Location of deserts in Australia

This article is about the Australian desert. There is another desert called "Great Sandy Desert" in Oregon, US.

Image File history File links Download high-resolution version (1000x913, 363 KB) Deserts in Australia. ... Image File history File links Download high-resolution version (1000x913, 363 KB) Deserts in Australia. ... Official language(s) (none)[1] Capital Salem Largest city Portland Area  Ranked 9th  - Total 98,466 sq mi (255,026 km²)  - Width 260 miles (420 km)  - Length 360 miles (580 km)  - % water 2. ... Motto: (Out Of Many, One) (traditional) In God We Trust (1956 to date) Anthem: The Star-Spangled Banner Capital Washington D.C. Largest city New York City None at federal level (English de facto) Government Federal constitutional republic  - President George Walker Bush (R)  - Vice President Dick Cheney (R) Independence from...

Overview

The Great Sandy Desert is a 360,000 square kilometres (141,000 mi²) expanse in northwestern Australia. It forms part of a larger desert area known as the Western Desert. This 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. The Western Desert refers to a large tract of desert in the west of Australia, comprising the Gibson Desert, the Great Sandy and Little Sandy Deserts. ... Slogan or Nickname: Wildflower State or the Golden State Other Australian states and territories Capital Perth Government Constitutional monarchy Governor Ken Michael Premier Alan Carpenter (ALP) Federal representation  - House seats 15  - Senate seats 12 Gross State Product (2004-05)  - Product ($m)  $100,900 (4th)  - Product per capita  $50,355/person... The Pilbara is one of the nine regions of Western Australia. ... The Kimberley is one of the nine regions of Western Australia, consisting of the local government areas of Broome, Derby-West Kimberley, Halls Creek and Wyndham-East Kimberley. ... A four wheel drive in the Gibson Desert The Gibson Desert is a Western Australian desert made up of sandhills and dry grass. ... The Tanami Desert is a desert in northern Australia. ... Rudall River is a national park in Western Australia (Australia), 1252 km northeast of Perth. ... Lake Dora is a seasonal salt lake in Western Australia. ... Lake Mackay from space, November 1989 Lake Mackay (located at ) is one of hundreds of dry lakebeds scattered throughout Western Australia and the Northern Territory. ...

Geomorphology

Great Sandy Desert, Landsat 7

The Great Sandy Desert contains large Ergs, often consisting of longitudinal dunes. The Wolfe Creek meteorite impact crater is located in the northeast. Image File history File links Metadata Size of this preview: 600 × 600 pixelsFull resolution (3600 × 3600 pixel, file size: 3. ... Image File history File links Metadata Size of this preview: 600 × 600 pixelsFull resolution (3600 × 3600 pixel, file size: 3. ... Issaouane Erg, Algeria. ... A diagram showing the formation of a dune with a slipface. ... Wolfe Creek is a meteor crater (astrobleme) in Western Australia, Australia. ...

Population

On the coast are there isolated sheep stations; the remainder of the region is sparsely populated. The main populations consist of Indigenous Australian communities and mining centers. The aboriginal people of the desert fall into two main groups the Martu in the west and the Pintupi in the east. Linguistically they are speakers of Western Desert Languages. Many of these indigenous people were forcibly removed from their lands during the last century and relocated to settlements like Papunya in the Northern Territory. In recent years some of the original inhabitants have returned to found communities like Punmu. Australian Aborigines are the indigenous peoples of Australia. ... Martu are an Australian Aboriginal people of the Western Desert. ... Pintupi refers to an Australian Aboriginal group who are part of the Western Desert cultural group and whose homeland is in the area west of Lake MacDonald and Lake Mackay in Western Australia. ... Western Desert Language is the name used to refer to an otherwise un-named Australian Aboriginal language. ... Papunya ( ), is a small Indigenous Australian community of about 350 people roughly 240 km northwest of Alice Springs in the Northern Territory, Australia. ...

Climate

Rainfall is low throughout the coast and far north. Areas near the Kimberley do have an average exceeding 300 mm (12 in), but the rainfall is patchy with many drought years often ending in a monsoonal cloud mass or tropical cyclone. Like many of Australia's deserts, rainfall does seem high by desert standards, because even in the driest parts rainfalls rarely drop below 250 mm (10 in). A massive evaporation rate makes up for the higher than normal desert rainfall. This region is one which gives rise to the heat lows which help drive the NW monsoon. Almost all rain comes from monsoonal thunderstorms or the occasional tropical cyclone rain depression. Cyclone Catarina, a rare South Atlantic tropical cyclone viewed from the International Space Station on March 26, 2004 Hurricane and Typhoon redirect here. ... This article is about arid terrain. ...

Thunderstorm days average 20-30 through most of the area, but in the north bordering the Kimberley, 30-40 per annum is the average.

