WEBVTT 00:00:00.000 --> 00:00:01.940 Welcome back to the Deep Dive. Today we are tackling 00:00:01.940 --> 00:00:04.459 something huge. Ah, quite literally. Literally. 00:00:04.719 --> 00:00:08.800 We are doing a deep dive into Australia's largest 00:00:08.800 --> 00:00:13.960 and I think most misunderstood desert, the Great 00:00:13.960 --> 00:00:16.480 Victoria Desert. We're not just looking at it 00:00:16.480 --> 00:00:18.820 as a patch of hot sand. This is a landscape of, 00:00:18.839 --> 00:00:22.460 you know, extreme heat, very rare rain, and a... 00:00:22.649 --> 00:00:25.469 A really surprising hidden ecosystem. And a very 00:00:25.469 --> 00:00:27.890 complex human history on top of all that. Absolutely. 00:00:28.129 --> 00:00:29.989 That's right. The Great Victoria Desert, or the 00:00:29.989 --> 00:00:31.870 GVD as you'll hear it called, it's one of those 00:00:31.870 --> 00:00:33.890 places that's so isolated people tend to just 00:00:33.890 --> 00:00:36.969 gloss over it. Right. But it's officially classed 00:00:36.969 --> 00:00:40.729 as an ecoregion, and this is important, an interim 00:00:40.729 --> 00:00:43.549 Australian bioregion. What does that actually 00:00:43.549 --> 00:00:45.789 mean in simple terms? It means it's recognized 00:00:45.789 --> 00:00:49.369 on a national level for its unique biodiversity, 00:00:49.810 --> 00:00:52.259 its geology. It's a distinct place. spanning 00:00:52.259 --> 00:00:54.880 huge parts of Western Australia and South Australia. 00:00:55.119 --> 00:00:57.340 And the sources we've got today are just fantastic. 00:00:57.420 --> 00:00:59.539 They give us this complete picture from like 00:00:59.539 --> 00:01:02.320 the tiniest detail of how a plant survives all 00:01:02.320 --> 00:01:04.739 the way up to... The geopolitical scale of nuclear 00:01:04.739 --> 00:01:07.260 testing. Yeah. It's not just a physical journey. 00:01:07.400 --> 00:01:11.040 This is a dive into survival itself. So to get 00:01:11.040 --> 00:01:13.780 you oriented, picture the middle of Australia, 00:01:14.000 --> 00:01:16.599 but a bit south of the Tropic of Capricorn. Okay. 00:01:16.659 --> 00:01:19.939 We're talking coordinates around 29 degrees south, 00:01:20.120 --> 00:01:23.299 129 degrees... East. And our mission here really 00:01:23.299 --> 00:01:26.760 is to get past that stereotype of a barren wasteland. 00:01:26.799 --> 00:01:29.000 For sure. We need to walk away understanding 00:01:29.000 --> 00:01:32.239 its immense scale, the incredibly specialized 00:01:32.239 --> 00:01:36.299 life that has mastered this place and the strange 00:01:36.299 --> 00:01:38.939 paradox of its history. How it's both a sanctuary 00:01:38.939 --> 00:01:41.680 and... And a site of permanent human contamination. 00:01:41.959 --> 00:01:44.920 Exactly. So let's unpack this vast hidden world. 00:01:45.040 --> 00:01:46.859 Okay. So the first thing you have to grapple 00:01:46.859 --> 00:01:49.540 with when you talk about the GVD is just... The 00:01:49.540 --> 00:01:51.599 scale. It's staggering. Forget the Sahara for 00:01:51.599 --> 00:01:54.099 a second. In an Australian context, this is the 00:01:54.099 --> 00:01:56.219 biggest. This is number one. And it's so big 00:01:56.219 --> 00:01:58.420 that even the official measurements, kind of, 00:01:58.420 --> 00:02:01.079 they vary. I saw that. Why is that? Well, it 00:02:01.079 --> 00:02:02.980 depends on how you define the edges of an ecosystem, 00:02:03.239 --> 00:02:05.439 right? Is it this type of soil, that type of 00:02:05.439 --> 00:02:08.159 plant? So our sources give a range from about 00:02:08.159 --> 00:02:11.139 348 ,000 square kilometers. Which is already 00:02:11.139 --> 00:02:15.960 huge. All the way up to... Maybe 422 ,000 square 00:02:15.960 --> 00:02:18.520 kilometers. Wow. So to put that in perspective 00:02:18.520 --> 00:02:21.180 for someone listening, say, in Europe. You're 00:02:21.180 --> 00:02:23.479 talking about the entire size of Germany. The 00:02:23.479 --> 00:02:25.979 whole country. Or for American listeners, it's 00:02:25.979 --> 00:02:28.020 a bit bigger than the state of Montana. It's 00:02:28.020 --> 00:02:30.520 a landmass that just swallows countries whole. 00:02:30.759 --> 00:02:32.740 And that difference in the numbers, that just 00:02:32.740 --> 00:02:34.800 speaks to how remote it is. Right. It's hard 00:02:34.800 --> 00:02:37.259 to even survey it properly. For sure. But the 00:02:37.259 --> 00:02:39.439 number that really got me was the width. It's 00:02:39.439 --> 00:02:42.400 over 700 kilometers wide from west to east. That's 00:02:42.400 --> 00:02:45.270 just. An ocean of arid land. And that width has 00:02:45.270 --> 00:02:48.370 huge implications for the climate, for the ecology. 