Little Desert National Park
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The Little Desert is a national park in Victoria (Australia), 375 km west of Melbourne.
It was established in the late 1960s after the state government announced an intention to sell off uncommited Crown Land for agriculture. The area in question held a great deal of relatively undisturbed mallee bushland, and was rich in wildflowers and fauna, including a number of threatened species.
The Little Desert gatherers about the same amount of rainfall in an average year as the dry farming country surrounding it, but has very deep sandy soil, resulting in less available water for plants. It was not capable of becoming productive farmland and was expected to fetch only low prices. Local opposition to the sell-off was intense, and quickly gathered support around the state. The Bolte Government was unmoved by envirionmental concerns, but was eventually persuaded to retain the area as a nature reserve by economics: the estimated return from the growing business of ecotourism outweighed the meagre amount to be gained by selling off low-value marginal farmland. Over time, the Little Desert became a national park.
The Little Desert National Park is divided into three sections:
- Western Block
- Central Block
- Eastern Block
Fact sheet
- Area: 1326.47 km²
- Coordinates: Template:Coor dms
- Date of establishment: 1968
- Managing authorities: Parks Victoria
- IUCN category: II
See also: Protected areas of Victoria (Australia)