What is the Great Artesian Basin?

This is an excerpt of our recent Simpson Desert Episode published individually for educational purposes. View the full episode here: • Simpson Desert 4WD Adv...
The Great Artesian Basin, located in Australia, is the largest and deepest artesian basin in the world. It stretches over 1,700,000 square kilometres and with measured water temperatures ranging from 30-100 °C. The basin provides the only source of fresh water through much of inland Australia supporting hundreds of rural towns and thousands of properties.
The Basin underlies 22% of the continent, including the states and territories of Queensland (most of), the Northern Territory (the south-east corner of), South Australia (the north-east part of), and New South Wales (northern part of). The basin is 3,000 metres (9,800 ft) deep in places and is estimated to contain 64,900 cubic kilometres (15,600 cu mi) of groundwater.
View the full episode here: • Simpson Desert 4WD Adv...