00:02:48.530 --> 00:02:51.650 You're crossing multiple, you know, microclimates 00:02:51.650 --> 00:02:53.310 and pressure systems. So to really understand 00:02:53.310 --> 00:02:55.430 it, you need to place it on the map next to its 00:02:55.430 --> 00:02:58.389 neighbors. Exactly. Its position is key. To the 00:02:58.389 --> 00:03:00.689 south, you've got the Nullarbor Plain. Which 00:03:00.689 --> 00:03:03.610 everyone knows is that super flat, treeless expanse. 00:03:03.729 --> 00:03:06.610 A huge limestone slab, basically. It's a very 00:03:06.610 --> 00:03:09.569 clear geological boundary. Then, if you go north 00:03:09.569 --> 00:03:12.270 of the GVD, you hit the Gibson Desert. To the 00:03:12.270 --> 00:03:15.030 west, you've got the Western Australian Mulga 00:03:15.030 --> 00:03:17.449 Shrublands, which are a little less dry. And 00:03:17.449 --> 00:03:19.590 then to the east. That's where it gets interesting 00:03:19.590 --> 00:03:21.889 with the stony deserts. Right. You butt up against 00:03:21.889 --> 00:03:25.189 the Tarare Sturt stony desert. And it's important 00:03:25.189 --> 00:03:27.310 to list these because the GVD is a transitional 00:03:27.310 --> 00:03:30.009 zone. It's not one single thing. So it's mostly 00:03:30.009 --> 00:03:32.189 sand ridges. But as you move east, it changes. 00:03:32.810 --> 00:03:36.129 Precisely. As you approach the Sturt stony desert, 00:03:36.330 --> 00:03:38.289 you start getting into what are called gibber 00:03:38.289 --> 00:03:41.110 plains. The boundaries aren't fences. They're 00:03:41.110 --> 00:03:44.340 these. slow ecological gradients. Let's dig into 00:03:44.340 --> 00:03:46.560 that landscape then, because the mental image 00:03:46.560 --> 00:03:50.379 of just endless sand dunes, that's wrong here. 00:03:50.729 --> 00:03:53.310 Totally wrong. It's a mosaic. Yes, there are 00:03:53.310 --> 00:03:55.729 sandhills, but they're not the massive shifting 00:03:55.729 --> 00:03:57.750 dunes you might imagine. They're smaller, more 00:03:57.750 --> 00:04:00.449 stable. And in between them? You have grassland 00:04:00.449 --> 00:04:04.150 plains and, fascinatingly, these huge salt lakes. 00:04:04.509 --> 00:04:06.110 Which aren't really lakes most of the time, I 00:04:06.110 --> 00:04:07.909 assume. No, they're ephemeral. They only hold 00:04:07.909 --> 00:04:10.389 water for a short time after a really big rainstorm. 00:04:10.610 --> 00:04:12.810 Most of the time, they're just these vast, white, 00:04:12.830 --> 00:04:15.530 salt -crusted pans. And then there's the feature 00:04:15.530 --> 00:04:18.399 I think is so cool, the desert pavement. The 00:04:18.399 --> 00:04:21.500 gibber planes. Yeah, the gibber planes. You have 00:04:21.500 --> 00:04:23.660 to understand the gibber to understand the GVD. 00:04:23.759 --> 00:04:27.439 The landscape is covered in this tightly packed 00:04:27.439 --> 00:04:31.420 surface of small, dark, weathered pebbles. The 00:04:31.420 --> 00:04:33.660 gibbers. How do they even form? It's a process 00:04:33.660 --> 00:04:36.660 called deflation. Over thousands of years, the 00:04:36.660 --> 00:04:39.300 wind just blows all the fine sand and dust away. 00:04:39.480 --> 00:04:41.459 So it leaves the heavy stuff behind. It leaves 00:04:41.459 --> 00:04:44.319 the heavier, gravelly stuff. And it forms this 00:04:44.319 --> 00:04:46.699 interlocking armor on the surface of the desert. 00:04:46.860 --> 00:04:49.819 It's incredibly stable, but it's brutal for anything 00:04:49.819 --> 00:04:53.300 trying to grow or dig. That armor sounds like 00:04:53.300 --> 00:04:55.360 it would affect the climate, too. Yeah. What 00:04:55.360 --> 00:04:57.860 are the conditions that create this kind of world? 00:04:58.120 --> 00:05:00.160 Well, the number one thing is the low end gem. 00:05:00.589 --> 00:05:03.170 And totally unpredictable rainfall. Right. The 00:05:03.170 --> 00:05:06.449 average is only 200 to 250 millimeters a year, 00:05:06.589 --> 00:05:09.129 about 8 to 10 inches. But the key word there 00:05:09.129 --> 00:05:12.149 is average. Exactly. The irregularity is what 00:05:12.149 --> 00:05:14.389 kills you. Yeah. Life out there isn't about surviving 00:05:14.389 --> 00:05:16.170 the average. It's about surviving the longest 00:05:16.170 --> 00:05:18.750 possible time without any rain. And droughts 00:05:18.750 --> 00:05:21.649 can go for years. And yet, in the middle of all 00:05:21.649 --> 00:05:24.430 that dryness, you have these bursts of just... 00:05:24.829 --> 00:05:27.110 intense weather. This is the really interesting 00:05:27.110 --> 00:05:31.610 part. The GVD gets on average 15 to 20 thunderstorms 00:05:31.610 --> 00:05:34.029 a year. That seems like a lot for a desert. It 00:05:34.029 --> 00:05:36.250 is. And it feels like this violent compensation 00:05:36.250 --> 00:05:39.689 for the dry spells. These storms are the lifeblood 00:05:39.689 --> 00:05:41.970 of the whole ecosystem. So they're not gentle 00:05:41.970 --> 00:05:45.120 showers. Oh, no. They're often very localized, 00:05:45.279 --> 00:05:47.779 incredibly intense, and they can dump a huge 00:05:47.779 --> 00:05:50.740 chunk of the entire year's rainfall in just a 00:05:50.740 --> 00:05:53.019 few hours. And that's what fills the salt lakes. 