[3][4][5] Galilee is bounded to the east by the Great Dividing Range and is within the Desert Uplands area of Central West Queensland.

It has been identified by BirdLife International as an Important Bird Area (IBA) because it regularly supports over 1% of the world populations of freckled ducks and grey teals.

[7] Pastoral settlement began on the eastern side of Lake Galilee in 1877, when Charles Bowly acquired the Oakley run and stocked it with cattle.

He wrote to the daughter of Robert Christison, his first employer:[9]“I, to my regret, got tired of sheep and wanted to ride after cattle.

(The clearing of trees is a method of increasing productivity and sustainability of pastoral grazing enterprises in the Desert Uplands).

[9] In the early 2000s a biodiversity audit suggested some concern about over-clearing in some ecosystems and said, "the most quantifiable threatening process is broad scale tree clearing",[11] although data collated for 1999 indicated that 87% of the bioregion remained uncleared.

[13] In 1995, the Desert Uplands Build-up and Development Committee was established and has worked with landholders to enhance grazing and ecological sustainability, enterprise profitability and community resilience.