[3] No Australian weather stations situated in an arid region record less than 100 mm (3.94 in) of average annual rainfall.

[8][9] In addition to being mostly uninhabited, the Great Australian Desert is diverse, where it consists of semi-desert grassy or mountainous landscapes, xeric shrubs, salt pans, gibber (stony) deserts, red sand dunes, sandstone mesas, rocky plains, open tree savannahs and bushland with a few rivers and salt lakes, which are mostly seasonally dry and often have no outflow in the east.

Chiefly the Capricorn Orogeny is partly responsible for the assembly of the West Australian landmass by connecting the Yilgarn and Pilbara cratons.

They subsisted on the local flora and fauna, now known as bush food, and made sure that their sources of drinking water remained intact.

[16] Karnakatul shows one of the earliest uses of firewood, and habitation continued through times of extreme climate change, when the desertification occurred as the polar ice sheets expanded.

For example, the Spinifex people first had contact with whites in the 1950s, when they were expelled from their tribal lands because of nuclear weapons testing (1950–1963) by the British and Australian governments.

[23] From 1858 onwards, the so-called "Afghan" cameleers and their beasts played an instrumental role in opening up the Outback and helping to build infrastructure.

In 1865 the surveyor George Goyder, using changes in vegetation patterns, mapped a line in South Australia, north of which he considered rainfall to be too unreliable to support agriculture.

[34] The nuclear weapons trials carried out by the United Kingdom at Maralinga and Emu Field in the 1950s and early 1960s have left areas contaminated with plutonium-239 and other radioactive material.

The great ocean circulation in the south of the continent and the cold sea currents in the southern zone play the fourth crucial role, indirectly at the origin of the long periods of continental drought by imposing high atmospheric pressures.

As for the fifth hypothesis of cold or frozen deserts, as absurd as this assertion may appear in present-day Australia, they existed several million years ago.

As noted by early Australian explorers such as Ernest Giles[28] large portions of the desert are characterized by gravel-covered terrains covered in thin desert grasses and it also contains extensive areas of undulating red sand plains and dunefields, low rocky/gravelly ridges and substantial upland portions with a high degree of laterite formation.

The annual precipitation that falls on these marl and alluvial soils covered with grasses of the Astrebla genus ranges from 150 to 500 mm (6 to 19.5 in).

[38] Semi-desert savannas with low-growing acacia species cover large areas in the south of the arid zone, where 200 to 500 mm of precipitation falls in winter and summer.

In connection with the bushfires, which are mainly ignited by the spinifex grasses, the non-resistant mulga bushes burn, which then no longer grow back.

The desert areas covered by mulga are also threatened by deforestation, extensive livestock farming and fuel wood production.

[40] In drier areas, species including Old Man Saltbush (Atriplex nummularia), Cottonbush (Maireana aphylla) and Queensland Bluebush (Chenopodium auricomum) form a sparse, open shrubland, whereas swamps and depressions are frequently associated with Swamp Cane-grass (Eragrostis australasica) and Lignum (Muehlenbeckia florulenta).

The most common creatures in Australia's arid regions are insects, such as termites and ants, which are of great importance to the ecology.

Mammals include bilbies, mulgara, common brushtail possum, rufous hare-wallaby, burrowing bettong, the black-flanked rock-wallaby, marsupial moles, rufous hare-wallabies, yellow-footed rock wallaby, western grey kangaroos, and red kangaroos.

[citation needed] About 103 species of mammals lived there at the time of European colonization, of which 19 are extinct, such as the desert bandicoot (Perameles eremiana), the numbat (Myrmecobius fasciatus) and the long-tailed bouncy mouse (Notomys longicaudatus).

Over 300 species of birds live in the desert areas, including emus, ratites, parrots, cockatoos, owls and raptors.

One way to survive here is to burrow into the sands, as a number of the desert's animals, including the southern marsupial mole (Notoryctes typhlops), and the water-holding frog do.

[citation needed] Australia's climate is mostly determined by the hot, sinking air of the subtropical high-pressure belt (i.e. Australian High).

At Katjarra, there are two camping spots, with shed tanks and long-drop toilets, and Indigenous rangers are available to show tourists the part of the range that is open to the public.

The 100 km2 (39 sq mi) area contains fossil remains of ancient mammals, birds and reptiles of Oligocene and Miocene age.

[citation needed] The outback is reticulated by historic tracks with excellent bitumen surface and well-maintained dirt roads.

The Stuart Highway runs from north to south through the centre of the continent, roughly paralleled by the Tarcoola-Darwin railway line.

Air transport is relied on for mail delivery in some areas, owing to sparse settlement and wet-season road closures.

In former times, serious injuries or illnesses often meant death due to the lack of proper medical facilities and trained personnel.

Young Indigenous adults from the Gibson Desert region work in the Wilurarra Creative programs to maintain and develop their culture.