00:05:53.180 --> 00:05:55.939 It fills the lakes, the clay pans. It triggers 00:05:55.939 --> 00:05:58.959 this frantic, super fast life cycle for certain 00:05:58.959 --> 00:06:01.420 plants, insects, and as we'll get into, some 00:06:01.420 --> 00:06:03.959 amazing frogs. But on a day -to -day basis, it's 00:06:03.959 --> 00:06:05.740 the temperature that's the real challenge. For 00:06:05.740 --> 00:06:09.060 sure. The extremes are just... punishing. Summer 00:06:09.060 --> 00:06:11.779 daytime temps are like a furnace. You're easily 00:06:11.779 --> 00:06:14.699 looking at 32 to 40 degrees Celsius. It's 90 00:06:14.699 --> 00:06:17.720 to 104 Fahrenheit. Right. And that heat is what 00:06:17.720 --> 00:06:20.180 drives so many animals to live underground. But 00:06:20.180 --> 00:06:22.180 then the winter brings this surprising relief. 00:06:22.779 --> 00:06:25.639 That's the crucial contrast. Winter days are 00:06:25.639 --> 00:06:28.879 beautiful. They drop to, you know, 18 to 23 Celsius, 00:06:29.040 --> 00:06:31.620 which is in the 60s and low 70s Fahrenheit. That's 00:06:31.620 --> 00:06:33.860 actually quite pleasant. It's a critical period 00:06:33.860 --> 00:06:36.899 of relief. It lets animals forage without as 00:06:36.899 --> 00:06:39.379 much stress, and it's when plants can recover 00:06:39.379 --> 00:06:41.660 if there's any moisture left in the soil. It's 00:06:41.660 --> 00:06:45.220 a cycle of extreme stress and relative calm. 00:06:45.420 --> 00:06:48.699 So it's a desert of extremes, of irregularity, 00:06:48.699 --> 00:06:51.790 and it's armored. It demands, well, incredible 00:06:51.790 --> 00:06:53.870 determination from anything that tries to live 00:06:53.870 --> 00:06:56.910 there. And that vast punishing place was, for 00:06:56.910 --> 00:06:59.939 early European explorers, this just... almost 00:06:59.939 --> 00:07:02.959 impossible barrier. The history really begins 00:07:02.959 --> 00:07:04.959 with the attempts to cross it, starting with 00:07:04.959 --> 00:07:07.040 the guy who actually gave the desert its name. 00:07:07.120 --> 00:07:09.519 That would be Ernest Giles, a British -born Australian 00:07:09.519 --> 00:07:13.279 explorer. In 1875, he finally did it. He crossed 00:07:13.279 --> 00:07:16.459 the desert. And he named it in classic 19th century 00:07:16.459 --> 00:07:18.939 fashion. After the reigning monarch, he called 00:07:18.939 --> 00:07:21.139 it the Great Victoria Desert. There's a real 00:07:21.139 --> 00:07:23.600 irony in that, isn't there? This incredibly remote, 00:07:23.800 --> 00:07:26.620 uniquely Australian place. It's named for a queen 00:07:26.620 --> 00:07:28.339 and a palace on the other side of the world. 00:07:28.670 --> 00:07:31.089 It just perfectly captures the colonial mindset 00:07:31.089 --> 00:07:33.769 of the era. You know, a place wasn't really real 00:07:33.769 --> 00:07:36.389 until it had a European name on it. And his journey 00:07:36.389 --> 00:07:38.970 wasn't a walk in the park. Not at all. He was 00:07:38.970 --> 00:07:41.149 out there with no real maps, no modern gear, 00:07:41.310 --> 00:07:43.709 relying on bush skills and very often on the 00:07:43.709 --> 00:07:46.069 knowledge of the local indigenous people he met. 00:07:46.149 --> 00:07:48.470 He really laid the groundwork. And after him, 00:07:48.649 --> 00:07:51.870 there was this continuous push to map it and, 00:07:51.970 --> 00:07:54.329 more importantly, to find a use for it. Right. 00:07:54.649 --> 00:07:57.230 In 1891, you had David Lindsay's expedition, 00:07:57.470 --> 00:08:00.370 which went north to south. And then as the country 00:08:00.370 --> 00:08:02.850 developed, the motivation changed. It wasn't 00:08:02.850 --> 00:08:05.110 just about exploring anymore. It was about money. 00:08:05.250 --> 00:08:08.089 It was about resources. That brings us to Frank 00:08:08.089 --> 00:08:10.910 Hahn. He was the prospector. Exactly. He spent 00:08:10.910 --> 00:08:14.569 five years from 1903 to 1908 just combing the 00:08:14.569 --> 00:08:17.339 desert, looking for gold. Did he find any? Not 00:08:17.339 --> 00:08:19.959 in any real commercial quantity, but these guys, 00:08:20.079 --> 00:08:22.620 Hahn and Giles and Lindsay, they established 00:08:22.620 --> 00:08:24.620 the first rough routes. They found the water 00:08:24.620 --> 00:08:27.019 sources. And then we jump forward a few decades 00:08:27.019 --> 00:08:30.259 into the mid 20th century and we get the person 00:08:30.259 --> 00:08:33.100 who. probably have the biggest impact on how 00:08:33.100 --> 00:08:35.580 people get around there today. Len Beadle. Len 00:08:35.580 --> 00:08:38.580 Beadle. His work in the 1960s wasn't about gold. 00:08:38.740 --> 00:08:41.620 It was driven by the Cold War. Right. Access. 