The Bungle Bungle Range is recognizable long before its geology is understood: rounded towers stand together, their dark bands interrupting the orange sandstone. In Purnululu National Park, in Western Australia’s East Kimberley, those familiar shapes are only the beginning. Narrow chasms, creek beds and palm-lined recesses complicate the view from a photograph. The landscape rewards moving between its different forms rather than searching for one definitive image of the domes.
UNESCO inscribed Purnululu in 2003 for its natural beauty and geological importance. The rock belongs to a much older chapter than the landforms themselves: Devonian sandstone has been shaped by weathering and erosion over millions of years. It is worth separating the age of the material from the making of the towers. Their rounded forms are the result of a continuing interaction between rock, water, climate and biological processes.