Lyla Lindsey
Australia is home to several notable deserts, and the Australian desert includes four primary deserts: the Great Victoria Desert, the Gibson Desert, the Great Sandy Desert, and the Simpson Desert. These four deserts contribute to the unique ecosystem of Australia, characterised by hardy flora and fauna adapted to extreme conditions. The Australian desert, also known as the Great Australian Desert, covers around 18% of the Australian mainland, or about 35% of the Australian continent, which receives very little rainfall and is practically a desert.
| Characteristics | Values |
|---|---|
| Number of Deserts | 10 |
| Area Covered | 1,371,000 km2 (529,000 sq mi) or 18% of the Australian mainland |
| Average Rainfall | 250 mm (10 in) |
| Four Main Deserts | Great Victoria Desert, Gibson Desert, Great Sandy Desert, Simpson Desert |
| Largest Desert | Great Victoria Desert |
| Second Largest Desert | Great Sandy Desert |
| Known for Sand Dunes and Unique Wildlife | Great Sandy Desert |
| Known for Large Parallel Sand Dunes | Simpson Desert |
| Named After | The Great Victoria Desert is named after Queen Victoria |
| Named After | The Gibson Desert is named after Alfred Gibson |
Explore related products
What You'll Learn
The Great Victoria Desert is the largest desert in Australia
The Great Victoria Desert consists of many small sandhills, grassland plains, areas with a closely packed surface of pebbles (called desert pavement or gibber plains), and salt lakes. It is bordered by the Gibson Desert and the Little Sandy Desert. The desert is home to a variety of wildlife, including emus, red kangaroos, and several types of lizards, such as the vulnerable great desert skink and the Central Ranges taipan.
The Great Victoria Desert is a World Wildlife Fund ecoregion and an Interim Biogeographic Regionalisation for Australia region. 31% of the desert is in protected areas, including Mamungari Conservation Park in South Australia, which is one of the 14 World Biosphere Reserves in Australia. The habitat is also preserved in the large Aboriginal local government area of Anangu Pitjantjatjara Yankunytjatjara in South Australia and in the Great Victoria Desert Nature Reserve of Western Australia.
The Great Victoria Desert is classified as an arid region, with an annual rainfall of 200 to 250 mm on average. The desert has remained largely undisturbed due to its limited use for agriculture, and crossing it would take a person several days. The desert is crossed by the Connie Sue Highway and the Anne Beadell Highway, and it is tracked for the recovery of missiles from the weapons-testing range at Woomera, South Australia.
The Great Victoria Desert is of cultural significance to Indigenous Australians, with young Indigenous adults from the region working in the Wilurarra Creative programs to maintain and develop their culture. It is also of scientific interest, with its unique habitats making it one of the most important habitats for reptiles on the planet.
Making Australia Better: Strategies for Improvement
You may want to see also
Explore related products
The Gibson Desert is known for its red sand dunes
The Gibson Desert is a large desert in Western Australia, covering an area of about 155,000 square kilometres (60,000 square miles). It is named after Alfred Gibson, a member of British explorer Ernest Giles' expedition party who got lost and presumably died in the desert in 1874. The Gibson Desert is known for its red sand dunes and plains, which are home to a diverse community of reptiles, including the yellow and brown striped woma snake, the thorny devil, and the great desert skink. The desert also features saltwater lakes, low ridges covered in rock and gravel, and lateritic 'buckshot' plains. The sandy soil of these plains is rich in iron.
The Gibson Desert is located between the saline Kumpupintil Lake and Lake Macdonald along the Tropic of Capricorn. It sits south of the Great Sandy Desert, east of the Little Sandy Desert, and north of the Great Victoria Desert. The Great Victoria Desert is the largest desert in Australia, sweeping from the Eastern Goldfields region in Western Australia to the Gawler Ranges of South Australia. The Gibson Desert, on the other hand, is the fifth-largest desert in the country.
