Desert Channels Foundation

Sustaining the Desert Channels Region

The Desert Channels region is the cradle of the Australian ethos. It is the home of Waltzing Matilda, the birthplace of Qantas and the witness to the genesis of the Australian Labor Party.

It is wide horizon country loaded with icons. Its ancient landscapes range from the western watershed of the Great Dividing Range, through the sprawling Mitchell grass plains to the channel-braided floodplains of the Channel Country to the endless ranks of Simpson Desert sand dunes.

Charles Sturt came and went, Burke and Wills came … and died, Harry Readford traversed it with 1000 head of stolen cattle, Sidney Kidman exploited its booms but, before them all, a thousand generations thrived in this harsh and unremitting land, their trade-routes tracking along the watercourses that carried the landscape’s lifeblood.

It supports unique plants, animals and ecosystems. The Edgbaston goby is a fish found nowhere else in the world apart from a few puddles of shallow spring water, and the ancient Waddi tree is restricted to three spots, two of them in the Desert Channels region. Here is the last Queensland stronghold of the once abundant bilby; and the elusive night parrot, last seen alive in the early 1900s, still clings to an enigmatic existence, giving up an occasional body to confound.

For all this, it’s incredibly fragile. Its character has changed with 150 years of pastoral settlement: there are forests of weeds in the north; pigs along the watercourses; camels in the desert; and foxes, rabbits and cats all over. It is a land moulded by, and bound up in, the boom and bust cycles driven by the pulses of the mighty river systems.

These unregulated rivers systems feed an unrivalled part of the world: the Channel Country, and the lakes and wetlands of the Lake Eyre Basin. With the demise of the wetlands of the Murray-Darling Basin, those of the Lake Eyre Basin are the critical breeding bastions for many of Australia’s waterbirds, and for a host of international migratory birds.

Worth seeing: yes
Worth protecting: yes
Worth supporting: yes

The Desert Channels region, the Queensland section of the Lake Eyre Basin, is indeed, a unique part of Australia.


	HOME PLEDGE CONTACT US	Desert Channels Foundation Sustaining the Desert Channels Region The Desert Channels region is the cradle of the Australian ethos. It is the home of Waltzing Matilda, the birthplace of Qantas and the witness to the genesis of the Australian Labor Party. It is wide horizon country loaded with icons. Its ancient landscapes range from the western watershed of the Great Dividing Range, through the sprawling Mitchell grass plains to the channel-braided floodplains of the Channel Country to the endless ranks of Simpson Desert sand dunes. Charles Sturt came and went, Burke and Wills came … and died, Harry Readford traversed it with 1000 head of stolen cattle, Sidney Kidman exploited its booms but, before them all, a thousand generations thrived in this harsh and unremitting land, their trade-routes tracking along the watercourses that carried the landscape’s lifeblood. It supports unique plants, animals and ecosystems. The Edgbaston goby is a fish found nowhere else in the world apart from a few puddles of shallow spring water, and the ancient Waddi tree is restricted to three spots, two of them in the Desert Channels region. Here is the last Queensland stronghold of the once abundant bilby; and the elusive night parrot, last seen alive in the early 1900s, still clings to an enigmatic existence, giving up an occasional body to confound. For all this, it’s incredibly fragile. Its character has changed with 150 years of pastoral settlement: there are forests of weeds in the north; pigs along the watercourses; camels in the desert; and foxes, rabbits and cats all over. It is a land moulded by, and bound up in, the boom and bust cycles driven by the pulses of the mighty river systems. These unregulated rivers systems feed an unrivalled part of the world: the Channel Country, and the lakes and wetlands of the Lake Eyre Basin. With the demise of the wetlands of the Murray-Darling Basin, those of the Lake Eyre Basin are the critical breeding bastions for many of Australia’s waterbirds, and for a host of international migratory birds. Worth seeing: yes Worth protecting: yes Worth supporting: yes The Desert Channels region, the Queensland section of the Lake Eyre Basin, is indeed, a unique part of Australia.	RELATED LINKS Desert Channels Queensland DC Solutions