Qualla: Little Sandy Desert

Little Sandy Desert: Introduction

Mon, 22 Jun 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit Hesperian, CC BY-SA 3.0. The word "little" does this place a disservice. The Little Sandy Desert sprawls across roughly 110,900 square kilometres of Western Australia, wedged between the Great Sandy Desert to the north and the Gibson Desert to the east, a sea of red dunes and spinifex that ranks as small only by the standards of a continent with deserts the size of nations. To the maps it can look like an absence, a beige gap to be crossed. But the people of the Western Desert know it as Country with names, songs, and water, and in one of its rock shelters lies proof that humans have lived here for an almost unimaginable stretch of time.

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Image: Hesperian | CC BY-SA 3.0

Little Sandy Desert: Karnatukul, the Oldest Story

Mon, 22 Jun 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit G A Molloy, CC BY-SA 4.0. In the Carnarvon Range, which the Martu more properly call Katjarra, a rock shelter holds one of the longest human records on the continent. Archaeologists know it as Serpent's Glen; its custodians call it Karnatukul. A re-excavation published in 2018 pushed the date of occupatio...

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Image: G A Molloy | CC BY-SA 4.0

Little Sandy Desert: The Rainbow Serpent's Country

Mon, 22 Jun 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit Public domain. Katjarra is a sacred place, woven into the stories of the creator being often called the Rainbow Serpent, and its rock contains a wealth of ancient art. Among the paintings are the bilby and the black-flanked rock-wallaby, and a ceremonial headdress, images that carry meaning far...

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Image: Public domain

Little Sandy Desert: Wattle, Wood, and Fifty Thousand Years

Mon, 22 Jun 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit Reinhard Jahn, Mannheim; nanosmile, CC BY-SA 2.0 de. What people did here, day to day, leaves its own quiet record. A study using archaeobotany, the analysis of ancient plant remains, found that wattle had been gathered at Karnatukul throughout the entire span of its occupation, from the Pleistocene into recent times. The wood serv...

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Image: Reinhard Jahn, Mannheim; nanosmile | CC BY-SA 2.0 de

Little Sandy Desert: Who Holds the Keys Now

Mon, 22 Jun 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit The original uploader was Effib at Hebrew Wikipedia., CC BY-SA 3.0. Today the recognised traditional owners include the Martu and the Birriliburu peoples, and they are increasingly the ones who decide how this Country is visited. In 2014 the Birriliburu traditional owners and rangers reopened Katjarra for the month of July, issuing permits for se...

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Image: The original uploader was Effib at Hebrew Wikipedia. | CC BY-SA 3.0