Queen Victoria Spring Nature Reserve is a

protected area Protected areas or conservation areas are locations which receive protection because of their recognized natural, ecological or cultural values. There are several kinds of protected areas, which vary by level of protection depending on the ena ...

managed by the

Department of Parks and Wildlife The Department of Parks and Wildlife (DPaW) was the department of the Government of Western Australia responsible for managing lands described in the ''Conservation and Land Management Act 1984'' and implementing the state's conservation and en ...

and is located approximately east of

Kalgoorlie Kalgoorlie is a city in the Goldfields–Esperance region of Western Australia, located east-northeast of Perth at the end of the Great Eastern Highway. It is sometimes referred to as Kalgoorlie–Boulder, as the surrounding urban area inclu ...

in the Great Victoria Desert in the Goldfields-Esperance region of

Western Australia Western Australia (commonly abbreviated as WA) is a state of Australia occupying the western percent of the land area of Australia excluding external territories. It is bounded by the Indian Ocean to the north and west, the Southern Ocean to ...

. The explorer Ernest Giles named the spring in September 1875 as a part of the first successful east–west crossing from South Australia to the coast of Western Australia. At the time the spring was full of water, which was a great relief to him after spending 17 days without water. In 1891, the Elder Scientific Exploring Expedition, arrived at the spring hoping to fing water but instead found it dry. The park was gazetted on 21 August 1970 as a Class A nature reserve and encompasses an area of approximately . The western portion of the reserve lies in the Western Australian mulga shrublands ecoregion (

Murchison bioregion The Murchison is an interim Australian bioregion located within the Mid West of Western Australia. The bioregion is loosely related to the catchment area of the Murchison River and has an area of . Traditionally the region is known as ''The ...

), and the eastern portion is in the Great Victoria Desert."Queen Victoria Spring". DOPA Explorer. Accessed 8 May 2022

/ref> The north eastern part of the reserve is composed of sand plains and sand dunes with occasional salt pans with red-brown soils. The south west is composed of more complex soils with gently undulating plains with some outcrops of rocks, the soils are alkaline red earth underlain by

limestone Limestone ( calcium carbonate ) is a type of carbonate sedimentary rock which is the main source of the material lime. It is composed mostly of the minerals calcite and aragonite, which are different crystal forms of . Limestone forms wh ...

or with limestone nodules found just under the soil layer. Two rare vertebrates; Southern Marsupial Mole ('' Notoryctes typhlops'') and Mulgara ('' Dasycercus cristicauda'') have both been collected from around the spring. Rare flora including species of '' Eremophila'' are also found within the park.

References

{{reflist Nature reserves in Western Australia Goldfields-Esperance Western Australian mulga shrublands Great Victoria Desert