Маленькая пустыня: История создания национального парка в Виктории

The Little Desert National Park is a national park in the Wimmera Mallee region of Victoria, Australia. The national park is situated near Dimboola, approximately west of Melbourne and extends from the Wimmera River in the east to the South Australian border in the west near
While the region is surrounded by agricultural land, the area of the Little Desert itself "consists mainly of deep sandy soils with very low fertility, interspersed with small pockets of clay soils. There are occasional rocky, sandstone outcrops and buckshot rises. Average yearly rainfall varies remarkably from the east to the west." The Little Desert "remains relatively undisturbed by human activity, even though in the earlier years of European settlement it experienced some industry in the way of grazing and woodcutting." Now the desert is a National Park, and is "broken up into three blocks": Western Block, Central Block and Eastern Block; demarcated by two north south roads, the Nhill Harrow road and the Kaniva Edenhope road. Today the National Park is an important tourist destination receiving about 50,000 visitors each year.

The low nutrient sandy soil combined with low rainfalls made farming difficult. After the Second World War, the State Government considered clearing and selling land in the Little Desert region. Local opposition to selling the land for farming was intense and quickly gathered support around Victoria. The Bolte Government was initially unmoved by environmental concerns. Public outrage over the proposed subdivision resulted in the responsible minister's losing his safe seat in a by election. The Little Desert debate galvanised Victoria's conservation movement into forming a peak body, the Conservation Council of Victoria, and the conservative Victorian government of Henry Bolte to adopt environmental policies, such as establishing the Land Conservation Council to systematically and independently review all future public land use across the state. The architect of the Land Conservation Council was the newly appointed Minister of Lands, Conservation and Soldier Settlement, William Borthwick, who supported retaining the area as a nature reserve. So in 1955 the Kiata Lowan Sanctuary was established to preserve the 'Eastern block' of the Desert and protect the local Malleefowl. In 1969 this Sanctuary became 'The Little Desert National Park' in the 'Eastern Block' and in 1986 the 'Central' and 'Western' Blocks were added. The malleefowl is a rare bird found on the site and their protection was a contributory factor in the decision to preserve the area in 1968.