bordered by the Gibson and Little Sandy Deserts, as well as the Nullarbor Plain to the south. The desert consists of many small sandhills, grassland plains, areas of closely packed pebbles called desert pavement or gibber plains, and salt lakes.
The Great Victoria Desert is home to a diverse range of wildlife that has adapted to the harsh desert conditions. Some of the wildlife in the region includes emus, red kangaroos, lizards such as the great desert skink and the Central Ranges taipan, and small marsupials like the sandhill dunnart and the crest-tailed mulgara. The desert also supports a variety of plant life, including Eucalyptus gongylocarpa, Eucalyptus youngiana, and Acacia aneura (mulga) shrubs, as well as Triodia b spinifex grasses.
The majority of people living in the Great Victoria Desert region are Indigenous Australians from different groups, including the Kogara, the Mirning, and the Pitjantjatjara. Aboriginal populations in the region have been increasing, and young Indigenous adults participate in programs like Wilurarra Creative to maintain and develop their culture. The desert includes protected areas such as Mamungari Conservation Park, Lake Gairdner National Park, Nullarbor Regional Reserve, and Gawler Ranges National Park, preserving the natural habitat and cultural significance of the region.
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The Little Sandy Desert is located in the centre of Western Australia
The Little Sandy Desert (LSD) is located almost in the centre of Western Australia, to the east of the Pilbara and north of the Gascoyne region. It is part of the Western Desert cultural region and was declared an interim Australian bioregion in the 1990s. The Indigenous Australian group that has historically identified with the region is the Mandilara people, an Aboriginal Australian group who are regarded as the traditional owners of the land. Today, the Martu people are recognised as the traditional owners.
The Little Sandy Desert is bordered by the second-largest Australian desert, the Great Sandy Desert, and the Gibson Desert. The landscape is characterised by rocky plains and red sand dunes, from which sandstone mesas randomly emerge. The Little Sandy Desert has a rich biodiversity, with over 2,000 different plant species, and it is home to a variety of birds, reptiles, and small to medium-sized mammals. Unfortunately, many of these mammals have gone extinct due to feral animals, fires, and weeds, with feral cats being a significant threat to native fauna populations.
The desert covers an area of around 110,900 square kilometres and is crossed by the historic Canning Stock Route, which was created in the early 20th century. The town of Jigalong lies on the western edge of the Little Sandy Desert, with a population of approximately 300 people as of 2016. There are also two smaller communities within the desert at Parnngurr and Punmu.
The Little Sandy Desert is an important cultural site, with the rock art and archaeological site at Karnatukul being a notable feature. Archaeological studies have shown that humans occupied the site around 47,830 years ago, and it is known as the oldest continuous recorded occupation in the Western Desert cultural region. The site has been inhabited through extreme climate change and desertification, with evidence of the use of wattle for firewood, food, medicine, and tool-making throughout its history.
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The Great Sandy Desert was first crossed by Peter Egerton Warburton
The Great Sandy Desert, which forms part of a large contiguous desert area in Western Australia, was first crossed by Peter Egerton Warburton, a British military officer, Commissioner of Police for South Australia, and an Australian explorer. Born on 16 August 1813, Warburton was a member of the aristocratic Egerton family. He was educated at home in Cheshire and by tutors in France before being commissioned into the Royal Navy at the age of 12. He served as a midshipman in the HMS Windsor Castle and later joined the Indian Army, serving from 1831 until his retirement as Deputy Adjutant-General with the rank of Major in 1853.
In 1853, Warburton visited his brother George in Albany, Western Australia, before moving to Adelaide, where he replaced Alexander Tolmer as Commissioner of Police. During his tenure, he undertook morale-boosting reforms in areas such as rank structures and uniforms, and established a policing presence in frontier districts. However, his administration was considered disorganised due to his preoccupation with exploration opportunities. In 1867, a police force inquiry led to his dismissal, and he subsequently accepted a lower-ranking position as chief staff officer and colonel of the Volunteer Military Force of South Australia in 1869.
