Australia's Great Sandy Desert: Location, Landscape - DesertUSA Australia's Great Sandy Desert Geography and Climate The Great Sandy Desert is located across northwest and central Australia. It contains two of the country's most famous parks, the Rudall River National Park and Uluru-Kata Tjuta National Park where the famous Ayers Rock is located. Spanning roughly 150,000 square miles, western Australia's Great Sandy Desert is the second largest of the continent's 10 desert regions--all, collectively, located across the central and northwestern part of the country. The largest is the 164,000-square-mile Great Victoria Desert, located in the southwestern part. The smallest is the 480-square-mile Pedirka Desert, located in the south-central part. Location The Great Sandy Desert extends from northwest Australia's Indian Ocean coastline inland, southeastward for more than 800 miles. It lies between the 71,000-square mile Tanami Desert, to the northeast, and the 60,000-square mile Gibson Desert, to the south.

Those three deserts converge near the geographic center of the continent, at the famed bare red sandstone dome Ayers Rock, or, in the aboriginal language, "Uluru." Climate The Great Sandy Desert falls into the classification of a "hot desert." This means that in a typical year, it receives little rain, and it experiences high temperatures, low humidity and high evaporation rates. The desert's precipitation -- driven primarily by summer monsoonal patterns -- varies widely from year to year, equaling, on average, no more than a few inches annually, said the Australian Natural Resources Atlas. Daytime temperatures average about 105 degrees Fahrenheit during its long summers and, typically, 68 degrees during its short winters (with occasional nighttime frosts in higher elevations). Usually, its humidity ranges from 10 to 20 percent. Its evaporation rate equals 10 to 12 feet per year, approximately 15 to 20 times the average precipitation per year.

Landscape Gently undulating and sparsely vegetated, the Great Sandy is largely characterized by short ephemeral drainages, several lakes and wetlands, red sand dunefields, and remnant rocky outcrops, according to the Australian Natural Resources Atlas. Typical of the world's deserts, most of the Big Sandy's creeks and rivers flow only after heavy rainfalls, sometimes leaving short-lived playa lakes in their wake. Many of its longer-lived lakes and wetlands, arising primarily from springs and seepages, owe their origins to ancient and now inactive river systems, one that flowed across the northern part of the desert and another that flowed across the southern part. The Great Sandy's single modern river, the Rudall, rising in highlands and feeding wetlands along its course, flows across the desert and empties into the large, salty Eva Broadhurst Lake. It lies in the heart of the Karlamilyi National Park. The Great Sandy's dunefields comprise both variable and remarkably consistent forms. Its rocky outcrops include sandstone, siltstone and mudstone ridges and ranges in the southeastern part of the desert.

Approach to Kata Tjuta Gnu License, Wikimedia Commons The Great Sandy Desert's most striking features include: Ergs -- or seas of sand -- that comprise linear, parallel dunes sculpted by winds blowing the same direction over a prolonged period. The dunes, covering much of the Big Sandy, extend for 25 to 30 miles or more in length, rise to 50 feet in elevation and trend west-northwest in orientation. From the air, the Great Sandy's ergs resemble immense furrowed fields. Kata Tjuta ("Many Heads" in the aboriginal language) that consist of some three dozen bald red sedimentary rock domes that tower above the desert floor in the southeastern part of the Great Sandy. Home to numerous mythical figures, the Kata Tjuta domes have been sacred to various Aboriginal Australian tribes for perhaps 22,000 years. Ayers Rock, or Uluru, that ranks as the second largest monolith, or "island mountain," in the world, after Mount Augustus, also in Australia. Also sacred to the Aboriginals, Uluru, standing 1148 feet above the surrounding desert, stands as Australia's most iconic natural formation.

It and Kata Tjuta serve as the central attractions for the country's Uluru-Kata Tjuta National Park. Wolfe Creek Crater that marks the site where a 55,000-ton asteroid, traveling 10 miles per second, struck some 300,000 years ago, according to the Outback Australia Travel Guide. The crater measures a half mile in diameter. Its rim rises some 80 feet above the surrounding desert. Its floor lies some 150 to 200 meters below the rim. Located in the transitional area between the Great Sandy and Tanami Deserts, in the north-central part of Australia, the crater is the principal feature of the Wolfe Creek National Park. According to Aboriginal beliefs, the crater marks the site where a rainbow serpent emerged from the ground. by Jay Sharp Facts - Great Sandy desert Great Sandy desert Button Text Facts about the climate and features The great sandy desert is australias sencond biggest desert. It's made up of dunes and ergs. It is a hot desert that is dry, but when the monsoons cross the north of Australia from September to April it will rain.It has a average yearly rainfall of 250mm.

In winter it can get very cold with no cloud cover from above and during the day it gets very hot for the same reason. In summer you are looking at a temperature of 38-42 degrees celcius (100-108 degrees fahrenheit.) In the winter it's a plesant but still hot 25-30 degrees celcius (77-86 degrees fahrenheit.) The great sandy desert is flat and as the name says sandy. This desert has sand dunes. It also has sandstone country, low hills, and even chains of salt lakes. You can see most of the sand dunes from the rocky ranges and hills in the Kimberley or Pilbara. Create a free website Great Sandy Desert, Australia - Second Largest Desert In Australia Great Sandy Desert, Australia The Second Largest Desert In Australia Great Sandy Desert About the Great Sandy Desert Size and Location The second largest Australian desert, after the Great Victoria Desert , is the Great Sandy Desert. As with our other deserts different sources of information will give you different sizes for it.

Let's trust the Australian Department of Environment and Heritage and say it covers about 284,993 km2 (110,038 miles2). The Great Sandy Desert is located in the north of Western Australia, below the Kimberley region on the northern coast, and to the east of the Pilbara, as this part of the western coast is called. A small part of it extends into the Northern Territory. Further inland you find only more deserts, the Tanami Desert to the east and the Gibson Desert to the south. The famous Kata Tjuta Uluru National Park ( Ayers Rock ) is actually located in the far south east corner of the Great Sandy Desert, where the Great Sandy, the Gibson and the Tanami deserts come together. Return to top Climate You guessed it, the climate is pretty dry... But for a desert the Great Sandy Desert receives a surprising amount of rain. Especially the northern parts are affected by the monsoon and see a good amount of thunderstorms during the wet season in Australia's tropical north (Nov - April). The average yearly rainfall is about 250 mm for most areas, higher (300 mm and more) in the northern regions.

But the huge evaporation rate means you still look at a desert... Summer days are very hot. You will be looking at 38 to 42°C or more (100 - 108F). The further south you go, the hotter the days will be. If you get some cloud cover due to a monsoonal trough affecting the area then the days will be cooler, but at the same time the humidity will be higher and make things more uncomfortable. Winter days are a pleasant 25 to 30°C (77 -86F). Nights can get very cold, even freezing, though frosts are rare. But if you come from the coastal regions or the Kimberley, and if you compare the sunny, warm days to the nights then the nights certainly feel freezing, believe me.... Return to top Environment The Great Sandy Desert is very flat, which is all the more noticeable next to the rocky ranges and hills in the Kimberley or Pilbara. It is also, as the name says, sandy. In the Great Sandy Desert you can actually find what many people expect from a desert: sand dunes. Tall red sand dunes in parallel rows cover miles and miles of this desert.

But you also find sandstone country, low hills, and even chains of salt lakes. The prevailing vegetation form is tree steppe, and shrub steppe in the south, meaning open grasslands with occasional tress or shrubs: bloodwood, acacias, grevilleas, and further south desert oaks. The Great Sandy Desert has the same problem as the other Australian deserts: native animals are threatened by introduced feral species. Cat and fox populations are high, camels are plentiful, and rabbits are present in the southern parts. Cats and foxes are a direct threat to the native species they prey on, whereas camels and rabbits are detrimental to the native vegetation. Another problem I already mentioned on other desert pages is the increasing tourist pressure. In the Great Sandy Desert the area most under pressure is obviously Kata Tjuta - Uluru (Ayers Rock) in the south-east corner. Return to top Travel Of course the Kata Tjuta Uluru National Park is a tourism hot spot. Information regarding travel in that area can be found in the Ayers Rock section. But thank god there are also tour operators offering trips going well beyond the crowded mass tourism areas.

