Simpson Desert Important Bird Area

The extent of IBA overlaps land including the following protected areas and privately held reserves: the Munga-Thirri–Simpson Desert National Park in South Australia; the Munga-Thirri National Park in Queensland; the Bush Heritage reserves of Ethabuka and Cravens Peak; and the North Australian Pastoral Company-managed Mulligan River Nature Refuge in Queensland.

[1] The site contains parts of the spasmodically flooded Channel Country, intergrading into gidgee woodlands and tall shrubland communities.

Other landforms include mesas, escarpments, gorges, gibber plains, dunefields, ephemeral clay pans, semi-permanent waterholes, and artesian springs.

The climate is hot and arid; in the south of the site, temperatures may exceed 50 °C in summer with average annual rainfall less than 150 mm.

[1] The Important Bird Area (IBA) has been identified as such by BirdLife International because it supports a large population of Eyrean grasswrens as well as small numbers of plains-wanderers.