There are many deserts in Australia. One third of the Earth is made up of deserts. Australia is the worlds driest inhabited continent. Some of the Australia deserts are stony deserts. Australian stony deserts include the Gibson Desert in Western Australia and The Sturt Stony Desert spanning parts of Queensland, South Australia and New South Wales. Four of the most famous deserts are the The Gibson Desert, The Great Sandy Desert, The Great Victoria Desert and the Simpson Desert.
Link to image: http://www.nynrm.sa.gov.au/portals/7/pdf/biodiversity/australia.pdf
There are 10 deserts in Australia which are:
1.Great Sandy Desert- The average yearly rainfall is 250mm. You would be looking at 38-42°C. Summer days are very hot. The further South you go, the more hotter it gets. Winter days get to 25 to 30°C.
2.Little Sandy Desert- The climate of the Little Sandy Desert bioregion is arid with summer-dominant rainfall. Spatially averaged median (1890–2005) rainfall is 178 mm (April to March rainfall year.)
March rainfall year
3.Gibson Desert- The Gibson Desert bioregion has an arid climate with variable and unpredictable rainfall. Spatially averaged median (1890–2005) rainfall is 163 mm
(April to March rainfall year.)4.Great Victoria Desert- In summer it is between 30 and 40°C. Winter temperatures range from 20 to 25°C, but the nights can be freezing, frosts are common.
5.Tanami Desert- Summer usually ranges between 36 - 38°C. Winters range between 25°C and drop below 10°C at night time.
6.Perdirka Desert- unlisted (could not find)
7.Simpson Desert- The Simpson Desert climate can be described as 'arid'. Its rainfall is low, averaging only 150mm per year. Simpson Desert weather is very hot in summer, but temperate in winter. Winter nights can fall below freezing.
8.Tirari Desert- unlisted (could not find)
9.Sturt Stony Desert- unlisted (could not find)
10.Strzelecki Desert- The Strzelecki Desert Bioregion is very arid and has unpredictable rainfall, which generally averages from 150-200 mm per year.
The Great Artesian Basin
The Great Artesian Basin (GAB) is one of the largest
Artesian groundwater basins in the world. It extends
2400 kilometers (km) from Cape York in the north to
Dubbo in the south. It underlies approximately 22 per cent of Australia- occupying an area of over 1.7 million square kilometers beneath the arid and semi-arid parts of Queensland, New South Wales, South Australia and the Northern Territory. Water from the Great Artesian Basin continues to be vitally important to outback regions. They have to rely on a useful water irrigation that can be suitable for them.
Great Victoria Desert
The area of the 'Great Victoria Desert' is 418750 km2. Vegetation is marble gum, mulga and varldarlba over spinifex grassland.
The Great Victoria Desert bioregion is located in
the southern range lands of Western Australia (WA), stretching into the western half of South Australia (SA). There are no major
population centres in the bioregion but there are
a number of small Aboriginal communities. Cosmo
Newberry is probably the best known in that location area.
The climate of the Great Victoria Desert bioregion
is arid with variable and unpredictable rainfall.
Spatially averaged median (1890–2005) rainfall is
162 mm (April to March rainfall year.) It consists of many small sandhills, grassland plains, areas with a closely packed surface of pebbles (called desert pavement or gibberplains) and salt lakes.
Reference (bibliography) is on DESERTS homepage.
By Stephanie Rose Lando
HPA03 7R