Where is the Australian Desert?

Answer 1

There are a dozen or more deserts in Australia, ranging in size from hundreds of thousands of square kilometre to just thousands of square kilometres. Basically, the deserts extend right through central Australia, to parts of the western coast, and south through the Nullarbor Plain to the Great Australian Bight. There are no deserts along the eastern coast.

Answer 2

There are numerous deserts in Australia, and deserts and semi-arid lands take up a great deal of the continent. The three largest deserts in Australia are:

Great Victoria Desert (Western Australia): 424,400 km2 (163,900 square miles)

Great Sandy Desert (Western Australia): 284,993 km2 (110,036 square miles)

Tanami Desert (Western Australia and Northern Territory): 184,500 km2 (71,235 square miles)

Each of these deserts is either in or primarily in Western Australia, in the western third of the continent.

The Nullarbor Plain is an arid, limestone region extending for some 270,000 square km above the Great Australian Bight. Nothing is cultivated there, and in many respects its aridness places it within the category of desert, but there is little (if any) sand there.

Other deserts include -

Simpson Desert (Northern Territory, Queensland, South Australia): 176,500 km2 (68,145 square miles)

Gibson Desert (Western Australia): 156,000 km2 (60,230 square miles)

Little Sandy Desert (Western Australia): 111,500 km2 (43,050 square miles)

Strzelecki Desert (New South Wales, Queensland, South Australia): 80,250 km2 (30,985 square miles)

Sturt Stony Desert (South Australia): 29,750 km2 (11,485 square miles)

Tirari Desert (South Australia): 15,250 km2 (5,890 square miles)

Pedirka Desert (South Australia): 1,250 km2 (480 square miles)