As you may know, Australia
is home to a diverse selection
of biomes, but the one I have
chosen is desert, more
specifically, the Simpson
desert. It is the 4th largest
desert in Australia, covering
over 170,000 square
kilometres; has some of the
longest dunes in the world
stretching over an impressive
200km or almost 185 football
fields and is located in the
southeast corner of the
Northern Territory that
extends over the South
Australian and Queensland
borders.
Native aboriginals knew the
region like the back of their
hand, they would use this
information to find shade
behind large rocks and they
would also harvest
groundwater and hunt the
native animals for food. They
also moved depending on the
season to find food more
efficiently.
The Europeans, however,
The main abiotic features
include sunlight and a lack of
rainfall and water sources.
The native fauna includes
rattlesnakes, native kangaroo
rats, and Spinifex Hopping
Mouse.
There's also a large variety of
flora like acacia trees, cane
grass, and spinifex bushes.
Aboriginals believed that if
you look after the country, the
country will look after you;
their actions reflect this with
their use of controlled fire.
what this is essentially is
when the natives would set
the local fauna alight for new
plants to take their place and
to prevent large bushfires.
The contrast between
sought to extract the resources
from the deserts and not
without reason as deserts like
the Simpson desert are filled
to the brim with natural
minerals. They didn't stop
there though, they took to the
native flora and extracted as
much timber as they could
causing large deforestation,
even the plants left behind
were perfect tinder for the
massive inevitable bushfires.
what each faction got out of
the desert is another story.
The Aboriginals got in return
was shelter, and a steady
supply of food, and the
preservation of culture and
native animals.  technological progression.
What the Europeans got was a
large sum of resources like
gold, iron timber, and food
helping to accelerate the
progression of the industrial
revolution and a large sum of
land for whatever purpose
they saw fit.
European and indigenous
treatment to the native land is
pretty black and white (get
it?), while the indigenous
people didn’t have a reason to
destroy their territory and
instead let it flourish; the
European sought to destroy
the native ecosystem with
mass harvesting of trees and
large scale mining causing
massive amounts of erosion
The aboriginals preserved
both culture and nature
The Europeans decimated the
landscape and prioritized
urbanization and
I hope this helps not only
highlights the different beliefs
and practices of indigenous
people and the Europeans but
also emphasizes the
importance of deserts and
why they need to be
preserved.