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.

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.

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. 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 Europeans, however, 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. The contrast between 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

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. 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.

The aboriginals preserved both culture and nature; The Europeans decimated the landscape
and prioritized urbanization and technological progression. 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.