Dalhousie Springs in Witjira National Park - steps into the warm water

Dalhousie Springs, also known as Witjira-Dalhousie Springs, is a group of over 60 natural

artesian spring An artesian aquifer is a confined aquifer containing groundwater under positive pressure. An artesian aquifer has trapped water, surrounded by layers of impermeable rock or clay, which apply positive pressure to the water contained within t ...

s located in

Witjira National Park Witjira National Park is a protected area in the Australian state of South Australia about north of the state capital of Adelaide. History The national park was proclaimed on 21 November 1985 to "protect Australia’s largest array of artesian ...

on the western fringe of the

Simpson Desert The Simpson Desert is a large area of dry, red sandy plain and dunes in the Northern Territory, South Australia and Queensland in central Australia. It is the fourth-largest Australian desert, with an area of . The desert is underlain by the ...

, 180 kilometres northeast of

Oodnadatta Oodnadatta is a small, remote outback town and locality in the Australian state of South Australia, located north-north-west of the state capital of Adelaide by road or direct, at an altitude of . The unsealed Oodnadatta Track, an outback roa ...

in northern

South Australia South Australia (commonly abbreviated as SA) is a States and territories of Australia, state in the southern central part of Australia. It covers some of the most arid parts of the country. With a total land area of , it is the fourth-largest o ...

. They are about southeast of

Alice Springs Alice Springs ( aer, Mparntwe) is the third-largest town in the Northern Territory of Australia. Known as Stuart until 31 August 1933, the name Alice Springs was given by surveyor William Whitfield Mills after Alice, Lady Todd (''née'' A ...

History

The springs form part of Aboriginal tradition and life in northern South Australia, being a place associated with many

Dreamtime The Dreaming, also referred to as Dreamtime, is a term devised by early anthropologists to refer to a religio-cultural worldview attributed to Australian Aboriginal beliefs. It was originally used by Francis Gillen, quickly adopted by his co ...

stories and songs. Evidence of large camp sites are found at the Springs, some of which are thousands of square metres in size, and there are many stone artefacts found scattered around the area. The springs were given their English name by surveyor

Richard Randall Knuckey Richard Randall Knuckey (26 September 1842 – 14 June 1914), often referred to as R.R. Knuckey and popularly known as Dick Knuckey, was a surveyor on the Overland Telegraph Line in central Australia from 1871 to 1872. He later became chief off ...

around 1870, when he was working on the

Overland Telegraph Line The Australian Overland Telegraph Line was a telegraphy system to send messages over long distances using cables and electric signals. It spanned between Darwin, in what is now the Northern Territory of Australia, and Adelaide, the capital o ...

. In 1915, the total flow rate of the Dalhousie Springs complex was over /second, but drilling had reduced this to /second by 2000.Threats to Australian desert springs
/ref> Witjira-Dalhousie Springs was added to the

Australian National Heritage List The Australian National Heritage List or National Heritage List (NHL) is a heritage register, a list of national heritage places deemed to be of outstanding heritage significance to Australia, established in 2003. The list includes natural and ...

in August 2009. In 1980, It was listed on the now-defunct

Register of the National Estate The Register of the National Estate was a heritage register that listed natural and cultural heritage places in Australia that was closed in 2007. Phasing out began in 2003, when the Australian National Heritage List and the Commonwealth Herita ...

. On 26 November 2021, the government changed the conditions of the park, to forever exclude mining in the Dalhousie Springs National Heritage Area. CC-BY icon

Text may have been copied from this source, which is available under
Attribution 3.0 Australia (CC BY 3.0 AU)
licence.

Description

Its water comes from part of the

Great Artesian Basin The Great Artesian Basin (GAB), located in Australia, is the largest and deepest artesian basin in the world, stretching over , with measured water temperatures ranging from . The basin provides the only source of fresh water through much of ...

aquifer. The Springs complex appears to be recharged by water thousands of years old, percolated down through the beds of Finke and nearby arid zone rivers, which overlie parts of the Great Artesian Basin. As a geological feature, it is unique in Australia. The water temperatures in the springs range from 38 to 43 degrees Celsius. The water is highly mineralised but just drinkable. There are a number of unique species of fish that live in the waters around Dalhousie Springs, such as the Dalhousie catfish ('' Neosilurus gloveri''), the Dalhousie hardyhead (''Craterocephalus dalhousiensis'') and the Dalhousie goby (''Chlamydogobius gloveri''). Dalhousie Springs is a popular starting point for crossing the Simpson Desert eastwards to

Birdsville Birdsville is a rural town and locality in the Shire of Diamantina, Queensland, Australia. In the the locality of Birdsville had a population of 110 people. It is a popular tourist destination with many people using it as a starting point acro ...

Queensland ) , nickname = Sunshine State , image_map = Queensland in Australia.svg , map_caption = Location of Queensland in Australia , subdivision_type = Country , subdivision_name = Australia , established_title = Before federation , establishe ...

(around ).

References

External links

Heritage Listing: Dalhousie Springs

Official Website

Listing on the now-defunct Register of the National Estate

"Dalhousie Springs", Across Australia Motorbike Tour
Springs of Australia Australian National Heritage List Far North (South Australia) South Australian places listed on the defunct Register of the National Estate Oases {{SouthAustralia-geo-stub