Australian Deserts - Size and Location
Map of Australian Deserts
Desert in Australia
Australia is the world’s driest inhabited continent. It contains the largest desert region in the
southern hemisphere. Only classic landscapes of bare shifting sands, but also unique and
varied environments such as mountain ranges, grasslands, woodlands, shrub lands, rivers and
salt lakes.
 Australia’s deserts can mainly be found in central and western Australia. The total area
of desert makes up about 18 per cent of the mainland area of Australia. Globally, deserts
can be divided into five types:
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Subtropical Deserts
Continental Deserts
Rain shadow Desert
Coastal Deserts
Polar Deserts
Desert and Fact
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Australia is highly urbanised with a concentration of the population on the coastal fringe.
Subtropical deserts are the hottest and with parched terrain and rapid evaporation.
Cold winter deserts are marked by stark temperature differences from season to
season,
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The Australian desert region is sparsely populated, but closer examination reveals a non
Aboriginal population clumped into several large towns and cities, and an indigenous
Aboriginal population is even more widely dispersed.
Desserts are arid regions, generally receiving less than ten inches of precipitation a
year, or regions where the potential evaporation rate is twice as great as the
precipitation
The Great Victoria Desert is a barren area of sand hills, salt lakes, and sparse
grasslands that extend for approximately 450 miles (725 km) from South Australia into
Western 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 main reason for the formation of the Australian deserts is their location
Australian Deserts make up a big part of what is known as "the Australian Outback".
You might have heard the term "the Outback Desert of Australia
The second largest Australian desert, after the Great Victoria Desert, is the Great
Sandy Desert.
Desert of animals
Animals in the desert must survive in a hostile environment. Searing daytime sun, cold nights
and lack of water are just a few of the challenges facing desert animals. Desert animals, like
desert plants and also have adapted in very special ways to live in this hot and dry environment.
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When finding water is a problem, a lot of animals develop ways of living to help them keep
cool and to use less water. Some animals never drink, but they get their water from seeds
and plants. Also many animals are nocturnal and sleeping during the hot day and only
coming out at night to eat and hunt and some rarely spend any time above ground, most
desert animals are extremely vulnerable to introduced predators and changes to their
habitat.
Percentile
Desert Birds
Mala
Bilby
Desert of Plants
Desert plants have a number of adaptations which enable them to survive extreme
temperatures, evaporative winds, high salinity and limited, inconsistent rainfall. As the beginning
of the food chain plants are vital to the ecosystems of these regions.
Special features of desert plant
Plants lose water through tiny openings in the leaves called stomata. The leaves of many
Australian desert plants are small in surface area, often long and slender. However, the desert
is not always dry and some plants have adapted their entire life-cycle around brief and
unpredictable rains.
Collection of plant foods is a culturally important activity, reinforcing traditional links with country
and customs. Tourism in desert regions is also dependent upon the conservation of desert
environments.
Threats to desert plants
Australia’s deserts have been subject to profound change. The survival of some native species
has been threatened by land clearing, changing fire regimes and climate, and the introduction of
exotic
plants and animals.