Deserts of Australia - AbsoluteAstronomy.com

Deserts cover a large portion of the land in Australia

Australia

Australia , officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a country in the Southern Hemisphere comprising the mainland of the Australian continent, the island of Tasmania, and numerous smaller islands in the Indian and Pacific Oceans. It is the world's sixth-largest country by total area...

. 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 1371000 square kilometres (529,346.1 sq mi), and occupy 18% of the continent.

Australian deserts

Desert	State/Territory	Size		Proportion of Australian landmass
Great Victoria Desert Great Victoria Desert The Great Victoria Desert is a barren and sparsely populated desert area of southern Australia.-Location and description:The Great Victoria is the biggest desert in Australia and consists of many small sandhills, grassland plains, areas with a closely packed surface of pebbles and salt lakes...	Western Australi, South Australia	348750	134,653.1	4%
Great Sandy Desert Great Sandy Desert The Great Sandy Desert is a desert located in the North West of Western Australia straddling the Pilbara and southern Kimberley regions. It is the second largest desert in Australia after the Great Victoria Desert and encompasses an area of...	Western Australia	284993	110,036.4	3.5%
Tanami Desert Tanami Desert The Tanami Desert is a desert in northern Australia situated in the Northern Territory. It has a rocky terrain with small hills. The Tanami was the Northern Territory's final frontier and was not fully explored until well into the twentieth century...	Western Australia, Northern Territory	184500	71,235.8	2.4%
Simpson Desert Simpson Desert The Simpson Desert is a large area of dry, red sandy plain and dunes in Northern Territory, South Australia and Queensland in central Australia. It is the fourth largest Australian desert, with an area of 176,500 km² ....	Northern Territory, Queensland, South Australia	176500	68,147	2.3%
Gibson Desert Gibson Desert The Gibson Desert covers a large dry area in the state of Western Australia and is still largely in an almost "pristine" state. It is about in size, making it the 5th largest desert in Australia, after the Great Sandy, Great Victoria, Tanami and Simpson deserts.-Location and description:The Gibson...	Western Australia	156000	60,231.9	2.0%
Little Sandy Desert Little Sandy Desert The Little Sandy Desert is a desert located in Western Australia south of the Great Sandy Desert and west of the Gibson Desert. It is to the east of Great Northern Highway south of Newman and approximately 200 kilometres north of Wiluna...	Western Australia	111500	43,050.4	1.5%
Strzelecki Desert Strzelecki Desert The Strzelecki Desert is located in the Far North Region of South Australia, southwest Queensland and western New South Wales. It is positioned in the northeast of the Lake Eyre Basin, and north of the Flinders Ranges. Two other deserts occupy the Lake Eyre Basin—the Tirari Desert and the...	South Australia, Queensland, New South Wales	80250	30,984.7	1.0%
Sturt Stony Desert	South Australia, Queensland, New South Wales	29750	11,486.5	0.3%
Tirari Desert Tirari Desert The Tirari Desert is a desert in the eastern part of the Far North region of South Australia.-Location and description:The Tirari Desert features salt lakes and large north-south running sand dunes....	South Australia	15250	5,888.1	0.2%
Pedirka Desert Pedirka Desert The Pedirka Desert is an Australian desert, located about north-west of Oodnadatta and north-east of Coober Pedy in South Australia. Mount Deane and Witjira National Park are just to the north.The desert is relatively small, occupying about .-References:...	South Australia	1250	482.6	0.1%

Note that the Western Desert comprises the Gibson Desert

Gibson Desert

The Gibson Desert covers a large dry area in the state of Western Australia and is still largely in an almost "pristine" state. It is about in size, making it the 5th largest desert in Australia, after the Great Sandy, Great Victoria, Tanami and Simpson deserts.-Location and description:The Gibson...

, the Great Sandy

Great Sandy Desert

The Great Sandy Desert is a desert located in the North West of Western Australia straddling the Pilbara and southern Kimberley regions. It is the second largest desert in Australia after the Great Victoria Desert and encompasses an area of...

and Little Sandy Desert

Little Sandy Desert

The Little Sandy Desert is a desert located in Western Australia south of the Great Sandy Desert and west of the Gibson Desert. It is to the east of Great Northern Highway south of Newman and approximately 200 kilometres north of Wiluna...

s and lies within Western Australia and South Australia. The total area is 524750 km² (202,607.1 sq mi) and is about 9% of the total Australian landmass.

