The interior part of Australia is desert and semi-desert.

Question

Given below are two statements, one is labelled as Assertion (A) and the other as Reason (R).

Assertion (A): The interior part of Australia is desert and semi-desert.

Reason (R): Northern Australia is situated in the temperate zone.

Select the correct answer from the code given below:

1. A. Both (A) and (R) are true, but (R) is not the correct explanation of (A)
2. B. (A) is false, but (R) is true
3. C. (A) is true, but (R) is false (Correct answer)
4. D. Both (A) and (R) are true and (R) is the correct explanation of (A)

Correct Answer

Option C — (A) is true, but (R) is false

Detailed Solution & Explanation

The correct answer is (A) is true, but (R) is false.

Key Points

• Assertion is true. The interior of Australia — the "Outback" — is genuinely desert and semi-desert. The Great Victoria, Great Sandy, Gibson, Simpson and Tanami deserts together cover roughly 18% of the mainland, and about 35% of the continent receives so little rain that it is classed as arid or semi-arid.
• Reason is false. Northern Australia lies in the tropical zone, not the temperate zone. The Tropic of Capricorn cuts across the middle of the continent, so everything north of it — Darwin, Cairns, Cape York — has a tropical savannah and monsoon climate.
• Since (A) is true and (R) is false, the answer is option (c).

Additional Information

• Australia is the driest inhabited continent; only Antarctica is drier.
• The aridity of the interior is caused by the subtropical high-pressure belt near 30°S, which produces descending, stable air, reinforced by the Great Dividing Range casting a rain shadow over the interior.
• Southern Australia (Perth, Adelaide) has a Mediterranean climate, while the south-east (Melbourne, Sydney) is temperate maritime — so the temperate zone lies in the *south*, which is exactly the trap this question sets.