The major landuse is pastoral (including the world’s largest cattle station, the 30,114 square kilometre Anna Creek Station) but also includes Aboriginal land, national parks and regional reserves and part of the Woomera Prohibited Area.

Oodnadatta and William Creek are the only townships in a region with a very small, sparse population. Participation in community groups and activities places a greater financial and time impost on these people than those in most other areas of the Lake Eyre Basin.

The Lake Eyre Basin Coordinating Group is working to establish linkages with existing representative bodies in the Western Rivers Region to ensure stakeholders of the area have a voice in the wider Lake Eyre Basin process.

The Western Rivers Region overlies the south-western extremities of the Great Artesian Basin which is indicated by the sweeping arc of artesian springs to the west of Lake Eyre. These springs were not only central to Aboriginal culture, they were the path that allowed European explorers to penetrate the arid centre of the continent.