The Gibson Desert has a diverse landscape, including gravel and red sand plains and dunes, rocky outcrops, gorges, rare wetlands, and gnamma water pools that provide refuge for wildlife. The vegetation in the region is dominated by spinifex grasslands and waputi. The desert is also home to larger animals that have adapted to the harsh conditions, such as the red kangaroo, the emu, and the long-eared bilby.
The Gibson Desert region is largely inhabited by Indigenous Australians, specifically the Pintupi people, who were believed to be the last group of Aboriginal people to make contact with modern Australia in 1984 due to a severe drought. On the eastern margin of the region, population centres include people of European descent in towns like Warburton, Mantamaru, and Warakurna.
The Gibson Desert is part of the Great Australian Desert, which covers about 1,371,000 square kilometres (529,000 square miles) or 18% of the Australian mainland. This collective term refers to the arid regions of Australia that receive less than 250 mm (10 inches) of rainfall annually. The Great Australian Desert encompasses multiple deserts, including the Gibson Desert, each contributing to the diverse and challenging environment of Australia's interior.
How Sea Animals Ride the East Australian Current
You may want to see also
Explore related products
![The Red Desert [Region 4]](https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/31kmogonToL._AC_UY218_.jpg)
The Great Sandy Desert is the second-largest desert in Australia
Australia is home to many deserts, covering about 1,371,000 km2, or 18% of the country's total mainland area. The Great Sandy Desert is the second-largest desert in Australia, after the Great Victoria Desert. It is an arid expanse of salt marshes and sand hills interlaced with Triodia (Spinifex) grass. The desert extends from Eighty Mile Beach on the Indian Ocean eastward into the Northern Territory and from Kimberley Downs southward to the Tropic of Capricorn and the Gibson Desert.
The Great Sandy Desert is characterised by short ephemeral drainages, several lakes and wetlands, red sand dunefields, and remnant rocky outcrops. The desert's single modern river, the Rudall, flows across the desert and empties into the large, salty Eva Broadhurst Lake in the heart of the Karlamilyi National Park. The Great Sandy's dunefields comprise both variable and consistent forms, with rocky outcrops of sandstone, siltstone, and mudstone ridges in the southeast.
The region is sparsely populated, with the main populations consisting of Aboriginal Australian communities and mining centres. The Aboriginal people of the desert fall into two main groups, the Martu in the west and the Pintupi in the east, speaking multiple Western Desert languages. Many Indigenous people were forcibly removed from their lands during the 18th, 19th, and early 20th centuries, but some returned in the late 20th and early 21st centuries.
The Great Sandy Desert has a hot and dry climate, with daytime temperatures averaging about 105 degrees Fahrenheit during its long summers and 68 degrees during its short winters. Frost is rare, but higher elevations may experience occasional nighttime frosts. The region bordering the Gibson Desert in the far southeast may record light frosts annually. The Great Sandy Desert typically experiences 20-30 days of thunderstorms annually, with the north and areas bordering the Kimberley averaging 30-40 thunderstorm days per year.
Free-to-Air TV: Australia's Easy Guide to Connect
You may want to see also
Explore related products
The Simpson Desert is famous for its long parallel sand dunes
Australia is home to many deserts, covering about 1,371,000 square kilometres or 18% of the Australian mainland. Collectively known as the Great Australian Desert, these arid regions are distributed across the Western Plateau and interior lowlands of the country. The Simpson Desert is one of the ten deserts that make up this arid landscape, and it is famous for its long, parallel sand dunes.
The Simpson Desert is a vast expanse of dry, red sandy plains and dunes located in the Northern Territory, South Australia, and Queensland in central Australia. Covering an area of approximately 176,500 square kilometres, it is the fourth-largest desert in Australia. The Wangkangurru Yarluyandi people know this region as Munga-Thirri, and it holds cultural and historical significance for them. The desert is characterised by its impressive dune system, with the world's longest parallel sand dunes. These dunes, oriented north-south, are static and held in place by vegetation. The interdune spacing is clear of sand, swept by the symmetrical vortices between the dunes, contributing to the stability of the dune structure.
