DECEMBER 15, 1965 Rea,.tered at the General Post Office. Sydnev. for transmimon by post as a periodical VoL. 15, No. 4 PRICE, 3 -, 30c This special issue is devoted to the natural histor) of the desert!> and other arid area" of Australia's interior. It contains ci�ht cxtra pages. CONTENTS T11E ATURAL HisToRY 01- AusTRAI.IA·s ARID I TERioR 97 TilE DESERT AREAS OF AUSTRALIA-//. 0. /·fetcher CE TRAL AUSTRALIAN MOUNTAI S 104 LANDSCAPES OF ARID A 0 SEMI-ARID AUSTRALIA-}. A. Ma1Jb111t 105 APPOINTME T OF DR F. H. TALI:lOT AS DIRECTOR OF I"JJE MliSEll\1 110 ATURE TJJ E A1 o ORIGI 1 01- MoDER DESER 1 s-Reg. Sprigg Ill AVERS ROCK 114 DESERT PLA 1 s AND T11 EIR Ust:.-George M. Chippendale 115 MAMMALS 1 ARID REGIO s 01- AusTRALIA-13. J. Mar!OH' 119 DESERT BIRDS-I-I. J. deS. Disney .. 124 REPTILES A D FROGS OF AUSTRALIA's ARID REGIO s-1/. G. Cogger 128 BooK REVIEW 131 CRUSTACEA 01' I Ill: ARID LA o-Jo/111 C Yaldwyn 132 • FRONT COVE I{: The Rabbit-cared llandicoot ( Thy/acollt_\'.1 lagoti.l). a I) pica I member of the mammal fauna of Australian deserts. lt excm•atc" deep burro"s "ith the powerful cla"s on its forefeet. The photo is by Ho"ard 1-fughcs. An article on mamnwls in the arid regions of Au tralia appear" on page 119. VoL. 15, No. 4 DECEMBER 15, 1965 AUS IAN NATUR ISTORY Published Quarterly by the Australian Museum College Street. Sydney Editor: J. W. Evans, Sc.D. Annual Subscription, Posted, 14/-, $1.40 ==�-===���====�===== �==== VoL. 15, No. 4 DECEMBER 15, 1965 The Natural History of Australia's Arid Interior TH LS issue of Australian Natural History Nevertheless, the arid interior of Australia is devoted to the arid interior of Aus­ is relatively richly endowed with animals tralia. This is an area of increasing acces­ and plants, and many of these have evolved sibility and tourist interest. but the num­ complex physiological and behavioural erous photographs and paintings which adaptations to life in arid regions. Many adorn postcards, calendars and travel others have been enabled to survive not by posters tend, not unnaturally, to stress its becoming adapted to these conditions, but more imposing but less typical features. by actually avoiding them, for example by occupying habitats such as rock crevices. True deserts are rare in Australia. but waterholes or burrows, or by their nocturnal arid and semi-arid areas occupy about 70 habits. per cent of the continent. By virtue of its size alone this region is important to Aus­ Because of its vast are:>. and apparent tralia and Australians, but it is important uselessness, little thought has been given to al o for many other reasons. in particular the need to conserve large samples of thi for the scientific interest of its fauna, flora interesting environment. Ln an area of such and geology. climatic extremes. where prolonged droughts arc of relatively frequent occurrence. the Many of our desert and semi-desert areas need for careful and studied use of avail­ receive an average annual rainfall of more able resources should be clearly apparent. than 10 inches-enough by most standards The ravages of land misuse-including over­ to support not only a rich fauna and flora grazing and over tacking-may be long in but also moderate agricultural and grazing manifesting themselves, but they are all too activities. The rainfall, however, i unreli­ evident in many areas today. and hence able. and many areas may lack appreciable before very long the "Dead Heart" of rainfall for periods of several years. Australia may come to live up to its name. December, 1965 Page 97 The Desert Areas of Australia By H. 0. FLETCHER AN eminent climatologi t, after a detailed study of the desert areas of the world, came to the conclu ion that Australia has the econd largest area of extremely arid land in any continent. It was e timated at 1,100.000 square mile in cornpari on with the Sahara region which has the greatest area with approximately 2.600.000 square miles of desert country. This figure for Au tralia very closely agrees to that which the late Profes or Griffith Taylor had adopted as the combined area of what he .. termed ··desert" and sparseland'', the former being practically uscle land and the latter inferior pa toral land. The geographical methods of defining de ert and near-de ert areas u e vegetation, amount of average rainfall and the ratio of precipitation to evaporation. Many defi­ nitions. however, have been put forward to Thi map �hows the limit of Australian limit the features of what might be con­ deserts. Spar">eland . surrounding the true sidered a true de ert but the e �ary to such dc">ert areas. are ruled. [From A mtralia, by an extent that area classed a de crts in Griffith Taylor.] one part of the world would not nccc arily be the ea c in other parts. Very few of Taylor did not agree that merely rainfall these would possibly not be very near to determined a de en, as in parts of Aus­ the popular idea of a de crt which is formed tralia large area with a rainfall of about in the mind of the average layman. 