Augu 



1913 



ust,j Ti' A-LTO^, Botany of the " Little Desert." 65 



THE BOTANY OF THE "LITTLE DESERT," WIMMERA, 



VICTORIA. 



By St. Eloy D'Alton, C.E. 



{Read before the Field Naturalists' Club of Victoria, 14th April, 191 3.) 

 If the reader consults a map of Victoria, he will see marked 

 thereon a long, narrow, irregular strip stretching from the 

 South Austrahan Ninety-mile Desert to the River Wimmera, 

 and terminating about a mile and a half east of that river, 

 near Dimboola. This expanse of sand and scrub is called the 

 " Little Desert," possibly to distinguish it from the Great 

 Desert, which runs parallel with it some thirty miles further 

 north. The average width of this strip is about fourteen miles, 

 and the area consists nearly altogether of sand-hills alternating 

 with sandy plains, strips of mallee, clay-pans, and here and 

 there outcrops of sandstone, the whole being thickly clothed 

 with a vast variety of scrub plants. 



There are a large number of tracks crossing the desert from 

 north to south, some still used occasionally, and others nearly 

 obliterated by the encroaching scrub. The ravages of bush- 

 fires from time to time account for some bare patches met 

 with here and there, the blackened stems of the shrubs and 

 mallee bushes being still left standing. There are some really 

 pretty vistas to be met with in the Desert, particularly in the 

 spring of the year, and the variety of tints in the foliage of the 

 various trees and shrubs is quite remarkable, and not to be 

 seen anywhere else in this part of Victoria, except in portions 

 of the Great Desert. 



There are no human habitations or areas under cultivation 

 to be met with except along the extreme north and south 

 margins. Here we find slight encroachments made by the 

 husbandman, and here abounds a large number of fresh-water 

 springs or soaks. In the early days the squatters sank a good 

 many wells in the scrub to depths varying from 120 to 150 feet, 

 and the explorer of these regions wonders when he comes across 

 a dilapidated whim and a deep shaft in the most unlikely places. 

 In those early days the squatters ran their sheep in the Little 

 Desert, but only through the summer, to be taken out on to 

 the open country during the winter. The increase of wild dogs 

 and selectors and rabbits accounts for the change. 



There is a spur of this desert, called the Lawloit Range, which 

 nearly meets a corresponding spur of the northern desert, and 

 is only separated by a comparatively narrow strip of good 

 land, called Broughton's Gap. This spur is stony in places, 

 outcrops of red sandstone occurring here and there. A httle 

 to the south of this spur, in the Little Desert, is a remarkable 

 depression, on the summit of a low rise, resembling a crater. 