A great way to experience the desert is to follow the Canning Stock Route. This 2000 km trek crosses the Gibson, the Little Sandy, and the Great Sandy Desert. There are several options, ranging from four wheel drive bus tours, tagalong tours (follow a guide in your own vehicle) to self drive packages. By the way, this trip requires several weeks! If you want to go on your own, or travel in other parts of the deserts, please be aware that it requires thorough preparation, experience and knowledge. You need a very reliable vehicle and detailed maps, enough fuel, necessary spare parts, and plenty of water. You can never take too much water! And above all, let someone know where you are going, and when you intend to arrive. People have died in the Great Sandy Desert, because they neglected this one simple step... So, unless you are an experienced desert traveller, please put yourself in the hands of an experienced Canning Stock Route tour operator.

Great Sandy Desert, Australia : Image of the Day News & Notes acquired March 25, 2013 download large image (361 KB, JPEG, 1440x960) In northwest Australia, the Great Sandy Desert holds great geological interest as a zone of active sand dune movement. While a variety of dune forms appear across the region, this astronaut photograph features numerous linear dunes (about 25 meters high) separated in a roughly regular fashion (0.5 to 1.5 kilometers apart). The dunes are aligned to the prevailing winds that generated them, which typically blow from east to west. Where linear dunes converge, dune confluences point downwind. When you fly over such dune fields—either in an airplane or the International Space Station—the fire scars stand out. Where thin vegetation has been burned, the dunes appear red from the underlying sand; dunes appear darker where the vegetation remains. Strings of narrow lakes that represent ancient rivers are also present in the region.

The white feature down the center of the image is Lake Auld; the color is the result of a cemented combination of fine, clayey sediment and salts from the evaporation of flood waters that occasionally fill the lake. Wider views of the area show that Lake Auld is part of what was once a major river system draining northwest to the Indian Ocean. Such sinuous lakes are also known in Australia as “river lakes.” (Other views showing the ancient winding rivers are available here and here. ) The river system is remarkably well preserved, considering that the rivers were probably active in the Paleocene Epoch more than 55 million years ago. At the time, the Australian land mass was much further south, in a wetter climatic zone. Almost all rivers in the Great Sandy Desert are dry in today’s desert climate. Linear dunes can be seen entering Lake Auld on the east side. During flooding events, the sand of the dune noses is dispersed, becoming incorporated into the muds and salts of the lake floor sediments. During the long, intervening dry periods, sand can blow across the lake floor to build thinner, smaller dunes, visible as linear accumulations on the west side of the lake.

Astronaut photograph ISS035-E-9454 was acquired on March 25, 2013, with a Nikon D3S digital camera using a 400 millimeter lens, and is provided by the ISS Crew Earth Observations experiment and Image Science & Analysis Laboratory, Johnson Space Center. The image was taken by the Expedition 35 crew. It has been cropped and enhanced to improve contrast, and lens artifacts have been removed. The International Space Station Program supports the laboratory as part of the ISS National Lab to help astronauts take pictures of Earth that will be of the greatest value to scientists and the public, and to make those images freely available on the Internet. Additional images taken by astronauts and cosmonauts can be viewed at the NASA/JSC Gateway to Astronaut Photography of Earth. Caption by M. Justin Wilkinson, Jacobs/ESCG at NASA-JSC. Instrument(s): The Australian desert – the outback of Australia | australia.gov.au The Australian desert – the outback of Australia Australia's wild rivers The Australian desert – the outback of Australia Warning. Australian Stories may contain the names and images of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people now deceased.

Australian Stories also contain links to sites that may use images of Aboriginal and Islander people now deceased. Albert Tucker, Last days of Leichhardt, 1964, Harold Mertz Collection, University of Texas. Australia's desert landscapes, regarded as the ‘outback' of Australia, are a powerful symbol of place, and have inspired and helped define Australia's identity. The desert is part of the mythology of rugged survival in a harsh climate. European people entered the desert lands at their own peril, running the risk that they would perish – and some did. This mythology was connected with the metaphor of the desert lands being seen as the empty or ‘dead heart' of Australia. In earlier times, the desert's presence was defined by distance which had to be dominated. It was seen as a frontier on the edge of expanding colonies. Its inherent arid nature had to be contended with. This presence and arid nature was epitomised in Patrick White's novel, Voss, about the fateful early exploration expeditions of Ludwig Leichhardt to the outback. This experience of desert exploration is rendered in iconic art works by artists like Albert Tucker's Last days of Leichhardt and Sydney Nolan's Burke and Wills.

Work crew laying pipe for the Coolgardie water supply, Courtesy National Trust of Australia Pastoral expansion into the desert followed the completion of the Overland Telegraph depots and, later, settlements. Water was needed to support the pastoral industry and the gold rushes of the 1890s. In Western Australia (WA), the Canning Stock Route survey located wells used by Aboriginal people to enable cattle to be taken overland to markets. CY O'Connor completed an engineering feat when he designed the Perth – Kalgoorlie pipeline, the longest freshwater pipeline ever built, which opened up the possibility for large scale mining and town areas in the interior of WA. At the same time, the distance of the desert from markets and levels of government has resulted in unique and innovative services, new technologies across health, housing, communications, transport – especially civil aviation, and the arts. By 1922, a scheduled air mail service operated between desert towns of Charleville and Cloncurry, and the operations of what became known as the Queensland and Northern Territory Aerial Service (QANTAS) became established in Longreach, Queensland.

Royal Flying Doctor Service, courtesy of the Department of Industry The Royal Flying Doctor Service (RFDS) was formed in 1928, with its first base at Cloncurry. Australia's unique School of the Air service was inspired by observing how outback children were all taught to use the RFDS radio service and it was first broadcast from Alice Springs in 1948. Artists have long been inspired by the desert's vastness, colour palette and light. From the 1930s to the 1950s, the imagination of the public became fascinated with the desert and its environment through books, journal articles, Hans Heyson's shimmering paintings of the Flinders Ranges and Albert Namatjira's hauntingly beautiful ghost gums. By the 1950s, the haunting and original images by Russell Drysdale of the harsh light and heat had left behind any illustrative realism and entered the surreal. Since the early 1970s, the Indigenous Papunya Tula art movement coincided with an urban based conservation movement and with the movement for Aboriginal self-determination – all of which were claiming the desert as a celebration of identity.

These movements, combined with a national agenda and new technologies, created a momentum over the next 40 years which recognised a different set of values about desert knowledge and experience. Today, the Australian desert is not only seen as a place of rugged survival, but also as a celebration of place and identity, where it is possible to grow prosperity through knowledge. Arid centre – empty heart? Pedirka Desert, courtesy of Stan Sheldon Arid and semi-arid desert lands make up 70 per cent of mainland Australia – a total of about 5.3 million square kilometres. There are ten major Australian deserts ranging from the Great Victoria Desert, through the Great Sandy, Tanami, and Simpson Deserts, to the gibber stone deserts of the Gibson, the Sturt Stony Desert, and the small Pedirka Desert. A large proportion of this land is held by Aboriginal people through various property titles including titles granted through the Northern Territory Aboriginal Land Rights Act, the Commonwealth Native Title Act, and various pastoral and other Crown leases. Desert populations The geographic foot print of people in Australian deserts has remained relatively very small.

In 2009, the arid zone of Australia was occupied by 180,000 people, about one per cent of the population. The semi-arid zone supports 394,000 people, about two per cent of the total population. Martu rangers with helicopter, courtesy Rangelands NRM WA About half the populations live in five regional service and mining centres, such as Kalgoorlie, Alice Springs, Mount Isa and Broken Hill, with populations of 10–30,000 each. Desert populations overall comprise permanent desert dwellers, mostly Aboriginal people, and the itinerant population who are mostly white people, including miners, government agency workers, and service personnel. Historically, Afghan cameleers, who provided the main form of transport, and supported the construction of the Overland Telegraph and all of the major desert expeditions from the 1840s to the 1900s, have contributed to the composition of desert populations. Aboriginal people comprise about 20 per cent of the population in arid areas and about 12 per cent in the semi-arid areas, and are about 3 per cent of the total population.

Aboriginal people, of diverse language groups, reside in as many as 1,300 discrete communities widely distributed across their traditional lands. (Brown et al, The demography of desert Australia, The Rangeland Journal, Vol 30(1) 2008). In 1980, the Ngaanyatjarra Pitjantjatjara Yankunytjatjara (NPY) Women's Council was formed so women could have a voice in land rights, share their cultural and family affiliations and strengthen women's law and culture. It is now a major provider of human services in the region, including aged care, health and education. NPYWC's region covers 350,000 square kilometres of the remote tri-State cross-border area of Western Australia, South Australia and the Northern Territory. Mixed populations – far from government control?

Rabbit Proof Fence ( 2002), directed by Phillip Noyce The demarcation between desert dwelling communities and the itinerant population (supported by remote central governments) has been described in a number of novels, including Xavier Herbert's Capricornia, and is illustrated in Phillip Noyce's acclaimed movie, Rabbit Proof Fence (2002). The symbols of the Rabbit Proof Fence and the Dingo Fence, created a demarcation about what was considered could be safely controlled, and that which was beyond. The mixed populations and relations with Aboriginal people in desert towns and cities have become iconic in Australian literature since the 1930s. Arthur Upfield's 29 best-selling novels brought together a range of characters and issues related to desert life in Central Australia. The books, featuring the central character Boney, an Aboriginal detective, were adapted to a television series of 26 episodes. This began in 1971 and was filmed in Alice Springs, and Wilpena Pound and Narridy in South Australia, with hundreds of extras employed from Papunya.

The cooperation and ingenuity of the mixed populations is an iconic measure of ideal life in Neville Shute's popular classic, A Town like Alice, set around the Second World War, 1939–1945. Removal of children depicted in Rabbit Proof Fence ( 2002), directed by Phillip Noyce Another view of the mixed population growing up in Alice Springs is offered through the biographies of Charles Perkins: A Bastard Like Me (1975) and Peter Read's Charles Perkins (1990). They narrate the stories of children from desert communities around Alice Springs who were removed from their mothers and grew up in the dormitories of the Bungalow, the old telegraph station building. Land management: You Call It Desert – We Used to Live There As Aboriginal people comprise a main population living in desert areas, their different views about land and water use have led to both close association and also conflict over these resources.

The different views are summed up in the title of a book by Jimmy Pike, a Walmatjarra man of the Great Sandy Desert, You Call It Desert – We Used To Live There (Magabala books, 2009) and the view that looking after desert is about ‘caring for country'. Fire – warmth, hunting and ceremony, managing country Managed fires have always been important for Aboriginal people to survive – for warmth and hunting as well as managing plants and animals in their country. Knowledge of using fires for survival and ceremony are part of a rich cultural tradition. Fire has its own dreaming stories. In 2012, the Uluru-Kata Tjuta Fire and Vegetation Management Strategy incorporates both traditional and contemporary fire management techniques to fire hazard reduction within the park through an annual burning program. Martu men burning grasslands, courtesy of Rangelands NRM WA. In Western Australia, Martu people, whose country includes the communities north of Wiluna, of Jigalong, Parngurr and Punmu, burn small fires on a regular basis to manage the country with rangers from the Rangelands NRM's Traditional and Contemporary Fire Project.

The project encompasses traditional knowledge and techniques for cool mosaic burning as well as European techniques for hazard burning. For Martu people, fire is a way to refresh the country, regenerate plant growth as well as manage the height of the grass to prevent out of control fires from lightning strikes. Controlling fire is a skill and knowledge that is remembered from the old people and passed down to the younger generation. Lindsay Robinson, a Martu ranger, believes that, fire; Its like for us learning, refreshing the country. It is like farming, you go out and bring in some bush foods and bush tucker. It's the same, similar thing when you're making a little farm, just going out and making a waru [fire] and bring in more kipara [bush turkey] back again and Jimjiwirrlyi [bushraisin] and wamurla [bush tomato]. Its keeping that country fresh.

Rangelands NRM, Waru, kuka, mirrka wankarringu – lampaju (Burning, bushfoods and biodiversity), video Water – finding water in the red jilji or sand hills Jimmy Pike in the Great Sandy Desert, courtesy of Pat Lowe Aboriginal desert people hold extensive knowledge of water sources in their dreaming stories, their vocabulary for different types of transient or permanent waterholes, and the means to pass this on through dance and paintings. A rare glimpse of life in the Great Sandy Desert is provided in a series of books by Jimmy Pike and Pat Lowe, including Jilji – Life in the Great Sandy Desert, in which Pike demonstrates his deep knowledge of country. The books include stories of 20 traditional owners returning to their country, travelling through the long regular red jilji or sand hills, finding and digging out waterholes they hadn't seen in 45 years, identifying over 150 plants and where appropriate, identifying their uses. Aboriginal values for managing land – amassing a data base for all The priceless knowledge of how to find, secure and maintain water sources in the desert concerns both the Walmatjarri people and pastoralists.

Understanding the nature of the changes in the desert rangelands as they relate to landscape, soils, biodiversity, land clearing, rainfall, fire regimes, and Aboriginal values for managing land, is now the subject of a large data project. The Australian Collaborative Rangelands Information System (ACRIS) is one of the largest projects to combine data on desert lands. Information is gathered from the Gascoyne – Murchison region in Western Australia, the Gawler region in South Australia, Victoria River Downs in the Northern Territory, and the Darling Riverine Bioregion in New South Wales. Biodiversity Greater bilbies, courtesy of Alice Springs Desert Park Managing desert lands involves an extraordinary biodiversity of plants and animals with complex conservation issues. This includes 1,800 types of plants, with the most common type of vegetation in rangelands being grasslands including spinifex. There are over 605 vertebrate animals; however the following desert mammals are extinct: Desert Bandicoot, Lesser Bilby, Desert Rat-Kangaroo, two species each of wallaby, and hopping mice. The Western Quoll, the Numbat, Bilby, Golden Bandicoot and other mammals are threatened with extinction.

Twenty three per cent of the rangelands are used for nature conservation as they are home to a significant number of rare fauna and flora species and are the habitat for rare, threatened, and endangered species. The desert lands include five World Heritage sites and eleven per cent of all the listings on the Register of the National Estate. Livelihoods – multifunctional or vulnerable Fingell Mine Office at Cue, courtesy of the WA Government Today, in addition to pastoralism, the Western Australian rangelands produce most of the state's mineral and energy wealth, offer major tourism potential, contain essential elements of the state's biological diversity and are recognised as being of special significance to the Aboriginal population. Many desert people's livelihoods have been both dependent on and also vulnerable to commodity prices in the two key industries of pastoralism and mining. The vulnerability is reflected in the history and heritage of many deserted towns, such as the old mining towns around Meekatharra, Cue, Day Dawn, and Sandstone, part of the Mid West region of Western Australia. There are many abandoned stone buildings and remnants of communities on the fringe of the Tanami, Great Sandy and Simpson deserts.

Heading west from Dalhousie Springs and on the edge of the Simpson Desert is the Dalhousie Ruins on the Pedirka track. First leased in 1872 and surrounded by 100 year old date palms, the cattle pens are still standing adjacent to the old stone buildings – the remains of the homestead, the stockman's quarters and the blacksmith's building. There is also the remains of an unnamed grave, slightly built up with rock and stone. After being sold many times, abandoned in 1925 and rebuilt in 1933, Dalhousie Ruins was taken over in 1984 by the Department for Environment and Heritage and dedicated as Witjira National Park. Pastoral industry WA Pastoralists at Charleville, Queensland discussing rangelands management, July2013 courtesy of Rangelands NRM WA There are around 6,000 pastoral enterprises which occupy about 58 per cent of the land area in the grass lands or rangelands that comprise the desert areas. These enterprises have contributed significantly to the economy but are under increasing pressures.

The rangelands make up 87 per cent of Western Australia's landmass and include all but the south-west of the state. Livestock grazing on pastoral leasehold is the dominant commercial land use across 42 per cent (910,000 km 2 ) of the WA rangelands. Pastoralism, as one of the major land uses in the rangelands, has a significant role to play in natural resource management and large scale monitoring is undertaken with grassland sites being assessed on a three year cycle. When Aboriginal pastoral workers walked off the pastoral stations in the 1960s as part of a civil rights campaign because they weren't being paid, most were unable to return as the stations couldn't afford to pay wages. Thus, many of the stations became unviable as individual entities. Today, multinational corporate pastoral companies dominate the sector. Changes in the number of pastoral leases is also attributed to some leases, like Henbury station in Central Australia, becoming protected areas and part of Australia's National Reserve System. However, pastoralism is likely to remain as the core activity in Australian rangelands in terms of land use.

Mining and mining services Mining prospecting in the semi-arid desert areas began as early as the 1860s with individual prospectors in the Northern Territory and Queensland, and in the 1880s in the Kimberley, Western Australia. Whilst mining is the mainstay of large mining towns, mining has had little direct long term economic benefit on the permanent populations of the desert communities. Companies are now working collaboratively across regions to share the mining services contracts. Examples include NANA Australia which provides the majority of jobs in the mining industry. It works to form partnerships with Australia's Indigenous businesses and builds workforce capacity for long-term economic growth in mining services. Military bases Joint Defence Facility Pine Gap Australian deserts also contain important national economic and physical infrastructure, as joint operations with foreign governments, hosting sites for weapons testing facilities and military bases. British nuclear tests at Maralinga occurred between 1955 and 1963 at the Maralinga site, part of the Woomera Prohibited Area, in South Australia. It was developed as a joint facility with a shared funding arrangement and was officially closed following a clean-up operation in 1967.

Operations at the Joint Defence Facility Pine Gap, run jointly with the Americans, began in 1970 as a highly sophisticated satellite tracking and communications centre just outside Alice Springs. Approximately 1,000 employees are engaged in signals intelligence. Both sites have created much public controversy and have been the subject of a Royal Commission and Parliamentary Senate Inquiry. The film Contact, explores the consequences of when two officers from the Weapons Research Establishment were clearing a barren dump zone in 1964, where a series of rocket tests were to take place, when they came across the area's Indigenous owners, Martu people. This group of 20 Martu people were unaware that there was a modern society beyond the 141,000 square miles of desert they called home. The film documents the Martu's startling first contact and eventual removal from their homeland. Tourism and ‘The Living Heart' Alice Springs Desert Park The Australian desert tourism industry influences almost all other industries in the region as well as the infrastructure needs and quality of life in the regional populations.

Desert tourism is worth tens of billions of dollars each year to the Australian economy, and contributes $94.8 million a day, with domestic tourism responsible for 73 per cent of the total direct tourism GDP. Some desert communities are keen to have a share of that economy in order to improve their livelihoods. A fascination with the desert and its environment developed from the 1930s to 1950s. Zoologist H H Finlayson, who wrote The Red Centre (1935), described the flood of radiant energy that beats upon the land…[the] fiery cinnabar [colour of the rocks, the] dainty ghost gums … their brilliant green tops. Appealing to a broader audience, journalist Ernestine Hill wrote The Great Australian Loneliness (1937), giving an account of five years travelling across the Nullarbor, from Adelaide to Darwin via the Birdsville Track, and through Arnhem Land. The desert was seen as living and vibrant, peopled with characters and described as ‘The Living Heart'.

The desert landscape was brought to life by Hans Heyson's shimmering paintings of the Flinders Ranges and Albert Namatjira's paintings of hauntingly beautiful ghost gums of the central Australian desert from the 1930s. Russell Drysdale's seeping red landscapes of western New South Wales and Sidney Nolan's surreal landscapes of central Australia startled the public with their haunting and searing images in the 1950s. These works focused the Australian public's imagination of the desert as a different, surreal and complex entity. Albert Namatjira, Ghost Gum, Mt Sonder, Macdonnell Ranges, c. 1957, watercolour and pencil, courtesy of NGA Arthur Groom's book, I Saw a Strange Land (1950) saw the potential for tourism linked to the protection of the landscapes and respect for Aboriginal culture. An insight into desert culture was given in Charles Mountford's popular Brown Men and Red Sand (1948) and Adam in Ochre by Colin Simpson (1951). These books included legends, stories and visual descriptions of Aboriginal people, their art and culture. However, there is no clear single ‘desert tourism' market.

In 2001 seven attributes were strongly associated with desert tourism: geology, wildflowers, ancient vegetation, desert trekking, Indigenous inhabitants, oases, and protected areas. Apart from high profile ‘icon' attractions, such as Uluru Kata Tjuta and the Flinders Ranges, there is only sporadic and small-scale development outside of these destinations. This is in keeping with a desert tourism scoping study which noted that over 75 per cent of all visitors to destinations in regional Australia between 2002 and 2006 travelled in their own or rented vehicles. (Olsen 2002) Desert campsite amongst red sand hills, Simpson Desert, courtesy of Wallaby Tracks Desert Australia has between seven and 20 of Australia's widely recognised four-wheel drive track destinations: the Gunbarrell Highway, Canning Stock Route and the Strzelecki, Oodnadatta, Tanami, and Birdsville Tracks. (Basham 2005, Hema Maps 2006) These tracks have strong historical ‘identities' as part of the history of exploration and development of Australia's outback and are marketed as destinations in their own right.

For example, in just over 10 years the Simpson Desert has grown from around 300 recorded vehicle crossings to more than 4,000 in a season. Desert people want to know how to balance the benefits and costs of increasing visitor numbers through four-wheel drive tourism to remote, culturally, and environmentally sensitive places. Art and culture In 2005, the Shire of Ngaanyatjarraku in Giles Corner, at the border of South Australia, Western Australia and the Northern Territory, reported to the Indigenous Visual Arts program, NACISS, that the income from Aboriginal art sales equalled that of mining and pastoralism, in equal thirds. Through the art centres of Papulankutja Artists, Kayili Artists at Patjarr, Warburton Arts, and Irrunytju Arts, artists from this region sell their works in a national and international art market. Artists bush studio camp at Well 36, 2007, courtesy of Tim Acker and National Museum of Australia In contrast to the small business model common across other desert populations, Aboriginal art and cultural enterprises have set up collaborative business structures, companies and incorporated organisations with artists as members.

This structure has enabled hundreds of Aborigines in individual communities and settlements to benefit from their desert knowledge and culture, utilising their skills as artists. Since the 1970s, the Aboriginal owned craft centres and companies have gradually developed as an industry, wholesaling to local, national and international markets, which are worth billions of dollars. One of the first, and perhaps most famous group of Indigenous painters was the Australian Western Desert artists of the Papunya Tula art movement. Established in 1984, Maruku Arts and Crafts had around 800 members in 2011, creating and selling craft works in wood, known as punu work. Opportunities in the local domestic market for Maruku include sales of new forms of carving to upmarket interiors in hospitality, and expanding the punu story into children's books. Art centres are a vital part of the economy in desert communities as well as supporting desert culture. DESART, a key advocacy organisation for Indigenous artists, supports a network of 45 Indigenous art centres across the desert regions.