00:08:42.019 --> 00:08:45.580 Access. He was a surveyor, and he's famous for 00:08:45.580 --> 00:08:47.559 building the first tracks right through the heart 00:08:47.559 --> 00:08:49.860 of the desert. Roads like the Ann Beadle Highway. 00:08:50.240 --> 00:08:51.779 And we should be clear. When we say highway, 00:08:51.919 --> 00:08:53.860 we're not talking about pavement and service 00:08:53.860 --> 00:08:56.840 stations. Oh, no. These are rough, unsealed tracks. 00:08:57.159 --> 00:08:59.779 They're incredible feats of engineering and sheer 00:08:59.779 --> 00:09:02.120 bloody -mindedness, but they're not highways. 00:09:02.559 --> 00:09:05.679 And they were built for a very specific and much 00:09:05.679 --> 00:09:08.299 darker purpose. They were. They were built to 00:09:08.299 --> 00:09:10.899 service the other human activity that came to 00:09:10.899 --> 00:09:14.080 define the GVD after World War II. Nuclear weapons 00:09:14.080 --> 00:09:17.480 testing. Yes. It's a jarring transition, isn't 00:09:17.480 --> 00:09:20.059 it? It really is. You go from naming the land 00:09:20.059 --> 00:09:22.899 for a queen to using it as a bombing range. The 00:09:22.899 --> 00:09:25.179 very isolation that had protected its ecology 00:09:25.179 --> 00:09:28.100 for millennia suddenly made it the perfect target. 00:09:28.360 --> 00:09:30.019 Let's spend some time on this because it's a 00:09:30.019 --> 00:09:32.320 critical part of the story. The British nuclear 00:09:32.320 --> 00:09:35.379 tests. The British weapons trials of the 1950s 00:09:35.379 --> 00:09:38.279 and early 1960s. They were conducted right on 00:09:38.279 --> 00:09:41.360 the eastern edge of the GVD. Where exactly? The 00:09:41.360 --> 00:09:44.879 two main sites were named Maralinga and Emu Field. 00:09:45.470 --> 00:09:47.809 They conducted a series of atmospheric tests, 00:09:48.029 --> 00:09:50.269 you know, the big mushroom clouds, and then a 00:09:50.269 --> 00:09:52.590 lot of smaller ground -level trials. And these 00:09:52.590 --> 00:09:55.990 left behind a terrible legacy. A permanent one. 00:09:56.070 --> 00:09:58.409 The areas were contaminated with radioactive 00:09:58.409 --> 00:10:01.429 materials. The sources are really specific about 00:10:01.429 --> 00:10:05.950 one isotope in particular, plutonium -239. Why 00:10:05.950 --> 00:10:07.889 is that one so bad? It comes down to its half 00:10:07.889 --> 00:10:10.970 -life. Which is? Clutonium -239 has a half -life 00:10:10.970 --> 00:10:15.309 of about 24 ,100 years. 24 ,000 years. So any 00:10:15.309 --> 00:10:17.710 contamination isn't a temporary problem you can 00:10:17.710 --> 00:10:20.169 just clean up. It's a management problem that 00:10:20.169 --> 00:10:22.769 will outlast civilizations. So what does this 00:10:22.769 --> 00:10:25.330 all mean, connecting it to the present? The GBD 00:10:25.330 --> 00:10:27.950 is defined by this paradox. It's the ultimate 00:10:27.950 --> 00:10:30.870 paradox. The same isolation that lets you have 00:10:30.870 --> 00:10:33.990 these massive, pristine conservation zones. Which 00:10:33.990 --> 00:10:36.370 we'll get to. Is the exact same quality that 00:10:36.370 --> 00:10:38.740 appealed to weapons designers. who needed a place 00:10:38.740 --> 00:10:41.179 where, you know, a bit of radioactive fallout 00:10:41.179 --> 00:10:43.340 wouldn't immediately affect a major city. There 00:10:43.340 --> 00:10:45.000 were cleanup attempts, right? Yeah, there were, 00:10:45.120 --> 00:10:48.059 but they were, let's say, inadequate at first. 00:10:48.360 --> 00:10:51.580 A royal commission in the 1980s was scathing 00:10:51.580 --> 00:10:53.730 about the whole thing. So this is still an active 00:10:53.730 --> 00:10:56.590 problem. A very active problem. Managing the 00:10:56.590 --> 00:10:58.929 long -term threat of plutonium contamination 00:10:58.929 --> 00:11:02.289 in a place that is also a world biosphere reserve, 00:11:02.590 --> 00:11:05.129 that's probably the biggest human challenge the 00:11:05.129 --> 00:11:07.789 desert faces. Okay, so let's move from that human 00:11:07.789 --> 00:11:10.750 history to the biological resilience. Yeah. Section 00:11:10.750 --> 00:11:15.389 3 is about this incredible unseen ecosystem, 00:11:15.769 --> 00:11:19.610 the life that has figured out how to get by on 00:11:19.610 --> 00:11:22.070 next to no water. It's a masterclass in efficiency. 