Queen Victoria Spring Nature Reserve is a

protected area Protected areas or conservation areas are locations which receive protection because of their recognized natural, ecological or cultural values. There are several kinds of protected areas, which vary by level of protection depending on the ena ...

managed by the

Department of Parks and Wildlife The Department of Parks and Wildlife (DPaW) was the department of the Government of Western Australia responsible for managing lands described in the ''Conservation and Land Management Act 1984'' and implementing the state's conservation and e ...

and is located approximately east of

Kalgoorlie Kalgoorlie is a city in the Goldfields–Esperance region of Western Australia, located east-northeast of Perth at the end of the Great Eastern Highway. It is sometimes referred to as Kalgoorlie–Boulder, as the surrounding urban area includ ...

in the

Great Victoria Desert The Great Victoria Desert is a sparsely populated desert ecoregion and interim Australian bioregion in Western Australia and South Australia. History In 1875, British-born Australian explorer Ernest Giles became the first European to cross th ...

in the Goldfields-Esperance region of

Western Australia Western Australia (commonly abbreviated as WA) is a state of Australia occupying the western percent of the land area of Australia excluding external territories. It is bounded by the Indian Ocean to the north and west, the Southern Ocean to th ...

. The explorer

Ernest Giles William Ernest Powell Giles (20 July 1835 – 13 November 1897), best known as Ernest Giles, was an Australian explorer who led five major expeditions to parts of South Australia and Western Australia. Early life Ernest Giles was born in Bris ...

named the spring in September 1875 as a part of the first successful east–west crossing from South Australia to the coast of Western Australia. At the time the spring was full of water, which was a great relief to him after spending 17 days without water. In 1891, the Elder Scientific Exploring Expedition, arrived at the spring hoping to fing water but instead found it dry. The park was gazetted on 21 August 1970 as a Class A nature reserve and encompasses an area of approximately . The western portion of the reserve lies in the

Western Australian mulga shrublands The Western Australian Mulga shrublands is a deserts and xeric shrublands ecoregion of inland Western Australia. It is one of Australia's two mulga ecoregions, characterized by dry woodlands of mulga trees (''Acacia aneura'' and related species) ...

ecoregion (

Murchison bioregion The Murchison is an Interim Biogeographic Regionalisation for Australia, interim Australian bioregion located within the Mid West region of Western Australia, Mid West of Western Australia. The bioregion is loosely related to the catchment ar ...

), and the eastern portion is in the

."Queen Victoria Spring". DOPA Explorer. Accessed 8 May 2022

/ref> The north eastern part of the reserve is composed of sand plains and sand dunes with occasional salt pans with red-brown soils. The south west is composed of more complex soils with gently undulating plains with some outcrops of rocks, the soils are alkaline red earth underlain by

limestone Limestone ( calcium carbonate ) is a type of carbonate sedimentary rock which is the main source of the material lime. It is composed mostly of the minerals calcite and aragonite, which are different crystal forms of . Limestone forms whe ...

or with limestone nodules found just under the soil layer. Two rare vertebrates; Southern Marsupial Mole (''

Notoryctes typhlops The southern marsupial mole (''Notoryctes typhlops''), also known as the itjaritjari () or itjari-itjari, is a mole-like marsupial found in the western central deserts of Australia. It is extremely adapted to a burrowing way of life. It has large ...

'') and Mulgara (''

Dasycercus cristicauda The crest-tailed mulgara (''Dasycercus cristicauda''), is a small to medium-sized Australian carnivorous marsupial and a member of the family Dasyuridae (meaning "hairy tail") which includes quolls, dunnarts, the numbat, Tasmanian devil and exti ...

'') have both been collected from around the spring. Rare flora including species of '' Eremophila'' are also found within the park.

References

{{reflist Nature reserves in Western Australia Goldfields-Esperance Western Australian mulga shrublands Great Victoria Desert