Bush resources – essential oils and native food products Collecting bush tomatoes, courtesy Rangelands NRM WA Native food products are a key bush resource that have developed as a commercial enterprise, combining Aboriginal traditional knowledge of wild harvesting with market analysis and development of branding and supply chains. Plantation and community bush food production gardens are established widely across the central desert areas. Native fruits and seeds, in addition to bush meats, have been popular in the market since colonial times. Bush quandongs for tarts, currants or desert raisins, limes, tomatoes, plums, apples, lemon myrtle, and wattle seeds are all used widely today. Fiction and non-fiction – what do we know about desert life and stories? The idea of the desert being ‘beyond' the cultural experience of non-Indigenous people was challenged for global audiences in the late 1970s and 1980s. In 1978 Robyn Davidson headed west out of Alice Springs into the desert county with a small caravan of camels – a white woman travelling alone through the desert wilderness. Her journey made international headlines and parts were photographed for National Geographic, before her story was published as Tracks, in 1980.

Robyn Davidson on the cover of National Geographic, 1978 with image by Rick Smolan A view of the mixed European population of Alice Springs, with links to German missionaries and Russian Australian anthropologists, is described in Bruce Chatwin's Songlines (1987), an award winning book. This work, part fiction and part non-fiction, describes the European existence only in terms of its knowledge of Aboriginal desert culture. At the same time, since the 1970s, IAD Press has committed ‘to ensuring all publications represent an authentic Indigenous perspective'. As one of Australia's leading Indigenous publishers, IAD Press has a rich selection of titles that celebrate Central Australian and desert culture. Communication, knowledge and new media Outback desert films have developed as a genre in their own right. Most often, their themes examine the strange, the surreal, the terror and the unknown which have confronted non-Indigenous people in the desert, in usually tragic consequences. Sustaining a reciprocal relationship with European media culture about what defines desert culture has led to the adoption of new communication tools.

Anthropologist Eric Michael's 1986 publication, The Aboriginal Invention of Television, which followed the launch of the first AusSat satellite in 1985, looked at the need of Aboriginal communities to strengthen their own knowledge and culture. Established in 1980, Indigenous media company, CAAMA Productions Pty Ltd was the first Indigenous company to be given a broadcasting license and today, is the largest Indigenous production house in Australia. A film making company located in the centre of Alice Springs, CAAMA works with Indigenous filmmakers, local Aboriginal people, and communities, producing films and broadcasting in television and radio. In 1991, Goolarri Media Enterprises was launched as a fully owned Indigenous company through the Broome Aboriginal Media Association. Goolarri Media assists the development of both Indigenous and non-Indigenous media and communications in the Kimberley region, and of Indigenous musicians throughout Western Australia. Ara Iritja project – returning artefacts, photographs, film and sound Ara Irititja digital archive In 1994, the Ara Irititja (‘stories from a long time ago') digital archive officially commenced to repatriate ‘lost' material for Anangu people.

The material included artefacts, photographs, film footage and sound recordings from tourists, private individuals and missionaries. Also included were geographic expeditions such as the Horn expedition of the 1890s which systematically collected geological, biological and anthropological material from central Australia. By 2007, Ara Irititja had tracked down hundreds of thousands of historical and cultural items and is working to make them available to Anangu through the database. Ara Irititja has integrated cultural priorities into the design of its digital archive and restricts access to some knowledge on the basis of seniority and gender. More than 20 unique projects commenced by separate Indigenous language groups in Australia use the Ara Irititja approach and database software. Desert knowledge Today, there is a new focus on appreciating desert knowledge through both the experience and knowledge of desert dwellers and the itinerant populations. What was once seen as empty, strange, surreal, terrifying and unknown has come to be appreciated as a beautiful, living, complex ecosystem, rich with biodiversity that, with cultural and scientific knowledge, can contribute to permanent multifunctional livelihoods.

Martu women managing a grass fire, courtesy Rangelands NRM WA In 2000, a Desert Knowledge ‘movement' was given form when community and government formed a Steering Committee which led to the creation of Desert Knowledge Australia (DKA) in 2003. DKA built on people's desert knowledge by creating a research organisation that linked the best of Aboriginal knowledge with the best of Western science. More recently, other organisations, such as Rangelands NRM WA, a non-government organisation, support project work with diverse desert communities that cover a land mass of around 85 per cent (2,266,000 sq km) of WA, and 75 per cent of the coastline. There are seven recognised sub-regional areas: the Kimberley, Pilbara, Gascoyne, Murchison, Goldfields, Nullarbor and Western Desert, most of which are in the arid areas. Projects in the desert areas range across eco fire management through ‘Improving Biosecurity and Grazing Management Options' to Traditional Owners capturing land management information using electronic software as part of world-wide Cybertracker Conservation. The resulting knowledge innovation, inspiration and technologies are relevant in a world where global resources are becoming scarce.

The new media and technologies adopting old knowledge also help people outside desert areas to begin to understand the desert experience through the eyes of desert dwellers. Useful links Detailed Map of Australia - Nations Online Project Map Index ___ Detailed Map of Australia Australia is all in one, a country, a big island, and the smallest continent. With an area of 7,617,930 km² it is slightly smaller than continental USA (without Alaska ), it is the sixth largest country in the world with only about 23.8 million inhabitants (in 2015). Map is showing mainland Australia and neighboring countries with international borders, state boundaries, the national capital Canberra, state capitals, major cities and towns, main roads, railroads and international airports . Australia's general geographical features. There are three distinctive physiographic regions, from east to west are the East Australian Highlands, the Interior Lowland Basins also known as Central Lowlands and the Western Plateau. Two thirds of continental Australia consists of the Western Plateau, 2.7 million km² of arid or semi-arid land, about the size of Argentina , covers large parts of Western Australia, South Australia, and the Northern Territory.

Much of the Great Western Plateau is almost uninhabited desert in diverse configurations, the spinifex dominated Great Sandy Desert, the rocky Tanami Desert, the gravel-covered Gibson Desert which has also red sand plains and some isolated salt-water lakes, and Australia's biggest desert, the Great Victoria Desert. East of the Gibson Desert lies Uluṟu-Kata Tjuṯa National Park with Australia's most famous natural icon Uluru , also known as Ayers Rock. South of the Great Victoria Desert and north of the Great Australian Bight lies the Nullarbor Plain a semi-circular, flat and in large parts treeless arid region, nearly twice the size of Cuba . In the northern part of Western Australia located is Kimberley, a region with steep-sided mountain ranges and a tropical monsoon climate, the region was named after the Kimberley diamond fields in South Africa . You are free to use this map for educational purposes, please refer to the Nations Online Project.

Bookmark/share this page One World - Nations Online All Countries of the World East of the Western Plateau lie the Central Lowlands, the country's fertile basins with the Great Artesian Basin (GAB), one of the largest artesian groundwater basins in the world and the Murray-Darling Basin which is Australia's largest river systems. Lake Eyre in the Lake Eyre Basin is the terminal point of the great continental drainage system and the largest lake in Australia (on the rare occasions when it is filled). Even if Australia is the flattest continent, there are the Eastern Highlands, also known as the Great Dividing Range. The Eastern Highlands are a vast mountainous region featuring Australia's "Alps". The mountain range separates the narrow fertile eastern coastal plains from the rest of the continent, the Outback. The Eastern Highlands are running along the entire length of the country's eastern seaboard (length: 3,500 km (2,175 mi)). All major cities Australia's are located in this part of the country. Highest point is Mount Kosciuszko, located in the south eastern corner of the country.