00:11:22.409 --> 00:11:24.929 The GVD is not barren at all. It's just very, 00:11:24.990 --> 00:11:27.230 very selective. And it all starts with the plants. 00:11:27.409 --> 00:11:29.429 It has to. The vegetation is the foundation. 00:11:29.509 --> 00:11:32.070 We're talking about a kind of wooded step, especially 00:11:32.070 --> 00:11:34.610 in the low areas, the swales between the sand 00:11:34.610 --> 00:11:36.629 ridges. So what are the dominant trees? I see 00:11:36.629 --> 00:11:38.470 a couple of types of eucalyptus mentioned. Yeah, 00:11:38.509 --> 00:11:40.730 you see a lot of mallees and related eucalypts, 00:11:40.769 --> 00:11:43.409 specifically eucalyptus gongiola carpa, the desert 00:11:43.409 --> 00:11:45.710 gum, and eucalyptus youngiana. And how do they 00:11:45.710 --> 00:11:47.769 do it? How do they survive years of drought? 00:11:48.240 --> 00:11:50.799 Two main tricks. First, they have these incredibly 00:11:50.799 --> 00:11:54.259 deep and widespread root systems. They're tapping 00:11:54.259 --> 00:11:57.299 into water far, far below the surface. And the 00:11:57.299 --> 00:11:59.320 second trick has to do with fire. Absolutely. 00:11:59.720 --> 00:12:03.159 The Mallee eucalypts are famous for their ligmotubers. 00:12:03.480 --> 00:12:06.179 What's that? It's this big, woody swelling at 00:12:06.179 --> 00:12:08.860 the base of the trunk, mostly underground. It's 00:12:08.860 --> 00:12:11.799 packed with nutrients and dormant buds. So when 00:12:11.799 --> 00:12:13.779 a fire comes through and burns the whole tree 00:12:13.779 --> 00:12:15.440 to the ground... It can just re -sprout from 00:12:15.440 --> 00:12:17.940 the base? Instantly. It's built for drought and 00:12:17.940 --> 00:12:20.759 for fire. A perfect desert adaptation. But the 00:12:20.759 --> 00:12:22.679 real star of the show, the thing that covers 00:12:22.679 --> 00:12:24.980 the ground everywhere, is the spine effects. 00:12:25.240 --> 00:12:27.820 You cannot talk about the Australian arid zone 00:12:27.820 --> 00:12:30.559 without talking about spine effects. Specifically, 00:12:30.639 --> 00:12:34.360 a species called Triodia bastoe. And it's not 00:12:34.360 --> 00:12:36.779 like a normal long grass. Not at all. It grows 00:12:36.779 --> 00:12:39.659 in these big, dense, spiky hummocks. It's the 00:12:39.659 --> 00:12:42.379 engineering marvel of the desert floor. How so? 00:12:42.580 --> 00:12:45.059 What does it do? Well, it stabilizes the sand, 00:12:45.179 --> 00:12:48.279 for one. But more importantly, it creates microclimates. 00:12:48.279 --> 00:12:51.220 The base of a SpineFX clump is way cooler and 00:12:51.220 --> 00:12:53.220 holds more moisture than the sand around it. 00:12:53.480 --> 00:12:54.980 So it's like a little apartment building for 00:12:54.980 --> 00:12:57.120 desert creatures. It's exactly that. It's the 00:12:57.120 --> 00:13:01.440 refuge for insects, for lizards, for tiny marsupials. 00:13:01.580 --> 00:13:04.440 It's the cornerstone of the whole habitat. Which 00:13:04.440 --> 00:13:06.940 brings us to the fauna. And the big survival 00:13:06.940 --> 00:13:10.240 strategy here is just avoidance. Exactly. If 00:13:10.240 --> 00:13:12.059 you can't handle 40 degree heat, you just get 00:13:12.059 --> 00:13:14.279 out of it. You become a burrower, a subterranean 00:13:14.279 --> 00:13:18.139 specialist. This is the hidden zoo of the GVD. 00:13:18.340 --> 00:13:20.919 Okay, so give us the stars of this underground 00:13:20.919 --> 00:13:23.789 world. Well, number one has to be the southern 00:13:23.789 --> 00:13:27.610 marsupial mole, Noderictes typhlops. This thing 00:13:27.610 --> 00:13:30.330 is incredible. It's almost completely blind. 00:13:30.649 --> 00:13:33.110 Its eyes are just little vestiges under the skin. 00:13:33.269 --> 00:13:36.399 It doesn't dig permanent burrows. It literally 00:13:36.399 --> 00:13:38.960 swims through the loose sand. It swims through 00:13:38.960 --> 00:13:41.539 the earth. Yes. Its front claws are like massive 00:13:41.539 --> 00:13:43.700 shovels and it just pushes through the sand looking 00:13:43.700 --> 00:13:46.000 for insects collapsing the tunnel behind it as 00:13:46.000 --> 00:13:49.340 it goes. Wow. It's an unbelievable level of specialization. 