When one thinks of the arid zone, one rarely conjures up images of desert ranges, however there are many mountain ranges in the arid zone, covering an area of 580,000 square kilometres. In the south are the stunningly beautiful Flinders Range- part of the Adelaide Geosyncline, which were pushed up over the last 800 million years. Artist Hans Heysen painted the beauty of the Flinders. North is the Dennison Range,and the Everard Ranges, beautiful granite monoliths rich in Aboriginal Heritage. Further north are the Musgrave Ranges, with Mt. Woodruffe - at 1435 meters the highest mountain in South Australia.

The western and eastern MacDonnell ranges surround Alice Springs and were painted in watercolour by Hermannsburg artist Albert Namatjira. The highest of these is Mt. Zeil, also the highest peak west of the Great Dividing Range. To the west are the Petermans, the Mann and the Rawlinson Ranges, the Kintore Ranges, further north the stunning Kimberley. South along the Canning are the Southesk Tablelands, the Durba Hills and the Calvert Range, and close to Australia's western most point are the Fortesque and Hamersley Ranges in the Pilbara. Desert Ranges channel and funnel water, and therefore nutrients, meaning so many desert ranges have a great diversity of flora and fauna.