Summer daytime temperatures are some of the hottest in Australia. The range on the northern border near the Kimberley at Halls Creek is around 37 to 38 °C ( 99 to 100 °F ), but this would be indicative of the low end of the range. Regions further south would average 38 to 42 °C (100 to 108 °F) except when monsoonal cloud cover is active. Several people have died in this region after their vehicles have broken down on remote tracks. Winter is short and warm, temperatures range from 25 to 30 °C (77 to 86 °F), by late August it is hot again. Halls Creek (population 2005 1300) is a small town situated in the East Kimberley of Western Australia. ...

Frost does not occur in most of the area. The regions bordering the Gibson Desert in the far south east may record a light frost or two every year. Away from the coast winter nights can still be chilly in comparison to the sun drenched warm days.

Economy

Little economic activity occurs in the desert. Mines, most importantly the Telfer gold mine and Nifty copper mine, and cattle stations are found in the far west. Telfer is one of the largest gold mines in Australia and was first prospected by Jean-Paul Turcaud in the early 1970's. The undeveloped Kintyre Uranium Deposit lies south of Telfer. Jean-Paul Turcaud (1940? -) is a French mining pioneer, and one of many claimants to the discovery of the Telfer Mine in Western Australia, Australias largest gold mine. ...

Fauna and Flora

The vegetation of the Great Sandy Desert is dominated by spinifex. Species - Beach Spinifex This article is about an Australian coastal grass species. ...

Animals occuring in the region include feral camels, dingos, goannas (including the large Perentie) and numerous species of lizard and birds. The one-humped dromedary Australian (non-native) camels were imported to provide transport through inland Australia and they have since made it their domain. ... Trinomial name Canis lupus dingo (Meyer, 1793) Dingo range Breed standards (external link) ANKC The dingo (plural dingoes or dingos) or warrigal, Canis lupus dingo, is a type of wild dog, probably descended from the Indian Wolf (Canis lupus pallipes). ... Bold text For other uses, see Goanna (disambiguation). ... Binomial name Varanus giganteus (Gray, 1845) The Perentie is the largest monitor lizard or goanna native to Australia. ...

The IBRA regions, with Great Sandy Desert in red

It is an Interim Biogeographic Regionalisation for Australia (IBRA) region.^[1][2] Image File history File links Size of this preview: 764 × 599 pixelsFull resolution (1257 × 986 pixel, file size: 83 KB, MIME type: image/png) File history Legend: (cur) = this is the current file, (del) = delete this old version, (rev) = revert to this old version. ... Image File history File links Size of this preview: 764 × 599 pixelsFull resolution (1257 × 986 pixel, file size: 83 KB, MIME type: image/png) File history Legend: (cur) = this is the current file, (del) = delete this old version, (rev) = revert to this old version. ... The Interim Biogeographic Regionalisation for Australia (IBRA) is a biogeographic regionalisation of Australia developed by the Australian Governments Department of the Environment and Heritage. ...

History

The first European to cross the desert was Peter Warburton in 1873. Colonel Peter Egerton Warburton (born August 16, 1813 in Cheshire, England, died November 5, 1889 in Adelaide, South Australia) was an English explorer who made one particularly daring expedition from Adelaide to cross the centre of Australia to the coast of Western Australia via Alice Springs in 1872. ...

The historic Canning Stock Route traverses the southeastern portions of the Great Sandy Desert. Indigenous people were forcibly removed from the area due to Blue Streak missile tests in the 1950's. The Canning Stock Route is one of the toughest and most remote tracks in the world. ... The Blue Streak missile was a British ballistic missile designed in 1955. ...

See also

• List of deserts by area

There are very few or no other articles that link to this one. ...

References

• Burbidge, A.A. and N.L. McKenzie. (editors)Wildlife of the Great Sandy Desert, Western Australia Perth, W.A. : Western Australian Wildlife Research Centre [and] Dept. of Fisheries and Wildlife, 1983. ISBN 0-7244-9307-7

The Department of the Environment and Water Resources (DEW), formely the Department of Environment and Heritage (DEH) is a department of the Australian federal government. ... The Commonwealth of Australia is a constitutional monarchy, a federation, and a parliamentary democracy. ... --> Year 2007 (MMVII) is now the current year, a common year starting on Monday of the Gregorian calendar and the AD/CE era. ... is the 31st day of the year in the Gregorian calendar. ...

Further reading

• Thackway, R and I D Cresswell (1995) An interim biogeographic regionalisation for Australia : a framework for setting priorities in the National Reserves System Cooperative Program Version 4.0 Canberra : Australian Nature Conservation Agency, Reserve Systems Unit, 1995. ISBN 0642213712

External links

• Climate of the Great Sandy Desert
• Kintyre/Rudall River Uranium Deposit