WHAT'S SO GREAT Australia's largest desert is about twice the size of the United Kingdom, a huge swathe of sandhills, grasslands and salt lakes that straddles Western and South Australia.

How can a desert burn? Australia's vast deserts aren't just sand dunes—they're often dotted with flammable spinifex grass hummocks. When heavy rains fall, grass grows quickly before drying out.

Sitting by a winter campfire in the Great Sandy Desert, Ngururrpa ranger Clifford ... looking straight at one of the rarest animals in Australia, a night parrot (Pezoporus occidentalis).