Human Impact

While the desert of the outback takes up 70% of the mainland, most of the population is confined to the coastal areas of Australia. The Australians living in the arid zones make up 1% of the entire countries population with about 180,000 people in combination with the Australians living in semi arid zones that make up a mere 2% of the population with about 394,000 people (3). Permanent desert residents such as the Aboriginal people as well as a migrant population of mostly white miners, government agency workers and service personnel inhabit the desert outback. With such a small percentage of the population living there, the geographic footprint of the area is relatively small. 

Some impacts are they introduce fire, for hunting and warmth, which is not a natural part of the desert ecosystem and disrupts the natural balance of the indigenous plants of the ecosystem. They also introduce foreign industries to the area such as converting land into pastoral areas, mines which create pollution, and military bases that disrupt the natural habitat (3). They have also introduced invasive species such as camels, donkeys, the cane toad, and the European rabbit, that are killing trees, over-grazing and making other species go endangered, and are consuming part of the limited water supply. Another impact is “off roading” which causes pollution, trail damage, erosion, species extinction, habitat destruction, and noise pollution (6). The last major impact is tourism, where visitors dump non-biodegradable waste in the deserts causing harmful effects such as extinction to flora and fauna, and pollution being released into soil, groundwater, and the air.