Tourists will be banned from a vast area of the Australian outback for the first time this summer to prevent deaths from the extreme heat.

The government announced that the Simpson desert - situated in the dry, inhospitable heart of Australia - will be off limits from December 1 when temperatures are forecast to reach 139 Fahrenheit (58C).

The harsh and unforgiving region, which has become a rite of passage for many British travellers, spans three Australian states, and around 68,000 sq ml (176,500 sq km).

In the height of summer the temperature of the desert sand reaches a blistering 203 Fahrenheit (95C), capable of burning through shoes, said Joel Fleming, who has risked his life to rescue stranded tourists from the region.

"If you break down in that heat you're dead meat," said Fleming, who has lived in the region for 52 years. "You have nowhere to hide, no air conditioning, no shade and no shelter." Tourists, who need to drink 15 litres of water a day, can perish within hours, he said.

The South Australian Department for Environment and Heritage said the closure of the area was necessary after a risk assessment showed increasing temperatures were dangerous for people attempting to cross the desert.

The ban will be enforced annually, and will take effect in the Simpson Desert Conservation Park and Regional Reserve, covering an area of more than 3.6 million hectares, from December to March 15.

"There have been a number of near misses and we have had deaths in past years ... of overseas tourists who are not experienced and ill-prepared for the conditions," said Trevor Naismith, the South Australian department regional operations director.

He said the government owed a "duty of care" to tourists who were ill-equipped for the the harsh realities of the outback.

"The Simpson desert is one of the most fascinating, majestic places in Australia, but in the middle of summer it's also one of the harshest and potentially one of the most dangerous places," Naismith said.

Fleming, who runs four-wheel-drive tours in the region, but only in winter, said Australia's epic drought had seen temperatures in the region rise marginally.

He said the desert dunes had softened, increasing the chance of vehicles becoming bogged down.

"The ban is a good thing," Fleming said. "The dangers are horrendous and they are putting other people's lives at risk because they have to come and look for them."

He said he had come across some "very terrified tourists" who had broken down.

"The anxiety is unreal because a couple of hours in the desert can seem like an eternity. You know it's the equivalent of a European country."

Known as the "dead centre", the Simpson desert is the driest part of Australia, with an average rainfall of 200 millimetres. It has no official roads, just tracks which criss-cross some of the world's longest sand dunes.

Mr Fleming said many European tourists, particularly Germans, tried to cross the Simpson desert each summer but only about 40 made it. They did not understand the extreme remoteness, stifling heat or the tyranny of distance, and many were forced to turn back.

The Australian outback claims about 40 lives a year, mostly due to car accidents and hitting animals on the road. A "handful" occur when ill-equipped travellers become stranded in the area where mobile phone coverage is patchy, Naismith said.

A reminder of its harshness is a desert memorial for a British family who perished in 1963. The Page family was crossing the desert when their car ran out of petrol on the Birdsville track near Maree, south of Lake Eyre, a popular tourist attraction in South Australia. With no means of communication they died.

All five were buried in a makeshift grave and a simple cross marks the spot.

In 2006 a German man had a lucky escape after his 4WD became bogged down when driving through Lake Eyre, just south of the desert. He was found dehydrated and highly distressed by workers from a local cattle station.

Dead centre

Australia's vast outback has claimed its fair share of victims, as the combination of heat, inhospitable terrain and vast distances catch travellers out. Dozens of people die each year, though the vast majority are from driving accidents. Last month a man died of thirst after walking several miles from his vehicle. The Australian writer and poet Henry Lawson summed it up in his poem Out Back: "It chanced one day when the north wind blew on his face like a furnace-breath, / He left the track for a tank he knew - 'twas a short-cut to his death; / For the bed of the tank was hard and dry, and crossed with many a crack, / And, oh! it's a terrible thing to die of thirst in the scrub Out Back."