The dunes of the Simpson Desert vary in colour, ranging from brilliant white to dark red, with shades of pink and orange in between. The height and spacing of the dunes are directly related. When there are five to six ridges per kilometre, the dune height averages around 15 metres. However, when there are only one or two ridges per kilometre, the height increases significantly to 35–38 metres. The dune ridges continue unbroken for remarkable distances, with some extending for up to 200 kilometres. These dunes present a challenging terrain, with ascents that vary in difficulty depending on the side and orientation of the dune.
The Simpson Desert is part of a larger ecoregion that includes the Channel Country and the Simpson Strzelecki Dunefields bioregions. This ecoregion features a diverse landscape, encompassing rocky uplands, seasonally wet clay pans, and salt pans, particularly around Lake Eyre. The flora of this ecoregion is adapted to the arid conditions, with drought-resistant shrubs and grasses such as Zygochloa paradoxa grass, spinifex, and other tough grasses found on the side slopes and sandy desert floors. The Channel Country section, located to the northeast of the desert proper, includes the towns of Bedourie and Windorah in Queensland and is characterised by low hills covered with Mitchell grass and rivers lined with coolabah trees.
The Simpson Desert attracts tourists, especially during the winter months, with popular landmarks such as the ruins and mound springs at Dalhousie Springs, Purnie Bore wetlands, Approdinna Attora Knoll, and Poeppel Corner. The Big Red Bash, a remote music festival, is also a notable attraction. Despite its challenges, the Simpson Desert has fascinated generations of Australians and adventurers alike, offering a unique and memorable experience of exploring a vast desert landscape.
Love, Simon: Australian Release Date and More
You may want to see also
Explore related products
The Tanami Desert is home to Warlpiri and Kukatja people
The Tanami Desert is a desert in northern Australia, situated in the Northern Territory and Western Australia. Covering 184,500 square kilometres, it is Australia's third-largest desert. The name Tanami is believed to be an anglicisation of the Warlpiri name for the area, "Chanamee", meaning "never die". This name refers to certain rock holes in the desert that were said never to run dry.
The Warlpiri people, sometimes referred to as Yapa, are a group of Aboriginal Australians defined by their Warlpiri language, although not all still speak it. There are 5,000-6,000 Warlpiri, living mostly in towns and settlements scattered through their traditional land in the Northern Territory, north and west of Alice Springs. About 3,000 people still speak the Warlpiri language, which has four main dialects. Warlpiri Sign Language (Rdaka-rdaka) is also an important component of Warlpiri communication, with over 600 distinct signs.
The Warlpiri have been successful custodians of the land, and they are renowned for their tribal dances and creativity. Warlpiri dancers have even toured England, Japan, and Russia. The Warlpiri people now work with the U.S.-based Newmont Mining Corporation, allowing mining on their lands in exchange for more job opportunities, support for Warlpiri education, and strengthened governance structures.
The Kukatja people, also known as the Loritja, are another group of Aboriginal Australians who live in the Tanami Desert. The root of the word Kukatja comes from words for 'meat-eaters', and they were successful hunters. The Kukatja people, along with the Warlpiri, have carefully managed the land, and it is now considered a stronghold and refuge for many rare or declining animal species.
The Tanami Desert is just one of the many deserts that make up the Australian landscape. Covering about 1,371,000 square kilometres, or 18%, of the Australian mainland, the Great Australian Desert is collectively known for its high rates of rainfall relative to other deserts. Some of the notable deserts within the Great Australian Desert include the Great Victoria Desert, the Gibson Desert, the Little Sandy Desert, the Great Sandy Desert, and the Simpson Desert.
Australia's State Funeral Traditions Explained
You may want to see also
