Little Desert National Park

Little Desert National Park
Victoria
Little Desert National Park is located in Victoria
Little Desert National Park
Little Desert National Park
Map
Nearest town or cityDimboola
Coordinates36°36′24″S 141°11′19″E / 36.60667°S 141.18861°E / -36.60667; 141.18861
Established1988[1][2]
Area1,326.47 km2 (512.2 sq mi)[3]
Managing authoritiesParks Victoria
WebsiteLittle Desert National Park
See alsoProtected areas of Victoria

The Little Desert National Park is a national park in the Wimmera Mallee region of Victoria, Australia. The 132,647-hectare (327,780-acre)[4] national park is situated near Dimboola, approximately 375 kilometres (233 mi) west of Melbourne and extends from the Wimmera River in the east to the South Australian border in the west near Naracoorte.[5]

While the region is surrounded by agricultural land, the area of the Little Desert itself "consists mainly of deep sandy soils with very low fertility, interspersed with small pockets of clay soils. There are occasional rocky, sandstone outcrops and buckshot rises. Average yearly rainfall varies remarkably from the east to the west."[6] The Little Desert "remains relatively undisturbed by human activity, even though in the earlier years of European settlement it experienced some industry in the way of grazing and woodcutting." Now the desert is a National Park, and is "broken up into three blocks": Western Block, Central Block and Eastern Block; demarcated by two north-south roads, the Nhill-Harrow road and the Kaniva-Edenhope road.[7]

Today the National Park is an important tourist destination receiving about 50,000 visitors each year.[8] Parks Victoria maintain multiple camping sites, walking tracks, look-outs and four-wheel-driving tracks throughout the park. Although most internal roads within the National Park are only accessible by four-wheel-drive vehicles and some are closed during winter or after wet weather.[4]

  1. ^ Robin, Libby. Defending the Little Desert: The Rise of Ecological Consciousness in Australia. Melbourne: Melbourne University, 1994
  2. ^ Parks Victoria (June 1996). Little Desert National Park Management Plan (PDF) (PDF). Government of Victoria. p. 2. ISBN 0-7306-6173-3. Archived from the original (PDF) on 21 August 2014. Retrieved 20 August 2014. Note the reference on p. 2 to 1968 should have been December 1969. This was a mistake in the 1996 management plan
  3. ^ Parks Victoria (June 2014). "Little Desert National Park: Visitor Guide" (PDF) (PDF). Government of Victoria. Archived from the original (PDF) on 21 August 2014. Retrieved 20 August 2014.
  4. ^ a b Victoria, Parks. "Little Desert National Park". parkweb.vic.gov.au. Archived from the original on 16 June 2017. Retrieved 12 January 2017.
  5. ^ "West Wimmera Shire, Town and Rural District Names and Boundaries" (PDF). Locality names and boundary maps. Department of Environment, Land, Water and Planning, State Government of Victoria. Archived from the original (PDF) on 18 October 2015. Retrieved 21 March 2017.
  6. ^ Morgan, Ian; Goods, Graham; Goods, Maree (2014). Birds and Plants of the Little Desert: A photographic Guide. Horsham: I.L. Morgan and G.T. and L.M. Goods. p. 2. ISBN 9780646914237.
  7. ^ Morgan, Ian; Goods, Graham; Goods, Maree (2014). Birds and Plants of the Little Desert: A photographic Guide. Horsham: I.L. Morgan and G.T. and L.M. Goods. p. 1. ISBN 9780646914237.
  8. ^ Cite error: The named reference History was invoked but never defined (see the help page).