 |
|
Australia is mostly made up of
vast semi-arid or desert lands, especially on its
north-western and central part and occupies around
18% of the continent.
If going to be put altogether,
the desert land reaches an approximately 529,000
square miles or 1,371,000 square kilometers.
The three most well-known deserts of Australia are
the Great Victoria Desert, the Gibson Desert and the
Simpson Desert.
The Great Victoria Desert in the Southern part of
Australia was named after Queen Victoria when Ernest
Giles became the first European to cross the desert
in 1875. By far the largest desert in the country,
Great Victoria spans an area of around 163,900
square miles or 424,400 square kilometers. |
 |
This desert
ecoregion is so arid and barren that makes farming activity
very limited. During summer, the hottest season temperature
ranges from 90 to 104 degree Fahrenheit or 32 to 40 degree
Celsius. The desert temperature falls as low as 64 to 75
degrees in Fahrenheit or 18 to 23 degrees in Celsius during
the winter. The desert also has little rainfall with just an
average of only around 8 to 10 inches or 200 to 250 mm every
year.
|
|
Although
thinly populated, inhabitants of this desert vary
from Kogara, to Mirning to Indigenous Australians.
Another one of the largest desert in Australia is
The Simpson Desert, spanning around 776,500 square
kilometers of Central Australia.
It has an average
rainfall of less than 200 mm per year. The desert
was named after the Australian philanthropist Alfred
Allen Simpson, who’s also a geographer and served as
the president of the Royal Geographical Society of
South Australia.
The first European to have seen the
desert was Charles Stuart Hutton around 1844 to
1846.
|
However, the first white
person to actually cross the desert was Ted Colson in 1936.
The Simpson Desert can be very, very
hot during the summer so it was decided to have it closed on
the summer of 2008 to 2009 to prevent inexperienced drivers
from accessing the land.
|
Meanwhile,
the Gibson Desert spans around 60,000 square miles
or approximately 155,000 square kilometers of
Western Australia.
It is considered the fifth
largest desert in the country coming after the Great
Victoria, the Simpson, The Great Sandy and the
Tanami deserts.
The almost untouched desert lies
between Macdonald and Disappointment lakes. It has
wide areas of dune fields, rocky ridges and
undulating sand plains.
Other Australian Deserts include, Little Sandy
Desert, Nullarbor Plain, Strzelecki Desert, Tanami
Desert, and Tirari Desert. |
 |
|
|
