Simpson Desert
The Simpson Desert is a large area of dry, red sandy plain and dunes in the Northern Territory, South Australia and Queensland in central Australia. It is the fourth-largest Australian desert, with an area of . The desert is underlain by the Great Artesian Basin, one of the largest inland drainage areas in the world. Water from the basin rises to the surface at numerous natural springs, including Dalhousie Springs, and at bores drilled along stock routes, or during petroleum exploration. As a result of exploitation by such bores, the flow of water to springs has been steadily decreasing in recent years. It is also part of the Lake Eyre basin. The Simpson Desert is an erg that contains the world's longest parallel sand dunes. These north-south oriented dunes are static, held in position by vegetation. They vary in height from in the west to around on the eastern side. The largest dune, Nappanerica or Big Red, is in height. History Aboriginal history The Wangkangurru peop ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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Interim Biogeographic Regionalisation For Australia
The Interim Biogeographic Regionalisation for Australia (IBRA) is a biogeographic regionalisation of Australia developed by the Australian government's Department of Sustainability, Environment, Water, Population, and Communities. It was developed for use as a planning tool, for example for the establishment of a national reserve system. The first version of IBRA was developed in 1993–94 and published in 1995. Within the broadest scale, Australia is a major part of the Australasia biogeographic realm, as developed by the World Wide Fund for Nature The World Wide Fund for Nature Inc. (WWF) is an international non-governmental organization founded in 1961 that works in the field of wilderness preservation and the reduction of human impact on the environment. It was formerly named the W .... Based on this system, the world is also split into 14 terrestrial habitats, of which eight are shared by Australia. The Australian land mass is divided into 89 bioregions and 41 ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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Royal Geographical Society Of Australasia
On 22 June 1883, the Geographical Society of Australasia started at a meeting in Sydney, New South Wales, Australia. A branch was formed in Victoria in the same year. In July 1885, both the Queensland and the South Australian branches started. In July 1886 the society became the Royal Geographical Society of Australasia. The New South Wales branch's new constitution in 1886 widened its scope to encourage interest in scientific, commercial, educational and historical aspects of geography. The Society sponsored several important expeditions, notably the New Guinea Exploration Expedition in 1885, whose members included zoologist Wilhelm Haacke, erstwhile director of the South Australian Museum. The Victorian branch amalgamated with the Victorian Historical Society, while the New South Wales branch had ceased to function by the early 1920s. The South Australian and Queensland branches continue as the Royal Geographical Society of South Australia and Royal Geographical Society of Q ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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Alfred Allen Simpson
Alfred Allen Simpson (15 April 1875 – 27 November 1939) was an industrialist in South Australia and a partner in the firm A. Simpson & Son, founded by his grandfather Alfred Simpson. He was the mayor of Adelaide from 1913 to 1915. History Alfred Allen Simpson was a son of Alfred Muller Simpson (4 April 1843 – 28 September 1917) and his first wife Catherine Simpson, née Allen ( ? – 16 October 1887). Both Allen and his brother, Frederick Neighbour Simpson, learned the trade of tinsmith, much as their father and grandfather had done, except that they were not apprenticed; Allen learned the craft in the Gawler Place workshop and Fred in the stove factory in Pirie Street. Both also served in the retail shop where they later took on management tasks — Allen in the internal running of the business and Fred in charge of marketing and purchasing of raw materials: tinned and galvanized sheet metal, rivets and so forth. When their father took a trip to England in 1900 Allen a ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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Cecil Madigan
Cecil Thomas Madigan (15 October 1889 – 14 January 1947) was an Australian explorer and geologist, academic, aerial surveyor, meteorologist, author and officer of the British army. He was born in Renmark, South Australia. His family had associations with William Benjamin Chaffey. Biography Born to contractor and fruitgrower Thomas Madigan and Mary Dixie (née Finey) a teacher, Cecil Madigan was the oldest of two sons and two daughters. He was raised by his mother as his father had died in the Kalgoorlie, Western Australian Goldfields. He attended Prince Alfred College in Adelaide, the University of Adelaide, and the South Australian School of Mining and Industry. He won a Rhodes scholarship in 1911 to study geology at Magdalen College, Oxford, but deferred the appointment as he was invited by Sir Douglas Mawson to go as meteorologist on the Australasian Antarctic Expedition. In December 1911 the party left Hobart on board the SY Aurora. In January 1912 they reached Commonwe ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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Ted Colson
