Great Victoria Desert

The Great Victoria Desert is the largest desert in Australia, occupying a vast expanse across Western Australia and South Australia. Characterised by its remote setting, sparse human population, and distinctive ecological communities, it forms a major desert ecoregion and an Interim Biogeographic Regionalisation for Australia (IBRA) region. Despite its harsh climate and limited water resources, the desert supports a rich mosaic of landforms, flora, and fauna, as well as long-established Indigenous cultures.

Historical Background

European exploration of the region began in the late nineteenth century. In 1875, Ernest Giles became the first European known to have crossed the desert, naming it in honour of Queen Victoria. Subsequent expeditions, such as those led by David Lindsay in 1891 and Frank Hann between 1903 and 1908, expanded European knowledge of the terrain while searching for routes and mineral wealth. Later, in the 1960s, the surveyor and road-builder Len Beadell traversed the desert during his work establishing remote outback roads, notably the Anne Beadell Highway. These expeditions contributed to mapping the region and linking isolated communities.

Location and Physical Description

Extending more than 700 kilometres from east to west and covering an area of approximately 350,000 square kilometres, the Great Victoria Desert lies between the Eastern Goldfields of Western Australia and the Gawler Ranges of South Australia. It is bordered by several other major arid regions: the Western Australian mulga shrublands to the west, the Little Sandy Desert to the northwest, the Gibson Desert and Central Ranges to the north, the Tirari–Sturt stony desert to the east, and the Nullarbor Plain to the south.
The desert’s landscape comprises a variety of landforms, including:

• long, low sand ridges;
• plains of spinifex grassland;
• regions of closely packed pebbles known as desert pavement or gibber plains;
• numerous shallow, dry salt lakes.

Average annual rainfall is low and erratic, generally between 150 and 250 millimetres. Thunderstorms occur relatively frequently, with around fifteen to twenty storms per year. Summer temperatures can be extremely high, while winter temperatures are comparatively mild but still arid. These climatic conditions, combined with poor soil fertility, shape the distribution of vegetation and wildlife throughout the region.

Indigenous Habitation and Cultural Continuity

Indigenous Australians have lived in the Great Victoria Desert for thousands of years, developing cultural, spiritual, and ecological knowledge closely connected to the land. Groups including the Kogara, Mirning, and Pitjantjatjara maintain enduring ties to country. Today, Aboriginal communities continue to steward large tracts of desert land, and population numbers in these areas have been increasing.
Cultural continuity is supported by community-driven initiatives such as Wilurarra Creative, which enables young adults to engage with artistic, cultural, and language projects. These initiatives help strengthen identity and ensure that traditional knowledge of desert ecology and land management practices continues across generations.
Despite the region’s isolation, a few rough tracks cross the desert, including the Anne Beadell Highway and the Connie Sue Highway, primarily used by travellers, survey crews, and those seeking remote outback routes.

Flora

Only the hardiest vegetation can thrive in the extreme conditions of the Great Victoria Desert. Dominant plant communities include:

• spinifex grasses such as Triodia basedowii, forming extensive hummock grasslands;
• Eucalyptus species, including Eucalyptus gongylocarpa and Eucalyptus youngiana, which form part of the scattered woodland;
• Acacia aneura (mulga), a key shrub species adapted to arid conditions.

These plants exhibit traits such as deep root systems, resin-coated leaves, and drought resistance, enabling survival in nutrient-poor soils and prolonged dry periods.

Fauna

Although large mammals and birds are relatively sparse, the desert supports a diverse assemblage of reptiles, small marsupials, and specialised burrowing species. Representative fauna include:

• emu and red kangaroo, which range widely across the central desert regions;
• an extensive variety of lizards, including the vulnerable great desert skink (Egernia kintorei);
• Oxyuranus temporalis, a venomous snake species identified only in 2007;
• small marsupials such as the endangered sandhill dunnart (Sminthopsis psammophila) and the crest-tailed mulgara (Dasycercus cristicauda);
• burrowing species including the southern marsupial mole (Notoryctes typhlops) and the desert-adapted frog *Litoria platycephala;
• notable birds such as the chestnut-breasted whiteface (Aphelocephala pectoralis) on the eastern margin and the malleefowl, which occurs in areas such as Mamungari Conservation Park.

Predators include the dingo, which roams the region freely due to its location north of the Dingo Fence, as well as large monitor lizards such as the perentie (Varanus giganteus) and the sand goanna (Varanus gouldii).

Conservation and Environmental Management

Because the Great Victoria Desert has experienced minimal agricultural development, large areas of habitat remain intact. Approximately one-third of the region falls within designated protected areas. Significant conservation sites include:

• Mamungari Conservation Park, an extensive arid wilderness recognised as one of Australia’s biosphere reserves;
• the Great Victoria Desert Nature Reserve in Western Australia;
• large lands managed by the Anangu Pitjantjatjara Yankunytjatjara (APY) communities in South Australia.

These areas play a vital role in protecting fragile desert ecosystems and supporting Indigenous land management practices.
One environmental concern relates to the British nuclear weapons tests at Maralinga and Emu Field during the 1950s and early 1960s. These tests contaminated certain sites with plutonium-239 and related radioactive materials, leaving a legacy that required extensive clean-up operations. While the affected areas are geographically limited relative to the size of the desert, they remain important considerations in regional land management.