Desert in Northern Western Australia
The
Great Sandy Desert
is an
interim Australian bioregion
,
[1]
[2]
located in the northeast of
Western Australia
straddling the
Pilbara
and southern
Kimberley
regions and extending east into the
Northern Territory
. It is the second largest desert in Australia after the
Great Victoria Desert
and encompasses an area of 284,993 square kilometres (110,036 sq mi).
[3]
[4]
The
Gibson Desert
lies to the south and the
Tanami Desert
lies to the east of the Great Sandy Desert.
Features
[
edit
]
The Great Sandy Desert contains large
ergs
, often consisting of longitudinal
dunes
.
[
citation needed
]
In the north-east of the desert there is a
meteorite impact
crater, the
Wolfe Creek crater
.
[
citation needed
]
"
Fairy circles
", which are circular patches of land barren of plants, varying between 22 and 12 metres (7 and 39 ft) in diameter and often encircled by a ring of stimulated growth of grass, are found in the western part of the desert, in the Pilbara region. It has not yet been proven what causes these formations, but one theory suggests that they have been built and inhabited by
Australian harvester termites
since the
Pleistocene
.
[5]
[6]
Population
[
edit
]
The region is sparsely populated. The main populations consist of
Aboriginal Australian
communities and mining centres. 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 multiple
Western Desert languages
. Many of these Indigenous people were forcibly removed from their lands during the late 18th, 19th, and the early 20th centuries, to be relocated to other settlements, such as
Papunya
in the Northern Territory. In the late 20th and early 21st centuries, some of the original inhabitants returned. Young adults, from the Great Sandy Desert region, travel to and work in the Wilurarra Creative programs to maintain and develop their culture, and a greater sense of community.
[7]
Climate
[
edit
]
Rainfall is low throughout the coast and, especially further north, is strongly seasonal. Areas near the Kimberley have an average rainfall that exceeds 300 mm (12 in), but can be patchy. Many dry years end with a monsoon cloud mass or a
tropical cyclone
. Like many of Australia's deserts, precipitation is high by
desert
standards, but with the driest regions recording total rainfall a little below 250 mm (9.8 in). The heat of Australia’s ground surface, in turn, creates a massive evaporation cycle, which partially explains 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 the rain regionally comes from monsoon thunderstorms, or the occasional tropical cyclone rain depression.
[8]
Annually, for most of the area, there are about 20?30 days where thunderstorms form. However, in the north and bordering the Kimberley, 30-40 per year is the average.
[9]
Summer daytime temperatures are some of the highest in Australia.
[10]
Regions further south average 38 to 42 °C (100 to 108 °F), except when monsoonal cloud cover is active. Several people have died in this region during seasonal flooding, after their vehicles were stuck or broken down on remote dirt roads. Conversely, a few travellers have had their vehicles malfunction during the hottest times of the year, with dehydration, sun exposure and heatstroke being the predominant causes of death.
[11]
Winters are short and warm; temperatures range from 25 to 30 °C (77 to 86 °F).
Frost does not occur in most of the area. The regions bordering the Gibson Desert in the far southeast may record a light frost or two every year.
[12]
Away from the coast winter nights can still be chilly in comparison to the warm days.
Climate data for Telfer, Western Australia (temperatures, extremes and rain data 1974 - 2013)
|
Month
|
Jan
|
Feb
|
Mar
|
Apr
|
May
|
Jun
|
Jul
|
Aug
|
Sep
|
Oct
|
Nov
|
Dec
|
Year
|
Record high °C (°F)
|
48.1
(118.6)
|
47.1
(116.8)
|
45.1
(113.2)
|
41.2
(106.2)
|
38.0
(100.4)
|
33.9
(93.0)
|
33.4
(92.1)
|
36.0
(96.8)
|
41.3
(106.3)
|
44.1
(111.4)
|
46.0
(114.8)
|
47.5
(117.5)
|
48.1
(118.6)
|
Mean daily maximum °C (°F)
|
40.6
(105.1)
|
38.6
(101.5)
|
37.3
(99.1)
|
34.5
(94.1)
|
29.1
(84.4)
|
25.3
(77.5)
|
25.3
(77.5)
|
28.4
(83.1)
|
32.7
(90.9)
|
37.0
(98.6)
|
39.4
(102.9)
|
40.2
(104.4)
|
34.0
(93.2)
|
Mean daily minimum °C (°F)
|
26.0
(78.8)
|
25.4
(77.7)
|
23.9
(75.0)
|
20.6
(69.1)
|
15.3
(59.5)
|
11.9
(53.4)
|
10.6
(51.1)
|
12.5
(54.5)
|
16.5
(61.7)
|
20.8
(69.4)
|
23.4
(74.1)
|
25.4
(77.7)
|
19.4
(66.9)
|
Record low °C (°F)
|
17.2
(63.0)
|
17.7
(63.9)
|
14.4
(57.9)
|
11.5
(52.7)
|
5.6
(42.1)
|
2.1
(35.8)
|
3.0
(37.4)
|
2.5
(36.5)
|
6.2
(43.2)
|
10.5
(50.9)
|
13.0
(55.4)
|
16.5
(61.7)
|
2.1
(35.8)
|
Average rainfall mm (inches)
|
49.1
(1.93)
|
102.7
(4.04)
|
77.3
(3.04)
|
20.0
(0.79)
|
18.5
(0.73)
|
12.1
(0.48)
|
13.2
(0.52)
|
5.4
(0.21)
|
2.5
(0.10)
|
2.9
(0.11)
|
16.5
(0.65)
|
46.9
(1.85)
|
370.4
(14.58)
|
Average precipitation days
|
7.5
|
8.7
|
5.9
|
2.8
|
2.7
|
2.8
|
1.5
|
1.1
|
0.8
|
1.1
|
2.4
|
5.3
|
42.6
|
Source: Bureau of Meteorology
[13]
|
Economy
[
edit
]
Indigenous art
is a huge industry in central Australia. 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. The undeveloped
Kintyre uranium deposit
lies south of Telfer.
