Which desert in Australia is the country’s largest desert by area?

The Great Victoria Desert is Australia’s largest desert by area.

It stretches across a broad region of Western Australia and South Australia, between the central deserts and the Nullarbor Plain. The landscape includes sandhills, gravel plains, salt lakes, and shrublands. Rainfall is low and highly variable, but occasional storms can briefly transform parts of the desert with flowering plants.

The desert was named by explorer Ernest Giles in 1875 in honor of Queen Victoria. Giles crossed the region during an expedition that helped map Australia’s interior for Europeans, although Aboriginal peoples had lived in and traveled through the area for thousands of years.

The Great Victoria Desert is separate from the Great Sandy Desert farther north and the Simpson Desert farther east. Its size and location make it one of the major geographic regions of Australia’s arid interior.