Channel Country
The Channel Country is a remote and sparsely populated landscape in the Australian outback .
Geographical location
The Channel Country covers 883,181 km² in interior eastern Australia . Most of the area belongs to Queensland , the peripheral areas to the Northern Territory , New South Wales and South Australia .
Landscape and climate
The Channel Country is one of the driest areas in Australia. It takes its name because of the dried-up river courses of various sizes that cross the country. Since the low rainfall evaporates or is absorbed by the ground due to the arid climate , the rivers usually do not carry any water. During this time it is hot and dusty. Temperatures can reach up to 50 degrees Celsius in summer. The red clay soil is characteristic, chalk and sandstone form flat hills and gentle plains.
Often only after several years, after persistent and particularly heavy monsoon rains in the tropical north of the continent in January and February, the watercourses of the Channel Country also fill up . The water flows south through countless small canals, crevices and streams, a process that takes several weeks.
In some areas this leads to pronounced flooding. Large, shallow lakes are created, which means that some villages are completely cut off from the environment for some time. Within a short time, nature awakens as if from a long sleep. The vegetation is green and blooming everywhere and suddenly huge flocks of water birds such as pelicans appear out of the seemingly nowhere .
There are 250 different types of grass and herbs alone. There are also shrub and tree species that are resistant to salt and drought.
The channels of the Channel Country form a common water system, the main rivers of which are Cooper's Creek and Diamantina Rivers . All rivers end in the outflowless Lake Eyre salt lake.
economy
Despite the drought, farming is still practiced in the Channel Country. Since the barren vegetation is a poor source of food for the cattle herds, large areas are required. To feed one cattle, one calculates 1 km² of land. Farms therefore have a size of 50,000 hectares and more and are usually hundreds of kilometers apart.
Sport aircraft are the usual means of transport to cover these distances.