00:13:49.559 --> 00:13:51.740 And then there's the water holding frog. The 00:13:51.740 --> 00:13:54.200 name kind of gives it away. It's maybe the ultimate 00:13:54.200 --> 00:13:57.649 example of adapting to irregular rain. When there's 00:13:57.649 --> 00:14:00.049 a huge downpour, the frog comes to the surface, 00:14:00.269 --> 00:14:03.450 eats like crazy, and absorbs a massive amount 00:14:03.450 --> 00:14:05.769 of water. It just bloats itself up. It does. 00:14:05.870 --> 00:14:08.750 And then as the ground dries out, it digs itself 00:14:08.750 --> 00:14:11.149 deep, maybe a meter down. Yeah, this is where 00:14:11.149 --> 00:14:14.970 it gets weird. It secretes this waterproof mucus 00:14:14.970 --> 00:14:18.750 cocoon all around its body. It seals itself inside 00:14:18.750 --> 00:14:21.730 this bag made of its own slime, and it just... 00:14:22.090 --> 00:14:25.370 shuts down its metabolism slows to almost nothing 00:14:25.370 --> 00:14:28.190 and it can stay down there for years for years 00:14:28.190 --> 00:14:31.210 possibly even longer just waiting for the seismic 00:14:31.210 --> 00:14:33.629 shock of the next heavy rain to wake it up that 00:14:33.629 --> 00:14:36.549 is just an amazing survival hack it's an evolutionary 00:14:36.549 --> 00:14:39.370 insurance policy against drought okay so let's 00:14:39.370 --> 00:14:41.070 talk about the reptiles because this is where 00:14:41.070 --> 00:14:42.590 it gets really interesting including some very 00:14:42.590 --> 00:14:44.950 recent discoveries reptiles are kings out here 00:14:44.950 --> 00:14:47.309 they can manage the heat by moving in and out 00:14:47.309 --> 00:14:50.169 of the sun but the big aha moment from the sources 00:14:50.169 --> 00:14:54.269 is about the central ranges taipan a taipan one 00:14:54.269 --> 00:14:57.570 of the world's most venomous snakes exactly and 00:14:57.570 --> 00:14:59.809 it was only formally identified as a distinct 00:14:59.809 --> 00:15:03.850 species in 2007 2007 that's less than 20 years 00:15:03.850 --> 00:15:06.029 ago It tells you everything you need to know 00:15:06.029 --> 00:15:08.769 about how vast and unstudied this region still 00:15:08.769 --> 00:15:11.809 is. We're still finding new species of large, 00:15:11.850 --> 00:15:14.429 highly venomous snakes out there. That's mind 00:15:14.429 --> 00:15:16.549 -blowing. And what about the predators at the 00:15:16.549 --> 00:15:19.610 top of the food chain? Well, the dingo is a key 00:15:19.610 --> 00:15:22.210 predator, and its presence here is really significant 00:15:22.210 --> 00:15:25.590 because the GVD is north of the famous dingo 00:15:25.590 --> 00:15:28.350 fence. So what does that mean, being north of 00:15:28.350 --> 00:15:31.049 the fence? It means the dingo population is largely 00:15:31.049 --> 00:15:34.320 unregulated by humans. of the fence, they're 00:15:34.320 --> 00:15:37.200 mostly eradicated to protect sheep. Here, they 00:15:37.200 --> 00:15:39.659 play their natural role in the ecosystem. Which 00:15:39.659 --> 00:15:42.200 is actually a good thing for conservation. It's 00:15:42.200 --> 00:15:45.080 a critical thing. Dingoes help control the populations 00:15:45.080 --> 00:15:47.639 of feral cats and foxes. Which are devastating 00:15:47.639 --> 00:15:50.100 for native wildlife. Exactly. So ironically, 00:15:50.320 --> 00:15:52.919 the dingo acts as a guardian for the smaller 00:15:52.919 --> 00:15:55.320 native marsupials and birds. And then you've 00:15:55.320 --> 00:15:57.659 got the giant lizards. The big monitors. You 00:15:57.659 --> 00:16:00.179 have the parntii, which can grow over two meters 00:16:00.179 --> 00:16:02.120 long. One of the biggest lizards in the world. 00:16:02.279 --> 00:16:05.440 Wow. And the San Goanna. They're the patrols 00:16:05.440 --> 00:16:07.399 of the sand ridges, eating pretty much anything 00:16:07.399 --> 00:16:10.100 they can find. So it's clear life isn't just 00:16:10.100 --> 00:16:14.200 surviving here. It's engineered these incredible 00:16:14.200 --> 00:16:17.059 solutions. Highly sophisticated solutions to 00:16:17.059 --> 00:16:19.639 the most extreme problems you can imagine. Which 00:16:19.639 --> 00:16:22.679 leads us straight into how humans fit into this 00:16:22.679 --> 00:16:25.299 picture today. We've done the geography, the 00:16:25.299 --> 00:16:28.299 climate, the amazing biology. Now let's focus 00:16:28.299 --> 00:16:30.860 on the people. Right. Because the human history 00:16:30.860 --> 00:16:34.000 here goes back tens of thousands of years before 00:16:34.000 --> 00:16:36.620 Ernest Giles showed up. And today, the human 00:16:36.620 --> 00:16:39.220 population is predominantly indigenous Australians. 00:16:39.620 --> 00:16:42.019 Yes, the people who have always been there. The 00:16:42.019 --> 00:16:44.179 sources mention several specific groups, the 00:16:44.179 --> 00:16:47.179 Kogara, the Merning, and the Pichanchichara people. 00:16:47.500 --> 00:16:49.240 And there's a really interesting point in the 00:16:49.240 --> 00:16:51.389 source material that... Unlike some other remote 00:16:51.389 --> 00:16:54.230 areas, the Aboriginal populations here have been 00:16:54.230 --> 00:16:56.090 increasing. Which points to ongoing cultural 00:16:56.090 --> 00:16:58.830 strength and resilience, especially in places 00:16:58.830 --> 00:17:00.450 where communities have been able to maintain 00:17:00.450 --> 00:17:02.330 their connection to the land and traditional 00:17:02.330 --> 00:17:05.309 practices. And there are active efforts to support 00:17:05.309 --> 00:17:07.490 that, like the Willy Rara Creative Programs. 00:17:07.789 --> 00:17:10.950 Those programs are vital. They're about young 00:17:10.950 --> 00:17:15.549 Indigenous adults actively maintaining and evolving 00:17:15.549 --> 00:17:18.569 their culture. It's not about freezing it in 00:17:18.569 --> 00:17:21.119 time. It's not just about preserving old songs. 00:17:21.339 --> 00:17:23.839 No, it's about traditional art, but also modern 00:17:23.839 --> 00:17:26.420 art. It's about land management techniques like 00:17:26.420 --> 00:17:29.180 controlled burning and making sure that deep 00:17:29.180 --> 00:17:31.660 knowledge of the environment is passed on to 00:17:31.660 --> 00:17:33.900 the next generation. Which is essential both 00:17:33.900 --> 00:17:36.700 for culture and for modern ecological management. 00:17:36.900 --> 00:17:39.160 Absolutely. But even with these thriving communities, 00:17:39.440 --> 00:17:42.660 the place is still incredibly isolated. Getting 00:17:42.660 --> 00:17:45.519 around is a major challenge. The isolation is 00:17:45.519 --> 00:17:48.559 profound. Access is still mostly limited to those 00:17:48.559 --> 00:17:50.680 rough tracks that Len Beadle built back in the 00:17:50.680 --> 00:17:53.160 60s. The Connie Sue Highway, the Anne Beadle 00:17:53.160 --> 00:17:55.519 Highway. Right. You need a serious four by four 00:17:55.519 --> 00:17:57.859 vehicle and you need to be completely self -sufficient. 00:17:58.059 --> 00:18:01.119 And that very difficulty of access, it acts as 00:18:01.119 --> 00:18:03.460 a natural filter. It limits the pressure from 00:18:03.460 --> 00:18:05.420 the outside world. And that leads us perfectly 00:18:05.420 --> 00:18:08.099 into the conservation story of the GVD. It seems 00:18:08.099 --> 00:18:09.700 like all the things that make it so hard to live 00:18:09.700 --> 00:18:12.079 in have also helped to protect it. That's the 00:18:12.079 --> 00:18:14.180 great irony. The harshness has been its salvation. 00:18:14.960 --> 00:18:17.640 Because it's never been suitable for large -scale 00:18:17.640 --> 00:18:20.660 agriculture or ranching, many of the habitats 00:18:20.660 --> 00:18:23.079 are basically pristine. And the numbers on this 00:18:23.079 --> 00:18:27.660 are amazing. The key statistic is that 31 % of 00:18:27.660 --> 00:18:30.819 the desert is officially protected. 31%. And 00:18:30.819 --> 00:18:32.619 when you remember, we're talking about an area 00:18:32.619 --> 00:18:36.200 the size of Germany that is a monumental conservation 00:18:36.200 --> 00:18:39.460 achievement. A huge area of land. It's a vast 00:18:39.460 --> 00:18:42.019 network of protected areas, including some that 00:18:42.019 --> 00:18:44.700 are recognized globally. The prime example is 00:18:44.700 --> 00:18:47.200 the Mamungari Conservation Park in South Australia. 00:18:47.440 --> 00:18:49.000 Which used to be called the Unnamed Conservation 00:18:49.000 --> 00:18:51.579 Park. Which just tells you how remote it is. 00:18:51.759 --> 00:18:54.079 Yeah. And Mamungari is not just a park. It's 00:18:54.079 --> 00:18:57.240 one of Australia's 14 World Biosphere Reserves, 00:18:57.339 --> 00:19:00.319 which is a designation from... It recognizes 00:19:00.319 --> 00:19:02.640 its global importance. And the management of 00:19:02.640 --> 00:19:05.480 these areas is really modern with a big emphasis 00:19:05.480 --> 00:19:07.779 on indigenous co -management. The governance 00:19:07.779 --> 00:19:10.059 is key. A huge part of this protected network 00:19:10.059 --> 00:19:12.200 is made up of what are called indigenous protected 00:19:12.200 --> 00:19:15.230 areas or IPAs. What's an IPA? It's where the 00:19:15.230 --> 00:19:17.769 aboriginal traditional owners voluntarily agree 00:19:17.769 --> 00:19:19.710 with the government to manage their land for 00:19:19.710 --> 00:19:23.309 biodiversity conservation. It's a fusion of ancient 00:19:23.309 --> 00:19:25.789 traditional knowledge and modern conservation 00:19:25.789 --> 00:19:28.549 science. So the people with the deepest connection 00:19:28.549 --> 00:19:31.509 to the land are the ones leading its protection. 00:19:32.039 --> 00:19:35.000 In many cases, yes, especially in South Australia, 00:19:35.079 --> 00:19:39.700 where the Anangu Pitjantjatjara or APY lands 00:19:39.700 --> 00:19:42.839 make up a massive local government area that's 00:19:42.839 --> 00:19:45.240 under indigenous ownership and management. And 00:19:45.240 --> 00:19:47.359 this is a whole network of parks and reserves, 00:19:47.680 --> 00:19:50.470 not just one big one. It's a mosaic. You have 00:19:50.470 --> 00:19:52.750 the IPAs, you have state -run nature reserves 00:19:52.750 --> 00:19:54.910 like the Great Victoria Desert Nature Reserve 00:19:54.910 --> 00:19:57.809 in WA, and then national parks like Lake Gairdner. 