With an elevation of 2,228 m (7,310 ft) it is Australia's highest mountain. The world's largest reef system the Great Barrier Reef is a UNESCO World Heritage Site. The reef is composed of over 2,900 reefs and 900 islets and islands stretching for over 2,600 kilometers (1,600 mi) north-east of the continents eastern seaboard. The Great Barrier Reef covers an area of approximately 344,400 km² (133,000 sq mi).

Map of Australia Map shows the location of following Australian cities and towns: Adelaide, Albany, Alice Springs, Alyangula, Andamooka, Ararat, Armidale, Aurukun, AyrIngham, Bairnsdale, Balladonia, Ballarat, Ballina, Balranald, Bamaga, Barcaldine, Barkly Homestead, Barunga, Batchelor, Batemans Bay, Bathurst, Bega, Benalla, Bendigo, Biloela, Birdsville, Blackall, Blackwater, Bordertown, Borroloola, Boulia, Bourke, Bowen, Brewarrina, Brisbane, Broken Hill, Broome, Bunbury, Bundaberg, Burnie, Busselton, Cairns, Canberra, Carnarvon, Ceduna, Central Coast, Charleville, Charters Towers, Clare, Clermont, Cleve, Cloncurry, Cobar, Coffs Harbour, Collarenebri, Collie, Collinsville, Coober Pedy, Cooktown, Corfield, Corrigin, Cowra, Cunnamulla, Dalby, Dalwallinu, Daly River, Darwin, Denham, Denili

quin, Denmark, Derby, Devonport, Dirranbandi, Dongara, Doomadgee, Dubbo, Dysart, Echuca, Elliott, Emerald, Esperance, Exmouth, Fitzroy Crossing, Galiwinku, Gatton, Gayndah, Geelong, George Town, Georgetown, Geraldton, Gilgandra, Gladstone, Glen Innes, Gold Coast, Goondiwindi, Goulburn, Grafton, Greenvale, Griffith, Gunnedah, Gununa, Gympie, Halifax, Halls Creek, Hamilton, Hawker, Hay, Hermannsburg, Hervey Bay, Hobart, Horsham, Hughenden, Innamincka, Innisfail, Inverell, Ivanhoe, Jabiru, Jerramungup, Kadina, Kalgoorlie-Boulder, Kalkarindji, Kalumburu, Kambalda, Karratha, Katanning, Katherine, Katoomba, Kellerberrin, Kempsey, Kingaroy, Kingscote, Kingston SE, Kojonup, Kowanyama, Kulgera, Kununurra, La Grange, Lajamanu, Lake Grace

, Lancelin, Launceston, Laverton, Leigh Creek, Leinster, Leonora, Lightning Ridge, Lismore, Lockhart River, Lombadina, Longreach, Mackay, Malbon, Mandurah, Maningrida, Manjimup, Mareeba, Margaret River, Marree, Maryborough, Meekatharra, Melbourne, Merredin, Middlemount, Mildura, Miles, Millicent, Moe, Monto, Moora, Moranbah, Morawa, Moree, Mount Gambier, Mount Barker, Mount Isa, Mount Magnet, Mudgee, Murray Bridge, Naracoorte, Narooma, Narrabri, Narrandera, Narrogin, Newcastle, Newman, Nguiu, Ngukurr, Nhulunbuy, Normanton, Norseman, Northam, Northampton, Nowra, Numbulwar, Nyngan, Oenpelli, Onslow, Oodnadatta, Orange, Ouyen, Pannawonica, Papunya, Paraburdoo, Parkes, Perth, Peterborough, Pine Creek, Pingelly, Port Augusta, Port Douglas, Port Hedland, Port Lincoln, Port Macquarie

, Port Pirie, Portland, Proserpine, Queanbeyan, Queenstown, Quilpie, Ravensthorpe, Renmark, Rockhampton, Rockingham, Roebourne, Rollingstone, Roma, Sale, Scone, Shepparton, Singleton, Smithton, Southern Cross, Springsure, St George, St Marys, Stamford, Streaky Bay, Sunshine Coast, Surat, Swan Hill, Sydney, Tambo, Tamworth, Tara, Tarcoola, Taree, Taroom, Telfer, Tennant Creek, Thargomindah, Tom Price, Toowoomba, Townsville, Traralgon, Tumby Bay, Tumut, Tweed Heads, Ulladulla, Ulverstone, Victor Harbor, Wagga Wagga, Walgett, Warburton, Warrnambool, Warwick, Weipa, West Wyalong, White Cliffs, Whyalla, Wilcannia, Wiluna, Windorah, Winton, Wollongong, Wongan Hills, Wonthaggi, Woomera, Woorabinda, Wudinna, Wyndham, Yamba, Yaraka, Yarr

alin, Yarrie, York, Young, Yuendumu, Yulara.

Administrative Regions, the States of and Territories of Australia The Commonwealth of Australia is a union of six states and various territories (abbreviation in parenthesis). States and territories of mainland Australia: New South Wales (NSW), capital: Sydney Northern Territory (NT), capital: Darwin Queensland (QLD), capital: Brisbane South Australia (SA), capital: Adelaide Tasmania (TAS), capital: Hobart Victoria (VIC), capital: Melbourne Western Australia (WA) capital: Perth The Australian Capital Territory, often abbreviated ACT, capital: Canberra , is the capital territory of the Commonwealth of Australia. (see also: Administrative Map of Australia ) Australia shares maritime borders with: Australia's Great Sandy Desert - DesertUSA Australia's Great Sandy Desert Wildlife, Plants, People and Culture The Great Sandy Desert lies within a bioregion that Australian naturalists call the Eremaean Botanical Province. Its plant community is dominated, according to the Australian Natural Resources Atlas, by "desert grassland, low woodland and shrubs. Southern areas of the bioregion comprise tree and shrub steppe with spinifex grasslands." Wetlands, located near ancient drainages, along the Rudall River, and within deep gorges, host relict and rare plant species.

A few of the more interesting Great Sandy plants, according to Garden Guide, include: Desert bloodwood (Corymbia opaca), a rough-barked tree with leathery leaves and thick, blood-like sap. It grows as much as 30 feet high on the desert plains. It has roots that store water to sustain the plant during droughts. Paperbark tree (Melaleuca cajuputi), a tree with layers of bark that resemble paper. It may grow as a 75-foot tall tree or as a shrub in stands, primarily in the wetlands of the desert's more humid and hot regions. Its new shoots, adorned with thick and silky hairs, give the tree a somewhat silvery sheen. Its oil serves both as an antiseptic and as an insect repellent. Paperbark Tree Trunk photo - Gnu License, Wikimedia Commons Bramble wattle (Acacia victoriae), a thorn-studded shrub or small tree that, somewhat like the honey mesquite of the American Southwest, extends the reach of its root system outwards to seek out subsurface water and nutrients.

It tends to favor sunny areas with medium to heavy soils, and unlike the honey mesquite, it casts a heavy shade. Soft Spinifex (Trodia pungens R. Br.), a sharp-pointed grass that grows in clumps atop small mounds. Its stems take water and nutrients from its long roots. It thrives on the desert's sand dunes and rocky outcrops. Wildlife Based on limited research and sparse ecological data, the Great Sandy's wildlife population, concentrated around wetlands and lakes, is known to include some 150 to 200 bird species, more than six dozen reptile species, at least some three dozen mammal species as well as numerous other wildlife forms, said the Australian Natural Resources Atlas. Evidently, several species, some now rare, occur nowhere else. These include, for instance, the great desert skink, a gecko, several burrowing frogs, a scorpion, an earthworm and a land snail. Unfortunately, the current faunal mix also includes several invasive species that threaten native wildlife as well as native plant communities.

