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This article is from the soc.culture.australian FAQ, by Stephen Wales with numerous contributions by others.

9.1.3 Australian deserts [KH]

Desert Location Size (K sq mi) Rank

Sahara N Africa 3300 1
Great Victoria SA-WA 250 5
Great Sandy Sth Broome, WA 150 8
Simpson E of "ther alis" 56 20
Sturt N SA 50 24

Of the 3.3 M mi^2 of "The Sahara" about 30% is occupied by "the Grand
Eng" (i.e. the great sand sea). According to the texts the Simpson is
also a "sand sea" and, from what I've seen of it, "a lot" of it is
comparable. ;-)

To aid comparisons:

State/Country    Size (K sq mi)
Vic                   88
NSW                  309
SA                   380
NT                   520
Qld                  667
WA                   975
Texas                267
France               213
U.K.                  94

I.e. the deserts of the Great WA Shield (i.e. Great Vic, Gibson and
Great Sandy) that kind-of run together (and I'm not getting down to
the country that runs along the Bite) account for quite a bit of
territory (i.e. 1/2 WA). Of course, "a lot" of it is fairly livable
country. People have been doing this for a few K years. ;-)

Artesian water underpins most of NSW, some of SA, most of NSW and Vic
and some coastal areas WA and NT. The drier climates are located off
of these (e.g. the WA Shield).

For those intending travel around any of the above -- I note that
Winter daytime temps average in excess of 30 C, Summer daytime temps
average in excess of 40 C. Nighttime temps in Summer are around 10 C
and Winter around 0 C. (We are taking a lot of territory into account
here -- the extremes from place-to-place are up to 10 C above/below
these figures).

 

Continue to:

• prev: 9.1.2 Australia - Area, Coastline And Highest Points
• Index
• next: 9.2 National Holidays

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