In 1872, Warburton embarked on an expedition from Adelaide, crossing the arid centre of Australia to the coast of Western Australia via Alice Springs. This journey, financed by Thomas Elder and Walter Hughes, included his son Richard, John Lewis, three cameleers, a cook, and an Indigenous tracker named Charley. They endured extreme heat and water scarcity, surviving by killing camels for meat. On 11 January 1874, they arrived at Charles Harper's De Grey station in northern Western Australia, having crossed the formidable Great Sandy Desert.
Warburton was in a perilous state, strapped to a camel and nearly blind in one eye. He attributed his survival to Charley's bushcraft skills, and the party was nursed back to health. For his expedition, Warburton received a grant of £1000 from the South Australian Parliament, and his journal was published as 'Journey across the Western Interior of Australia' in 1875. He was also awarded the Patron's Medal of the Royal Geographical Society, London, and appointed a Companion of the Order of St Michael and St George (CMG). The Warburton Range and Warburton River in Western Australia were named in his honour, and he is remembered as the first European to cross the Great Sandy Desert.
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The Argyle diamond mine in the Kimberley contributes one-third of the world's natural diamond supply
Western Australia is home to a large contiguous desert area formed by the Tanami, Great Sandy, Little Sandy, Gibson, and Great Victoria Deserts. In addition, the Simpson, Sturt, Strzelecki, and Tirari Deserts are located in the east. The desert areas of Western Australia have been inhabited by Indigenous Australians for at least 50,000 years, and they continue to retain strong cultural and physical links to these regions.
The Argyle diamond mine, located in the remote north-eastern region of Western Australia, specifically in the East Kimberley region, has played a significant role in the world's diamond supply. The mine is situated about 550 km southwest of Darwin and 2,000 km from Perth, where most of the initial 520-person workforce commuted on a two-week shift basis. The Argyle diamond mine is notable for being the first successful commercial diamond mine exploiting a volcanic pipe of lamproite rather than the typical kimberlite pipe. The volcanic pipe, known as the Argyle pipe or AK-1, is composed of olivine lamproite and has a unique formation history.
The Argyle mine was the world's largest producer of natural diamonds, contributing approximately one-third of the global supply. It was also the leading supplier of natural coloured diamonds, including the highly prized pink and red diamonds, which it produced over 90% of. The mine's diamonds are predominantly eclogitic, indicating that the carbon is of organic origin. The Argyle diamonds are known for their low levels of nitrogen impurities, with their colour resulting from structural defects in the crystal lattice.
Argyle's processing plant utilised a crushing, screening, heavy-medium separation, and X-ray sorter diamond recovery system. The mine produced more than 865 million carats of rough diamonds during its 37 years of operation, with peak production occurring in 1994 at 42.8 million carats. However, only about 5% of the mined diamonds were of gem quality, compared to a worldwide average of 20%. The Argyle diamond mine ceased operations in November 2020, and the site is currently undergoing decommissioning and rehabilitation, with plans to return the land to its Traditional Owners.
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Frequently asked questions
There are at least 5 deserts in Western Australia: the Gibson Desert, the Great Sandy Desert, the Little Sandy Desert, the Tanami Desert, and the Great Victoria Desert.
The Great Victoria Desert is the largest desert in Australia, not just Western Australia. It sweeps from the Eastern Goldfields region in Western Australia to the Gawler Ranges of South Australia.
I cannot find information on the smallest desert in Western Australia, however, the smallest desert in Australia is the Pedirka Desert at 1250 sq. km.
The Pilbara region in Western Australia is the hottest area of the desert, with temperatures reaching 48-50°C.
Yes, Indigenous Australians have lived in the desert for tens of thousands of years and continue to do so. The Kogara, Mirning, and Pitjantjatjara groups live in the Great Victoria Desert, the Martu people inhabit the Pilbara deserts, and the community of Yuendumu lives on the edge of the Tanami desert.
