Which Australian desert is named after explorer Paweł Strzelecki?

The Australian desert named after explorer Paweł Strzelecki is the Strzelecki Desert.

The name honours Paweł Edmund Strzelecki, a Polish-born explorer, geologist, and scientist whose Australian journeys helped map parts of the continent. British explorer Charles Sturt applied Strzelecki’s name to the desert in 1845, creating a geographical link between Australia’s interior and one of its notable European explorers.

The Strzelecki Desert lies around the northeastern Lake Eyre Basin, extending across South Australia, Queensland, and western New South Wales. It is characterised by extensive sand-dune fields and covers about 80,250 square kilometres. The Strzelecki Track and Strzelecki Creek are among the named routes and waterways associated with the region.

It is easy to confuse this desert with the nearby Simpson Desert or Sturt Stony Desert, both also associated with central Australia. Strzelecki’s name appears elsewhere too: he climbed and named Mount Kosciuszko in 1840, and the Strzelecki Ranges and Strzelecki Creek also commemorate him.