Dingo in Australia - Gnu License, Wikimedia Commons A few of the wildlife residents of the Great Sandy Desert include: Dwarf bearded dragon (Pagona minor), a 15-inch-long lizard with spines on its throat and underside. Chameleon-like, its colors change to earth-tones to blend with its environment or to brighter colors during interactions with other dwarf bearded dragons. The male bobs its head vigorously, probably to try to proclaim dominance over nearby males. Some bearded dragon species have become popular pets. Scarlet-chested parrot (Neophema splendida), an 8-inch-long bird dressed in a rainbow of colors. In addition to its scarlet chest, it has a deep blue face, bright green and pale blue wings, a green tail, and yellow underparts. Often difficult to spot in spite of its bright coloration, the elusive bird may be threatened by loss of habitat and entrapment for the pet trade. Flying fox (Pteropus scapulatus), a 10- to 20-ounce bat that sometimes flies in groups of a million or more. Reddish brown with translucent wings, it often roosts in stands of paperbark trees.

Feeding on nectar and pollen and dispersing seeds and pollen, it plays a key role in maintaining the health of the ecosystem. Dingo (Canis lupus dingo), a wild dog, typically auburn in color, that may have been introduced into Australia from southeastern Asia by seafaring Aboriginals more than 3000 years ago, according to the Henipavirus Ecology Collaborative Research Group. Ranging from 20 to 40 pounds in weight and some three feet in length, the dingo forms packs of up to a dozen individuals, and it preys primarily on small mammals, although it will take occasional domestic livestock, birds and reptiles. It breeds freely with domestic dogs, making hybridization a threat to the species. Red kangaroo (Macropus rufus), the largest native mammal in Australia and the largest marsupial (mammals that carry and nurse their young in an abdominal pouch containing teats) in the world. A male may stand six feet tall and weigh 200 pounds. The female is substantially smaller. The red kangaroo prefers open grasslands, relying on green plants to satisfy much of its requirement for moisture.

It uses its powerful back legs to fight off predators, battle other kangaroos, and leap up to 30 feet. Unfortunately, Great Sandy Desert's native wildlife and plants are threatened by various invasive species, many of them imported by European and other settlers during the 19th century. A few of the most damaging include feral foxes and cats, which prey on the native wildlife, and camels and rabbits, which deplete parts of the native plant community. Rabbits, introduced from Europe, have likely inflicted more environmental damage than any other feral species, having denuded landscapes, facilitated erosion, ringbarked and killed young trees and degraded native species' food sources. Great Sandy Desert: Location , Landscape People and Cultures Other than a few mining centers and livestock stations, the Great Sandy Desert's scattered populations consist primarily of a limited number of Aboriginals, who were among those who arrived in Australia by sea thousands of years ago. Collectively, across the continent, the Aboriginals -- when the Europeans arrived in the 18th century -- numbered several hundreds of thousands and spoke more than 250 languages, with some 600 dialects.

Although highly variable in their belief systems, the Aborigines shared a profound sense of spirituality, which they celebrated in their creation stories, traditions, visions, music, dance, art and sacred lands. What is perhaps the most spectacular single example of Great Sandy Desert Aboriginal art is known as Ngurrara: The Great Sandy Desert Canvas, which measures some 26 by 32 feet. The Sydney Morning Herald reported in 2003, "[The artwork] was created by senior [Aboriginal] artists as part of their case in the Walmajarri native title claim, and was sold at a Sotheby's auction in July for $213,000." "With a bird's eye view," said Larissa Behrendt, Aboriginal lawyer and writer, "the canvas makes the viewer[s] feel as though they are floating across the country. The waterholes, trees, salt lakes and people are visible. It shows the path of serpents and ancestors. It tells panoramic story of ceremonies being performed, creation stories, of spirits, of snoring fathers." Aboriginal art, from GNU image on German wikipedia.

Shows w:Barramundi fish Gnu License, Wikimedia Commons Travel The Big Sandy Desert -- a part of the famed Australian Outback -- offers "stunning scenery, magnificent rocks and gorges and coloured sands...unique plants and animals," according to the travel writer known simply as "B." Its national parks and natural formations draw many tourists. Some half million visit the Uluru-Kata Tjuta National Park each year. The desert's more remote regions, for instance, an old livestock drovers' trail known as the Canning Stock Trail, lure some of the more adventurous. If the back country proves irresistible, "please be aware," said B., "that it requires thorough preparation, experience and knowledge. You need a very reliable vehicle and detailed maps, enough fuel, necessary spare parts, and plenty of water. You can never take too much water! "And above all," she said, "let someone know where you are going, and when you intend to arrive. People have died in the Great Sandy Desert, because they neglected this one simple step..." If you have no experience in the area, you will be far safer if you enlist the services of a tour operator. Back country trips can last for several weeks.

Interesting Facts A dingo pack's dominant pair usually mates for life, asserting a right to be the only two of the pack to breed and reproduce. In fact, the dominant female kills the young of any other female in the pack that might dare to have a litter. The dominant pair's young receive care from the other pack members. Wild camels, which roam across the Great Sandy Desert and other interior regions, are descendents of escaped and abandoned dromedary camels that were originally imported from Afghanistan as draft animals by the early explorers and pioneers. According to some estimates, Australia's camels exceed 1,000,000--the largest feral population of the animal in the world. Early in the 20th century, in an attempt to erect a barrier against invasive species, the Australian government built an 1140-mile "rabbit proof fence" across the Great Sandy and adjoining regions. The longest fence in the world, it became a national symbol in the classic Australian movie "The Rabbit Proof Fence." Parts of the fence remain standing to this day. Taken from Library and Information Service of Western Australia (LISWA) Website.

[1] Caption : Rabbit proof fence, 1926-1927. (Battye 000876d) by Jay Sharp Great Sandy Desert | desert, Australia | Britannica.com Great Sandy Desert Alternative Titles: Canning Desert, Western Desert Similar Topics Sonoran Desert Great Sandy Desert, also called Western Desert or Canning Desert , wasteland, northern Western Australia , extending from Eighty Mile Beach on the Indian Ocean eastward into Northern Territory and from Kimberley Downs southward to the Tropic of Capricorn and the Gibson Desert . A vast, arid expanse of salt marshes and sand hills interlaced with Triodia (Spinifex) grass, it roughly coincides with the sedimentary Canning basin. Canning Stock Route (1,000 miles [1,600 km] long) spans the region in a northeasterly direction from Wiluna via Lake Disappointment to Halls Creek. The first Europeans to cross the desert (east to west) were in a party led by Maj. Peter Egerton Warburton in 1873. Great Sandy Desert, Australia.

in Western Australia: Relief To the south of the Kimberley region stand the 26-to-30-foot (8-to-9-metre) linear sand dunes of the Great Sandy Desert. Although the main period of dune formation ended about 10,000 years ago, the dune crests are still active (shifting). The Great Sandy Desert stretches southward into the state’s central interior, where it merges imperceptibly with the Gibson Desert, which in turn gives way to... More about Great Sandy Desert 1 Reference found in Britannica Articles Assorted Reference geography of Western Australia (in Western Australia: Relief ) External Links Corrections? Updates? Help us improve this article! Contact our editors with your feedback. MEDIA FOR: You have successfully emailed this. Error when sending the email. Try again later. Edit Mode Submit Tips For Editing We welcome suggested improvements to any of our articles. You can make it easier for us to review and, hopefully, publish your contribution by keeping a few points in mind. Encyclopædia Britannica articles are written in a neutral objective tone for a general audience. You may find it helpful to search within the site to see how similar or related subjects are covered.