Fauna and flora
[
edit
]
The vegetation of the Great Sandy Desert is dominated by
spinifex
.
[14]
Animals in the region include
feral camels
and
dingoes
. Other mammalian inhabitants include
bilbies
,
mulgara
,
marsupial moles
,
rufous hare-wallabies
, and
red kangaroos
.
Varied types of lizards occur here, such as
goannas
(including the large
perentie
),
thorny devils
, and
bearded dragons
.
Some of the bird-life found within the desert include the rare
Alexandra's parrot
, the
mulga parrot
and the
scarlet-chested parrot
.
[15]
See also
[
edit
]
References
[
edit
]
- ^
Environment Australia
.
"Revision of the Interim Biogeographic Regionalisation for Australia (IBRA) and Development of Version 5.1 - Summary Report"
.
Department of the Environment and Water Resources
,
Australian Government
. Archived from
the original
on 5 September 2006
. Retrieved
31 January
2007
.
- ^
IBRA Version 6.1
Archived
2006-09-08 at the
Wayback Machine
data
- ^
"Outback Australia - Australian Deserts"
. 2010
. Retrieved
30 August
2010
.
- ^
"Department of the Environment WA - Refugia for Biodiversity"
. 2009
. Retrieved
30 August
2010
.
- ^
Walsh, Fiona; Bidu, Gladys Karimarra; Bidu, Ngamaru Karimarra; Evans, Theodore A.; et al. (3 April 2023).
"First Peoples' knowledge leads scientists to reveal 'fairy circles' and termite linyji are linked in Australia"
.
Nature Ecology & Evolution
.
7
(4). Nature Publishing Group: 610?622.
doi
:
10.1038/s41559-023-01994-1
.
ISSN
2397-334X
.
PMC
10089917
.
PMID
37012380
.
- ^
Angeloni, Alice (4 April 2023).
"Indigenous knowledge leads scientists to reveal 'fairy circles', termites linked"
.
ABC News (Australia)
. Retrieved
4 April
2023
.
- ^
Wilurarra Creative
- ^
Prosser, Robert (2007).
Australia
. Evans Brothers.
ISBN
978-0-237-53286-4
.
- ^
"Western Australia For Everyone: Great Sandy Desert"
.
www.australiaforeveryone.com.au
. Retrieved
24 December
2020
.
- ^
Year Book Australia
. Aust. Bureau of Statistics. 1954.
- ^
World and Its Peoples: Eastern and Southern Asia
. Marshall Cavendish. 2007.
ISBN
978-0-7614-7639-9
.
- ^
"Gibson Desert | desert, Western Australia, Australia"
.
Encyclopedia Britannica
. Retrieved
24 December
2020
.
- ^
"Climate statistics for Australian locations - Telfer Aero"
.
- ^
"Great Sandy-Tanami Desert"
.
Encyclopedia of Earth
. National Council for Science and the Environment.
- ^
World Wildlife Fund, ed. (2001).
"Great Sandy-Tanami desert"
.
WildWorld Ecoregion Profile
. National Geographic Society. Archived from
the original
on 8 March 2010
. Retrieved
30 August
2010
.
Further reading
[
edit
]
- Burbidge, A. A.; McKenzie, N. L., eds. (1983).
Wildlife of the Great Sandy Desert, Western Australia
.
Perth
, W.A.: Western Australian Wildlife Research Centre [and] Dept. of Fisheries and Wildlife.
ISBN
0-7244-9307-7
.
- Thackway, R.; Cresswell, I. D. (1995).
An interim biogeographic regionalisation for Australia: a framework for setting priorities in the National Reserves System Cooperative Program
. Vol. Version 4.0.
Canberra
: Australian Nature Conservation Agency, Reserve Systems Unit.
ISBN
0-642-21371-2
.
External links
[
edit
]
Media related to
Great Sandy Desert
at Wikimedia Commons
20°S
125°E
/
20°S 125°E
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