Uluru (Ayers Rock), Northern Territory, Australia Photograph by Gerhard Ortner   Central Australia Deserts and Xeric Shrublands   108,800 square miles (281,700 square kilometers) -- about the size of Colorado and Connecticut combined Vulnerable

· Rocky Ranges
· Special Features
· Did You Know?
· Wild Side
· Cause for Concern
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Rocky Ranges

Animals that live here have adapted to life in dense grasslands and on rocky slopes. The Central Ranges are an area of low, red sandplains interspersed with rugged ranges. The region is arid, with some rainfall in the winter and summer. On the sandplains, low myall and desert oak woodlands grow over spinifex, which is a tough, hardy, clumped grass.

Special Features

A number of rare and ancient plants grow in the MacDonnell Ranges of this ecoregion. Some of these plants evolved in geographic isolation from their ancestral plants. The relict plants are well distributed in other places and may have been brought into this ecoregion by migrating birds. A relict population of the desert cabbage palm, for example, is separated by more than 620 miles (1,000 km) from the closest cabbage palm population in the north. A large stand of these tall, robust palms grows in Palm Valley in Finke National Park. Throughout the ranges, a profusion of endemic ferns, reeds, and rushes grows in gorges where water exists in ample supply.

	The isolated town of Alice Springs was originally founded as part of the Overland Telegraph Line that connected Adelaide and Darwin in 1872. The telegraph line crosses the entire continent from south to north, and finding a suitable route to cross the MacDonnell Ranges was one of many serious challenges that had to be overcome in its construction.

Wild Side

Red-tailed black cockatoos fly noisily overhead while the small spinifexbird perches in the dense grass below. The endangered black-footed rock wallaby cautiously suns itself on a rocky outcrop. This handsome, gray animal has been declining throughout the MacDonnell Ranges since the 1930s. Large, geen tree frogs live in permanent rockholes in the MacDonnell Ranges, south from the rest of the species’ distribution. Every peak and gorge of the many ranges yields a different species of land snail as well. These small mollusks have undergone extraordinary speciation on these rocky ranges, with many snails confined to a single tiny area. At night, brushtail opossums emerge from their dens in search of fruit and flowers.

Cause for Concern

Land in this ecoregion is mainly used for cattle grazing or by Aboriginal groups. Concerns include overgrazing and feral animals, such as horses, foxes, donkeys, and rabbits. Increased tourist traffic and fires can also damage grasslands.

For more information on this ecoregion, go to the World Wildlife Fund Scientific Report.