5 inches have long been occupied by pas­ torali ts while other regions with a rainfall One author state that ·'a de crt has be­ ranging from 5 to 15 inche are unoccupied come by definition not naked rock or and. ri and arc Jikely to remain unoccupied. The but a lacc of small rainfall with a parse northern half of the Great Sandy Desert in and specialized animal life". Another is We tern Australia has a rainfall of 8 to 20 that "a desert is a country with an arid cli­ inches while the outhern half, although it mate and such a scanty water upply that receives far le rain. ha much le s evap­ agriculture is impracticable and occupation oration and there i little to di tinguish be­ is found po sible only for a sparse popula­ tween the feature of the two areas. tion of pa toralists''. One chool of thought Very little of the Au tralian desert accepts average rainfall a a mean of deter­ country has a rainfall less than 5 inches a mination as thi involves the main factors, year. lt frequently happen however, that such a growth of vegetation and occupa­ . over a period of successive years the rain­ tion. Thi is probably a very good test. a fall may not exceed an inch. or even lcs , average rainfall a a criterion overcomes and then be followed by heavy rains of up change brought about by erratic rainfall. to I 0 or more inches for cveral seasons. Desert and near-desert area arc some­ On these occa. ions the desert areas arc what of variable types in different parts of tran formed into ones of triking beauty as the world and in different latitude . This the ephemeral hrubs and wildflowcr i the rea on why there appears to be no quickly. almo t miraculously. appear and complete a�reement among scicnti t as to cover the country with a carpet of colour. what actually con titute the e area . Griffith The transformation is. however, a very tern- Page 98 A ustra/ian Natural History porary one as the country soon reverts tration. They cover the greater parts of back to its arid condition of parched and Western Australia, the Northern Territory, barren plains. and South Australia and extend into the The author, in 1939, as a member of the western fringes of Queensland and New Simpson Desert Expedition, crossed that South Wales. area by camel during a time when the The arid lands of Australia have very country had never looked better in its much in common with the Sahara Desert known history. During the latter part of and there is little to choose between them the crossing the expedition experienced and certain parts of it. The eastern half almost 3 inches of rain within six days. On of the great Sahara Desert, now generally the other hand, about eight months ago, he known as the Libyan Desert, consists passed through country lying between Ayers mainly of large, ftat expanses of sand or Rock and the We tern Australian border stone and areas of varying sizes where sand­ which had had only a few points of rain ridges occur. The Jargt-st area of these during the past ten years. It was a country dunes or sand-ridges is the Great Libyan of dead and dying spinifex and mulga with Erg, which i also known as the Great a very marked ab ence of any animal life. Sand Sea. It lie against the western border The late Professor Griffith Taylor, in an of Egypt, forming an area about 300 miles attempt to define a desert which would long by I 00 miles wide and ha been said cover conditions in Australia. combined to be "probably the most imposing mass of both climatic and economic factors. Hi dunes on the whole surface of the earth". definition was that "A desert is a region The Great Sand Sea is quite uninhabited. of mall rainfall (sometimes. however. i scarcely visited and the very high and long parallel and-ridges are bare of vege­ amounting to J 5 inches in hot regions) with a parse and specialized plant and animal tation.