Edmund Albert "Ted" Colson (3 June 1881 – 27 February 1950), bushman, pastoralist and pioneer was born in South Australia near Quorn at the southern end of the Flinders Ranges. He achieved recognition as the first person of European descent to cross the Simpson Desert. Career His father was a farmer of Swedish descent and Colson was the first of eight children. Prior to his 15th birthday in 1896, Colson and his father travelled by sea to Esperance, Western Australia, then walked 150 miles to the gold-rush district of Norseman. During the next ten years, young Colson gained experience in prospecting, mining, timberwork and engine driving. In 1904 he married Alice Jane Horne in Kalgoorlie and they remained married until he died. They moved to Victoria in 1917 for construction work, and in 1926 he started his own transport business from Healesville to Melbourne. Moving again in 1927 they went to South Australia to work on a new railway line between Oodnadatta and Alice ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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David Lindsay (explorer)
David Lindsay (20 June 1856 – 17 December 1922) was an Australian explorer and surveyor and a fellow of the Royal Geographical Society, London.Suzanne Edgar,Lindsay, David (1856–1922), ''Australian Dictionary of Biography'', Volume 10, Melbourne University Press, 1986, pp 105–106. Retrieved 14 September 2009 __NOTOC__ Early life Lindsay was born in Goolwa, South Australia, a son of Captain John Scott Lindsay (ca.1819 – 29 June 1878), master mariner formerly of Dundee, Scotland, and his wife Catherine, ''née'' Reid (ca.1822 – 28 May 1884). John Lindsay commanded the brig ''Europa'' and Sir James Fergusson's yacht ''Edith'' before a career on Murray River steamers which included a pioneering trip to Brewarrina with W. R. Randell in 1859. Young Lindsay was educated in Goolwa and under Rev. John Hotham at Port Elliot. At age 15 Lindsay went to work in a chemist shop and then with an Adelaide mining agent. Explorer Lindsay became an apprentice in the state government ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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Poeppel Corner
Poeppel Corner (known as Poeppel's Corner in Queensland) at latitude 26° S and longitude 138° E is a corner of state boundaries in Australia, where the state of Queensland meets South Australia and the Northern Territory. Geography Poeppel Corner is about 174 km west of Birdsville, in the middle of the Simpson Desert. New Year's Eve occurs three times each year at thirty minute intervals in Poeppel Corner (also in Cameron Corner and Surveyor Generals Corner), because it is at the intersection of three time zones. History Augustus Poeppel, after whom the point is named, conducted a survey in the mid-1880s to find the exact location of the central Australian colonial borders. His team used camels to drag a coolibah post to mark the intersection. Originally the point was located in a salt lake, but it was found that the measuring chain used was a few centimetres too long. Another survey was conducted by Lawrence Wells, who relocated the post to its current position ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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Haddon Corner
Haddon Corner is a heritage-listed site in Tanbar, Shire of Barcoo, Queensland, Australia. It is in outback Channel Country at South-West Queensland, on the border corner with South Australia. It was added to the Queensland Heritage Register on 9 November 2012. It was first surveyed by Augustus Poeppel in 1880. Haddon Corner lies at the intersection of the 26th parallel south circle of latitude and the 141st meridian. History Karuwali (also known as Garuwali, Dieri) is a language of far western Queensland. The Karuwali language region includes the landscape within the local government boundaries of the Diamantina Shire Council, including the localities of Betoota and Haddon Corner. Haddon Corner, marked in 1880 during the official survey of the western section of the border between Queensland and South Australia undertaken in 1879-1880, defines the north-eastern corner between Queensland and South Australia. Its marking was a surveying feat of its time. Letters paten ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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Augustus Poeppel
Augustus Poeppel (1839–1891) was a surveyor and explorer in Australia. He surveyed the borders between Queensland, South Australia and the Northern Territory. Early life Augustus Poeppel was born in Hamburg, Germany in 1839, the son of an architect. Emigrating with his family in 1849, he settled in South Australia. Surveying career Poeppel moved to Victoria to become a mining surveyor and architect. In 1878, after short periods in New Zealand and Western Australia, Poeppel joined the South Australian Lands Department and was soon appointed to the border surveys. He surveyed both Poeppel Corner (the point where the Northern Territory, Queensland and South Australian borders meet) and Haddon Corner (where the Queensland and South Australian borders meet). During the Queensland-Northern Territory border survey, from the 142-mile post, he suffered from trachoma and lost 13 kg in weight, forcing his withdrawal in July 1885. His health was broken and he later lost sight in ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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Charles Sturt
Charles Napier Sturt (28 April 1795 – 16 June 1869) was a British officer and explorer of Australia, and part of the European exploration of Australia. He led several expeditions into the interior of the continent, starting from Sydney and later from Adelaide. His expeditions traced several of the westward-flowing rivers, establishing that they all merged into the Murray River, which flows into the Southern Ocean. He was searching to prove his own passionately held belief that an " inland sea" was located at the centre of the continent. He reached the rank of Captain, served in several appointed posts, and on the Legislative Council. Born to British parents in Bengal, British India, Sturt was educated in England for a time as a child and youth. He was placed in the British Army because his father was not wealthy enough to pay for Cambridge. After assignments in North America, Sturt was assigned to accompany a ship of convicts to Australia in 1827. Finding the place to his lik ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |