Alice Springs Desert Park

At the foot of the West MacDonnell Ranges outside Alice Springs, the Desert Park is less a zoo than an immersion in the ecology of the arid centre. Walking trails pass through recreated desert habitats - sand country, woodland, dry riverbed - where the plants and free-ranging birds of each are gathered, and a nocturnal house reveals the bilbies, hopping mice and other small mammals that come out after dark. The free-flying birds-of-prey show is a highlight, staged against the red backdrop of the ranges. It is the best place anywhere to understand the living desert.