The Tanami Desert and fossilised rivers . . .

The Tanami Desert is an ancient landscape of spinifex and many a termite mound. It is hot and to all appearances it seems that not a drop of water could be found. The surface indications are also very misleading at even the first observations. There is plenty of water in fossil rivers, in
deep underground locations. In the days of Gondwana land, not long ago, this land was a virtual muddy swamp. Dripping rainforests, crisscrossing flowing rivers, places where dinosaurs used to tramp. Over millions of years the swamp dried up, sediment in rivers became soil, fine sand. Climatic elements also shaped the vegetation and wild life remaining on this land. Termite mounds provide an even better clue as to what water exists underground. In some places they are very small, where water levels are high, a bigger mound. Providing yet another clue are the juicier than normal desert plants of the Tanami. Profuse low scrub, spinifex grass is taller, thicker, lance-like leaves thrusting to the sky. Vast reservoirs of salt water, undergound, from oil explorations, it is known.Saltier than seawater, would need expensive treatment, for anything to be grown. Along remaining river valleys, groundwater closer to surface than anywhere else.Discoveries of fossilised rocks, Aboriginal paintings of variety of animals tells. Fewer than half of these species survive, due to changing climatic conditions shock. Extinctions were more dramatic and cruel soon after white man introduced grazing stock. Those that disappeared, little- , hare-, nail-tailed -wallabies, bandicoots, kangaroo rat. Never to return, after man, in a little over 150 years, has destroyed their habitat