Great Sandy Desert
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.
This article is about the desert in Australia. For the desert in Oregon, see High Desert (Oregon).Great Sandy Desert
Features[edit]
The Great Sandy Desert contains large ergs, often consisting of longitudinal dunes.
In the north-east of the desert there is a meteorite impact crater, the Wolfe Creek crater.
"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]
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]