Any text you add should be original, not copied from other sources. At the bottom of the article, feel free to list any sources that support your changes, so that we can fully understand their context. (Internet URLs are the best.) Your contribution may be further edited by our staff, and its publication is subject to our final approval. Unfortunately, our editorial approach may not be able to accommodate all contributions. Submit Thank You for Your Contribution! Our editors will review what you've submitted, and if it meets our criteria, we'll add it to the article. Please note that our editors may make some formatting changes or correct spelling or grammatical errors, and may also contact you if any clarifications are needed. Uh Oh There was a problem with your submission. Please try again later. Close Article Title: Great Sandy Desert Website Name: Encyclopædia Britannica Date Published: December 19, 2014 URL: Access Date: January 13, 2017 Share Top Ten Largest Deserts in the World | The Wondrous Top Ten Largest Deserts in the World Nature, Top Ten Pinterest0 10.

Kara-Kum Desert, Uzbekistan / Turkmenistan In our list of largest deserts in the world at #10 is The Karakum Desert, also spelled Kara-Kum and Gara Gum is a desert in Central Asia. It occupies about 70 percent, or 350,000 km², of the area of Turkmenistan. Covering much of present day Turkmenistan, the Karakum Desert lies east of the Caspian Sea, with the Aral Sea to the north and the Amu Darya river and the Kyzyl Kum desert to the northeast. In modern times, with the shrinking of the Aral Sea, the extended “Aral Karakum” has appeared on the former seabed, with an estimated area of 15,440 sq. The sands of the Aral Karakum are made up of a salt-marsh consisting of finely-dispersed evaporites and remnants of alkaline mineral deposits, washed into the basin from irrigated fields. The dusts blown on a powerful east-west airstream carry pesticide residues that have been found in the blood of penguins in Antarctica. Lets read about top ten largest deserts in the world. 9.

Great Sandy Desert, Australia The Great Sandy Desert is a 360,000 km2 (140,000 sq mi) expanse in northwestern Australia. Roughly the same size as Japan, it forms part of a larger desert area known as the Western Desert. The vast region of Western Australia is sparsely populated, without significant settlements. The Great Sandy Desert is a flat area between the rocky ranges of the Pilbara and the Kimberley. To the southeast is the Gibson Desert and to the east is the Tanami Desert. The Rudall River National Park and Lake Dora are located in the southwest while Lake Mackay is located in the southeast. Image credit: yaruman5 8. Chihuahuan Desert, Mexico The Chihuahuan Desert is a desert that straddles the U.S.-Mexico border in the central and northern portions of the Mexican Plateau, bordered on the west by the extensive Sierra Madre Occidental range, and overlaying northern portions of the east range, the Sierra Madre Oriental. On the U.S.

side it occupies the valleys and basins of central and southern New Mexico, Texas west of the Pecos River and southeastern Arizona; south of the border, it covers the northern half of the Mexican state of Chihuahua, most of Coahuila, north-east portion of Durango, extreme northern portion of Zacatecas and small western portions of Nuevo León. It has an area of about 140,000 square miles. It is the third largest desert of the Western Hemisphere and is second largest in North America, after the Great Basin Desert. Via: wikipedia 7. Great Basin Desert, USA The Great Basin is the largest watershed of North America which does not drain to an ocean. Water within the Great Basin evaporates since outward flow is blocked. The basin extends into Mexico and covers most of Nevada and over half of Utah, as well as parts of California, Idaho, Oregon and Wyoming. The majority of the watershed is in the North American Desert ecoregion, but includes areas of the Forested Mountain and Mediterranean California ecoregions. The Great Basin includes several metropolitan areas and Shoshone Great Basin tribes. A wide variety of animals can be found in great basin desert.

Look to the rocky slopes around the desert mountain ranges, you may spot a very rare desert bighorn sheep. Other mammals of the desert include kit fox, coyote, skunk, black-tailed jackrabbit, ground squirrels, kangaroo rat and many species of mice. Bird species are very diverse in desert oases. Via: wikipedia 6. Great Victoria Desert, Australia The Great Victoria Desert is a barren, arid, and sparsely populated desert ecoregion in southern Australia. It falls inside the states of South Australia and Western Australia and consists of many small sandhills, grasslands and salt lakes. It is over 700 kilometres (430 mi) wide (from west to east) and covers an area of 424,400 square kilometres (163,900 sq mi). The Western Australia Mallee shrub ecoregion lies to the west, the Little Sandy Desert to the northwest, the Gibson Desert and the Central Ranges xeric shrublands to the north, the Tirari and Sturt Stony deserts to the east, and the Nullarbor Plain to the south separates it from the Southern Ocean. Image credit: Travel Collective 5.

Patagonia Desert, Argentina The Patagonian Desert, also known as the Patagonia Desert or the Patagonian Steppe, is the largest desert in America and is the 7th largest desert in the world by area, occupying 260,000 square miles (673,000 km). It is located primarily in Argentina with small parts in Chile and is bounded by the Andes, to its west, and the Atlantic Ocean to its east, in the region of Patagonia, southern Argentina. The Patagonian Desert is the largest continental landmass of the 40° parallel and is a large cold winter desert, where the temperature rarely exceeds 12°C and averages just 3°C. The region experiences about seven months of winter and five months of summer. Image credit: Melissa Toledo 4. Kalahari Desert, Southern Africa The Kalahari Desert is a large arid to semi-arid sandy area in Southern Africa extending 900,000 square kilometers (350,000 sq), covering much of Botswana and parts of Namibia and South Africa, as semi-desert, with huge tracts of excellent grazing after good rains.

The Kalahari Desert is the southern part of Africa, and the geography is a portion of desert and a plateau. The Kalahari supports some animals and plants because most of it is not a true desert. There are small amounts of rainfall and the summer temperature is very high. It usually receives 3–7.5 inches (76–190 mm) of rain per year. The surrounding Kalahari Basin covers over 2,500,000 square kilometers (970,000 sq mi) extending farther into Botswana, Namibia and South Africa, and encroaching into parts of Angola, Zambia and Zimbabwe. The only permanent river, the Okavango, flows into a delta in the northwest, forming marshes that are rich in wildlife. Via: wikipedia 3. Gobi Desert, Mongolia / N.E China The Gobi is a large desert region in Asia. It covers parts of northern and northwestern China, and of southern Mongolia.

The desert basins of the Gobi are bounded by the Altai Mountains and the grasslands and steppes of Mongolia on the north, by the Hexi Corridor and Tibetan Plateau to the southwest, and by the North China Plain to the southeast. The Gobi is made up of several distinct ecological and geographic regions based on variations in climate and topography. This desert is the fifth largest in the world. The Gobi is most notable in history as part of the great Mongol Empire, and as the location of several important cities along the Silk Road. Image Credit: PnP 2. Arabian Desert, peninsula Arabian Desert or Eastern Desert, c.86,000 sq mi (222,740 sq km), E Egypt, bordered by the Nile valley in the west and the Red Sea and the Gulf of Suez in the east. It extends along most of Egypt’s eastern border and merges into the Nubian Desert in the south. The Arabian Desert is sparsely populated; most of its inhabitants are based around wells and springs. Today most of the desert can be accessed by roads.

Since ancient times Egypt has used the porphyry, granite, limestone, and sandstone found in the desert mountains as building materials. Oil is produced in the north. The name Arabian Desert is also commonly applied to the desert of the Arabian Peninsula. Image Credit: Nick Leonard 1. Sahara Desert, North Africa The Sahara is the world’s largest desert. At over 9,000,000 square kilometers (3,500,000 sq mi), it covers most of Northern Africa, making it almost as large as the United States or the continent of Europe. The desert stretches from the Red Sea, including parts of the Mediterranean coasts, to the outskirts of the Atlantic Ocean. To the south, it is delimited by the Sahel: a belt of semi-arid tropical savanna that comprises the northern region of central and western Sub-Saharan Africa.

Question: In which country is the Great Sandy Desert
Answer: Australia