SPACEPHOTOS

Numerous tributaries, including Aramac Creek (center of image), can be traced across the semiarid landscape as they drain westward into the Thomson River (top right) northeast of the Outback city of Longreach (just off the image at top center). The general location of the smaller central Queensland town, Aramac, can be ascertained by its location along the Aramac Creek. Most of this part of the Great Artesian Basin consists of grassy plains with a few rounded hills scattered throughout the landscape. There are no perennial streams in any of the interior drainage basins of arid central Australia. When it does rain streams may flow for hours, days, or rarely for as long as a month. The broad reddish swath of terrain across the bottom of the photo is part of the Great Dividing Range of mountains.