Palm Valley (Northern Territory)

Palm Valley is an east-west running valley in the Krichauff Range within Finke Gorge National Park, about 123 kilometers southwest of Alice Springs in the Northern Territory of Australia. Despite average annual rainfall of only 200 millimeters, the valley holds small semi-permanent spring-fed pools that sustain desert fish, shield shrimp and amphibians. It is the only place in central Australia where the Red Cabbage Palm grows, a population that genetic studies show separated from related palms near Katherine and Mount Isa about 15,000 years ago. The valley is reached by four-wheel-drive from Hermannsburg, and the Palm Valley gas field to its north supplies natural gas to Alice Springs.