00:19:57.930 --> 00:20:00.309 It's this multi -layered system designed to protect 00:20:00.309 --> 00:20:02.410 all the different habitat types across the desert. 00:20:02.529 --> 00:20:05.279 It's just a stunning success story. Especially 00:20:05.279 --> 00:20:07.240 when you remember that geographically, it's right 00:20:07.240 --> 00:20:09.500 next door to the areas contaminated by those 00:20:09.500 --> 00:20:11.980 nuclear tests. That is the defining contrast 00:20:11.980 --> 00:20:14.400 of the GVD. It's one of the most ecologically 00:20:14.400 --> 00:20:17.259 intact arid zones left on Earth, largely thanks 00:20:17.259 --> 00:20:20.140 to its isolation and the dedication of its traditional 00:20:20.140 --> 00:20:22.759 owners and conservationists. Okay, so let's try 00:20:22.759 --> 00:20:25.279 to wrap this up. Let's consolidate our deep dive 00:20:25.279 --> 00:20:28.519 into the Great Victoria Desert for you. We've 00:20:28.519 --> 00:20:32.559 really hit on three big contrasting themes. First, 00:20:32.839 --> 00:20:36.299 just the immense scale. It's Australia's largest 00:20:36.299 --> 00:20:39.039 desert, and it's not just sand. It's this mix 00:20:39.039 --> 00:20:41.339 of sand hills and those tough pebble -armored 00:20:41.339 --> 00:20:43.900 gibber plains. All of it shaped by that rhythm 00:20:43.900 --> 00:20:46.480 of long droughts broken by these intense, dramatic 00:20:46.480 --> 00:20:49.940 thunderstorms. Second, its history is this total 00:20:49.940 --> 00:20:52.519 paradox. You have the classic European exploration 00:20:52.519 --> 00:20:55.779 story with Ernest Giles. And then this dark 20th 00:20:55.779 --> 00:20:58.240 century shadow of nuclear testing. at Maralinga. 00:20:58.319 --> 00:21:00.759 Right, which left behind this permanent legacy 00:21:00.759 --> 00:21:03.380 of contamination, especially that plutonium -239, 00:21:03.579 --> 00:21:05.440 which needs to be managed for, what, tens of 00:21:05.440 --> 00:21:07.960 thousands of years? A geological timescale, basically. 00:21:08.259 --> 00:21:11.019 And third, the ecology. It's a master class in 00:21:11.019 --> 00:21:13.180 adaptation. We talked about being a subterranean 00:21:13.180 --> 00:21:16.119 survivor. The sand -swimming mall, the frog in 00:21:16.119 --> 00:21:18.539 its mucus cocoon. All the way up to the dingo, 00:21:18.640 --> 00:21:20.880 acting as this vital conservationist north of 00:21:20.880 --> 00:21:23.079 the dingo fence. And all of that has led to this 00:21:23.079 --> 00:21:25.680 huge conservation success, 31 % of the desert 00:21:25.680 --> 00:21:28.150 protected. Much of it through indigenous -led 00:21:28.150 --> 00:21:31.470 initiatives like the IPAs and the Mamungari World 00:21:31.470 --> 00:21:34.069 Biosphere Reserve. So if we connect this to the 00:21:34.069 --> 00:21:37.049 bigger picture. What's so amazing is the resilience. 00:21:37.529 --> 00:21:39.950 The desert has absorbed some of the most powerful 00:21:39.950 --> 00:21:42.569 technology humans have ever created, atomic bombs. 00:21:42.869 --> 00:21:45.690 And yet its unique ecology and its ancient cultures, 00:21:45.829 --> 00:21:48.769 they just, they persist. They thrive. So that 00:21:48.769 --> 00:21:50.309 leaves a really important question for you to 00:21:50.309 --> 00:21:52.789 think about. The nuclear contamination zones 00:21:52.789 --> 00:21:56.410 and the World Biosphere Reserve are... Geographically, 00:21:56.430 --> 00:21:58.910 very close neighbors. Right next to each other 00:21:58.910 --> 00:22:02.170 in some cases. So given the 24 ,000 -year half 00:22:02.170 --> 00:22:05.730 -life of plutonium, how do you practically balance 00:22:05.730 --> 00:22:08.170 the need to manage those contaminated sites for 00:22:08.170 --> 00:22:10.609 millennia with the goal of keeping the areas 00:22:10.609 --> 00:22:13.089 right next door truly pristine? And how do those 00:22:13.089 --> 00:22:15.470 historic threats actually inform modern conservation? 00:22:15.869 --> 00:22:18.390 Does having a permanent, off -limits, hazardous 00:22:18.390 --> 00:22:21.730 zone nearby ironically help protect the surrounding 00:22:21.730 --> 00:22:24.079 land by keeping people out? It's something to 00:22:24.079 --> 00:22:26.079 think about. We encourage you to look at a map, 00:22:26.180 --> 00:22:28.319 see how these zones of destruction and preservation 00:22:28.319 --> 00:22:31.900 actually overlap in this vast, hidden, and truly 00:22:31.900 --> 00:22:32.720 incredible world.