The Tirari has more sand dunes than the Sturt Stony Desert and has also been the site of some important fossil findings.

Towns of the ecoregion include the opal mining centre of Coober Pedy, famous for its underground dwellings.

The region consists of the Stony Plains, Gawler, Flinders Lofty Block and the Broken Hill Complex bioregions of the Interim Biogeographic Regionalisation for Australia (IBRA).

[5][6] As well as stony plain and sands there are areas of chenopod, mallee and mulga wooded scrubland.

The desert proper is uninhabitable and the environment there remains undamaged, while the greener fringe are used for sheep grazing.