Sturt Stony Desert (previously Sturt's Stony Desert) is an area in the north-east of South Australia, named by Charles Sturt in 1844, while he trying to find the inland sea which he believed lay at the centre of the Australia [1]. The stones caused his horses to limp and wore down the hooves of the cattle and sheep which Sturt had taken on the expedition.
The larger Simpson Desert is located to the west and the Strzelecki Desert is to the south east. To the south west of Sturt Stony Desert is the Tirari Desert. The Birdsville Track is a route between Marree in South Australia and Birdsville in Queensland. The desert is part of the Tirari-Sturt stony desert ecoregion [2].