Great Victoria Desert

The Great Victoria Desert lies in Western Australia and South Australia

South Australia

South Australia is a state of Australia in the southern central part of the country. It covers some of the most arid parts of the continent; with a total land area of , it is the fourth largest of Australia's six states and two territories.South Australia shares borders with all of the mainland...

. It is over 800 kilometres (497.1 mi) wide and covers an area of 424000 square kilometres (163,707.3 sq mi).

Gibson Desert

The Gibson Desert lies in central Western Australia

Western Australia

Western Australia is a state of Australia, occupying the entire western third of the Australian continent. It is bounded by the Indian Ocean to the north and west, the Great Australian Bight and Indian Ocean to the south, the Northern Territory to the north-east and South Australia to the south-east...

and is made up of sandhills and dry grass. The desert is about 60000 square kilometres (23,166.1 sq mi) in size. Most of the inhabitants of the area are Indigenous Australians

Indigenous Australians

Indigenous Australians are the original inhabitants of the Australian continent and nearby islands. The Aboriginal Indigenous Australians migrated from the Indian continent around 75,000 to 100,000 years ago....

Simpson Desert

The Simpson Desert lies mainly in the south-east part of the Northern Territory

Northern Territory

The Northern Territory is a federal territory of Australia, occupying much of the centre of the mainland continent, as well as the central northern regions...

, but parts of it are also in Queensland

Queensland

Queensland is a state of Australia, occupying the north-eastern section of the mainland continent. It is bordered by the Northern Territory, South Australia and New South Wales to the west, south-west and south respectively. To the east, Queensland is bordered by the Coral Sea and Pacific Ocean...

and South Australia

South Australia

. It covers an area of almost 100000 square kilometres (38,610.2 sq mi). The Simpson Desert contains the world's longest parallel sand dunes.

Other Australian deserts

Little Sandy Desert
Little Sandy Desert
The Little Sandy Desert is a desert located in Western Australia south of the Great Sandy Desert and west of the Gibson Desert. It is to the east of Great Northern Highway south of Newman and approximately 200 kilometres north of Wiluna...
Strzelecki Desert
Strzelecki Desert
The Strzelecki Desert is located in the Far North Region of South Australia, southwest Queensland and western New South Wales. It is positioned in the northeast of the Lake Eyre Basin, and north of the Flinders Ranges. Two other deserts occupy the Lake Eyre Basin—the Tirari Desert and the...
Tanami Desert
Tanami Desert
The Tanami Desert is a desert in northern Australia situated in the Northern Territory. It has a rocky terrain with small hills. The Tanami was the Northern Territory's final frontier and was not fully explored until well into the twentieth century...
Tirari Desert
Tirari Desert
The Tirari Desert is a desert in the eastern part of the Far North region of South Australia.-Location and description:The Tirari Desert features salt lakes and large north-south running sand dunes....
Central Desert
Australian Desert

Desert groups

Western Desert – grouping of Gibson
Gibson Desert
The Gibson Desert covers a large dry area in the state of Western Australia and is still largely in an almost "pristine" state. It is about in size, making it the 5th largest desert in Australia, after the Great Sandy, Great Victoria, Tanami and Simpson deserts.-Location and description:The Gibson...

, Great Sandy
Great Sandy Desert
The Great Sandy Desert is a desert located in the North West of Western Australia straddling the Pilbara and southern Kimberley regions. It is the second largest desert in Australia after the Great Victoria Desert and encompasses an area of...

and Little Sandy Desert
Little Sandy Desert
The Little Sandy Desert is a desert located in Western Australia south of the Great Sandy Desert and west of the Gibson Desert. It is to the east of Great Northern Highway south of Newman and approximately 200 kilometres north of Wiluna...

s.

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

Australian deserts

Great Victoria Desert

Gibson Desert

Simpson Desert

Other Australian deserts

Desert groups

External links

Further reading