Great Victoria Desert
The Great Victoria Desert is a sparsely populated desert ecoregion and interim Australian bioregion in Western Australia and South Australia.
History
In 1875, British-born Australian explorer Ernest Giles became the first European to cross the desert. He named the desert after the then-reigning monarch, Queen Victoria. In 1891, David Lindsey's expedition travelled across this area from north to south. Frank Hann was looking for gold in this area between 1903 and 1908. Len Beadell explored the area in the 1960s.Location and description
The Great Victoria is the largest desert in Australia, and consists of many small sandhills, grassland plains, areas with a closely packed surface of pebbles, and salt lakes. It is over wide and covers an area of from the Eastern Goldfields region of Western Australia to the Gawler Ranges in South Australia. The Western Australian mulga shrublands 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-Sturt stony desert to the east, and the Nullarbor Plain to the south separates it from the Southern Ocean. Average annual rainfall is low and irregular, ranging from per year. Thunderstorms are relatively common in the Great Victoria Desert, with an average of 15–20 thunderstorms yearly. Summer daytime temperatures range from, while in winter, this falls to.The Great Victoria desert is a World Wildlife Fund ecoregion and an Interim Biogeographic Regionalisation for Australia region of the same name.
Habitation
The majority of people living in the region are Indigenous Australians from different groups, including the Kogara, the Mirning and the Pitjantjatjara. Aboriginal populations have been increasing in this region. Young Indigenous adults from the Great Victoria Desert region work in the Wilurarra Creative programs to maintain and develop their culture.Despite its isolated location, the Great Victoria is bisected by very rough tracks, including the Connie Sue Highway and the Anne Beadell Highway. Human activity has included some mining and nuclear weapons testing.
Flora
Only the hardiest of plants can survive in much of this environment. Between the sand ridges, the areas of wooded steppe consist of Eucalyptus gongylocarpa, Eucalyptus youngiana, and Acacia aneura shrubs scattered over areas of resilient spinifex grasses, particularly Triodia basedowii.Fauna
The wildlife that adapted to these harsh conditions include a few large birds or mammals such as emus and red kangaroos. However, the desert does sustain many types of lizards, including the vulnerable great desert skink, the Central Ranges taipan, and a number of small marsupials, including the endangered sandhill dunnart ' and the crest-tailed mulgara '. One way to survive here is to burrow into the sands, as a number of the desert's animals, including the southern marsupial mole ', and the water-holding frog do. Birds include the chestnut-breasted whiteface found on the eastern edge of the desert and the malleefowl of Mamungari Conservation Park. Predators of the desert include the dingo and two large monitor lizards, the perentie ' and the sand goanna .Conservation and threats
As this area has had very limited use for agriculture, many habitats remain largely undisturbed. 31% of the desert is in protected areas, including Mamungari Conservation Park in South Australia, a large area of pristine arid zone wilderness, which possesses cultural significance and is one of the 14 World Biosphere Reserves in Australia. 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. Protected areas include:- Antara-Sandy Bore Indigenous Protected Area
- Apara-Makiri-Punti Indigenous Protected Area
- De La Poer Range Nature Reserve
- Gawler Ranges National Park
- Gawler Ranges Conservation Park
- Great Victoria Desert Nature Reserve
- Kalka-Pipalyatjara Indigenous Protected Area
- Lake Gairdner National Park
- Mamungari Conservation Park
- Mount Willoughby Indigenous Protected Area
- Neale Junction Nature Reserve
- Ngaanyatjarra Indigenous Protected Area
- Nullarbor Regional Reserve
- Plumridge Lakes Nature Reserve
- Pureba Conservation Park
- Queen Victoria Spring Nature Reserve
- Tallaringa Conservation Park
- Walalkara Indigenous Protected Area
- Watarru Indigenous Protected Area
- Yellabinna Regional Reserve
- Yellabinna Wilderness Protection Area
- Yeo Lake Nature Reserve
- Yumbarra Conservation Park