Great Sandy Research Articles

Martujarra Prehistory: Variation in Arid Zone Adaptations

In this paper preliminary results from recent fieldwork in the Little Sandy and Great Sandy Deserts are discussed and placed in the context of other arid zone research. Three points are developed. Firstly, that the arid zone is environmentally diverse and therefore human adaptations within it are likely to be varied in space and through time. Secondly, that a distinction should be made between late Pleistocene and Holocene occupation patterns and finally, that there are changes common to many arid zone sites throughout the Holocene.

Satellite observed seasonal and inter-annual variation of vegetation over the Kalahari, The Great Victoria Desert, and The Great Sandy Desert: 1979–1984

We present time-series observations by two spaceborne sensors over three desert regions, the Kalahari (in southern Africa), and the Great Victoria Desert and the Great Sandy Desert (in western Australia). The observations are by the Advanced Very High Resolution Radiometer on board the NOAA-7 satellite from April 1982 to December 1984, and by the Scanning Multichannel Microwave Radiometer on board the Nimbus-7 satellite from January 1979 to February 1985. The objective was to compare and contrast seasonal and interannual variation of vegetation over these three deserts using the normalized difference vegetation index and the 37 GHz brightness temperature. The seasonal variation from both sensors was found to be most pronounced over the Kalahari, followed by the Great Sandy Desert and the Great Victoria Desert. The normalized difference vegetation index was roughly identical over the two Australian deserts and was significantly higher for the Kalahari. Additionally, there was no consistent change from both sensors over the two Australian deserts, but a consistent decrease from 1979 to 1984 over the Kalahari was found in the 37 GHz microwave data.

Caesium-137 profiles in the sediments of a partial-meromictic lake on Great Sandy Island (Fraser Island), Queensland, Australia

Hidden Lake is a perched, brown-water lake located in the centre of Great Sandy Island (Fraser Is.), S.E. Queensland. It is highly acid (pH 4.0), oligotrophic and is thermally and chemically stratified for most of the year. The sediments revealed a 137Cs profile which departed from the temporal pattern of 137Cs fallout in Brisbane and was represented by an exponential increase of 137Cs towards the surface sediments from ca. 32 cm depth. The possible causes of the divergent profile are discussed, including physical and biological mixing, lag in the transport of catchment material to the sedimentary basin, diffusion, recycling and biological concentration. It is hypothesised that a combination of the last four processes, with diffusion facilitated by the highly acid conditions, are the major causes of the observed 137Cs profile. Possible recycling and bioconcentration of 137Cs raises questions as to the validity of this method of dating in similar environmental conditions, and as to the interpretation of other palaeochemical data. These hypotheses are to be tested against profiles obtained from 14C, 210Pb, 239/240Pu analyses of the sediment, and the measurement of 137Cs activity in the water and biota of the lake.

The Distribution and Abundance of Kangaroos in relation to Environment in Western Australia

Red and western grey kangaroos were surveyed from the air in Western Australia during the winter of 1981. The area covered, 1 528 000 km2 or 61% of the State, excluded only the Kimberleys in the north and the Gibson and Great Sandy Deserts of the interior. Hence almost all kangaroo range within the State was surveyed, to provide an estimate of 980 000 reds and 436 000 greys. Densities were much lower than those of the eastern States. Red kangaroos were most abundant in mulga shrubland, chenopod shrubland and tussock grassland, and least abundant in hummock grassland. Densities were associated strongly with land-use categories, being high in areas used for extensive sheep grazing and low in vacant Crown Land and arable land. In contrast to reds the western grey kangaroos were confined to the south and west of the state, their distribution being related more directly to climate than to vegetation or land use. They live in the winter rainfall zone. We suggest that their restricted breeding season results in peak nutritional demands associated with lactation, and hence energy requirements, being synchronized with the spring flush of pasture following winter rains. Approximately 14% of the red kangaroo and 8% of the western grey kangaroo populations in Western Australia were harvested legally in 1981.

