Deserts of Australia

Location of deserts in Australia

Deserts cover a large portion of the land in Australia. Most of the deserts lie in the central and north-western part of the country. The largest part of Australia is desert or semi-arid. The size of the deserts in Australia combined is 1,371,000 square kilometres (529,000 sq mi), and occupy 18% of the continent.^[1]

Australian deserts

Desert	State/Territory	Size		Proportion of Australian landmass
Great Victoria Desert	Western Australi, South Australia	348,750 km2	134,650 sq mi	4%
Great Sandy Desert	Western Australia	284,993 km2	110,036 sq mi	3.5%
Tanami Desert	Western Australia, Northern Territory	184,500 km2	71,200 sq mi	2.4%
Simpson Desert	Northern Territory, Queensland, South Australia	176,500 km2	68,100 sq mi	2.3%
Gibson Desert	Western Australia	156,000 km2	60,000 sq mi	2.0%
Little Sandy Desert	Western Australia	111,500 km2	43,100 sq mi	1.5%
Strzelecki Desert	South Australia, Queensland, New South Wales	80,250 km2	30,980 sq mi	1.0%
Sturt Stony Desert	South Australia, Queensland, New South Wales	29,750 km2	11,490 sq mi	0.3%
Tirari Desert	South Australia	15,250 km2	5,890 sq mi	0.2%
Pedirka Desert	South Australia	1,250 km2	480 sq mi	0.1%

Note that the Western Desert comprises the Gibson Desert, the Great Sandy and Little Sandy Deserts and lies within Western Australia and South Australia. The total area is 524,750 km² (202,610 sq mi) and is about 9% of the total Australian landmass.

Great Victoria Desert

Main article: Great Victoria Desert

The Great Victoria Desert lies in Western Australia and South Australia. It is over 800 kilometres (500 mi) wide and covers an area of 424,000 square kilometres (164,000 sq mi).

Gibson Desert

Main article: Gibson Desert

A four wheel drive vehicle in the Gibson Desert

The Gibson Desert lies in central Western Australia and is made up of sandhills and dry grass. The desert is about 60,000 square kilometres (23,000 sq mi) in size. Most of the inhabitants of the area are Indigenous Australians.

Simpson Desert

Main article: Simpson Desert

The Simpson Desert lies mainly in the south-east part of the Northern Territory, but parts of it are also in Queensland and South Australia. It covers an area of almost 100,000 square kilometres (39,000 sq mi). The Simpson Desert contains the world's longest parallel sand dunes.

Other Australian deserts

• Little Sandy Desert
• Strzelecki Desert
• Tanami Desert
• Tirari Desert
• Central Desert^{[dubious – discuss]}
• Australian Desert

Desert groups

• Western Desert – grouping of Gibson, Great Sandy and Little Sandy Deserts.

References

1. ^ Geosciences Australia – Deserts

External links

• The Australian Landscape, A Cultural History - A four part program exploring the way Europeans and Aboriginal people have engaged with the desert, through art, science and religion, from ABC Radio National
• Encarta (Archived 2009-10-31)
• World Book
• National Geographic

Further reading

• Johnson, John & Catherine de Courcy.(1998) Desert Tracks Port Melbourne, Vic. Lothian Books. ISBN 0850918111