Comparative Analysis of Adzes from Puntutjarpa Rockshelter and the James Range East Site Complex, Australia

The Western Desert, comprising the Great Sandy, Gibson and Great Victoria Deserts, has been characterized as an extremely stressful environment, its chief limiting factor being the scarcity and unreliability of water supplies (Strehlow 1965; Gould 1977). The Central Desert is also arid but has more surface rainfall catchments and permanent waterholes. The availability of water is also expressed in the greater range of flora and fauna of the Central Desert. Attempts have been made to link the marginality of the Western Desert to a supposedly less rich social and ritual life of the inhabitants of this region, compared to their neighbours to the east (Strehlow 1965). Gould, who excavated both Puntutjarpa Rocksheiter (PR) in the Western Desert and the James Range East (JRE) site complex in the Central Desert has continued this comparison by suggesting that the archaeological evidence from both sites represents a cognate lithic tradition, but that the James Range East material contains more elements (Gould 1980:175-176). The presence of exotic lithic raw materials at Puntutjarpa has been interpreted as possible evidence of long-distance trade networks which cemented the social relations required to offset the risks of subsistence in such a marginal environment (Gould 1980:156-57). This proposition is testable by an analysis of the archaeological material from Puntutjarpa and James Range East and I therefore undertook a comparison of adzes from Puntutjarpa Rocksheiter and the James Range East site complex to assess both the similarities and differences

Mammals of the Phanerozoic South-West Kimberley, Western Australia: Biogeography and Recent Changes

Species inventories of the main biogeographical areas in the far north of Western Australia are presented. It is shown that the mammal fauna of the Phanerozoic South-west Kimberley reflects the area's intermediate climate, its geographical location between, and its geomorphic continuity with both the sub-humid North Kimberley and the arid Great Sandy Desert. Available data on changes in the mammal fauna of the area since the middle Holocene and since the advent of a pastoral industry in 1890 are presented and discussed.

The Natural Regions of the Deserts of Western Australia

Any map of Western Australia bears well-known names of deserts in the eastern half of the State-the Great Sandy Desert, the Gibson Desert, the Great Victoria Desert. To this list may be added, for practical purposes, the Nullarbor Plain. When, however, one enquires into this situation more deeply it is found to be difficult or impossible to discover what the characteristics of these deserts are, where their boundaries lie, and in what way they are distinguished from one another and from other parts of Western Australia not popularly considered to be desert. These questions will be answered in the course of this paper after considerable discussion. As a starting point, the only satisfactory preliminary definition of the deserts seems to be that they comprise the country which is not under pastoral lease or agricultural occupation (Fig. 1.) Such country occupies the whole of the eastern half of the State south of the Kimberley, to a total of about two-fifths of the whole area, or 400 000 square miles (1 million km2). Until 1954 knowledge of the greater part of this area north of the Nullarbor Plain was minimal and derived from the observations of the few nineteenth century expeditions which had traversed it, but from that year progress in exploration was rapid. It is rather remarkable that even to the very dates there is a close parallel with the Antarctic Continent and its exploration, as the following quotation from Law (1967) will show:

Some Wood and Stone Implements of the Bindibu Tribe of Central Western Australia

In 1956–57 the remote and almost unexplored desert terrain that stretches for hundreds of miles north and west of Lake Mackay—a great salt morass that lies across the border between Northern Territory and Western Australia—was in the grip of a severe drought which had lasted for more than a year. This great tract of spinifex desert and red sand hills that extends westward to the Canning Desert was named the Great Sandy Desert by Colonel Warburton in 1873.During 1956 and again in the following year, reports had been coming in sporadically through Alice Springs of the existence of primitive nomadic aborigines far out in the sands beyond Lake Mackay. Some of these nomads were said to have come in to Mt. Doreen Station, which lies 225 miles to the west of Alice Springs on the fringe of the desert, but no accurate information was available.Having experienced tropical areas of high rainfall with their regular hunting and food-gathering cycle, I had always wanted to work in the arid interior of Australia, where the rainfall is not only extremely low but unpredictable. I had hoped to live and to hunt with a nomadic people of the desert and semi-desert, and to study the background ecology, the adaptation of these people to this arid terrain, and especially their hunting and food gathering, and so to understand the effect of these factors on the territorial grouping and on the social and ceremonial life of the aborigines as I had come to know it.