- Where
- East Kimberley
Western Australia - Coordinates
- 17.4500° S
128.3833° E - Biome
- Semi-arid savanna grassland
and sandstone gorge - The range
- c. 450 km²; domes to 250 m
above the surrounding plain - The rock
- Devonian quartz sandstone,
eroded over c. 20 million years - Status
- National park 1987
UNESCO World Heritage 2003 - Best visited
- April–October; closed in the wet
Two hours of unsealed track with creek crossings to reach a range of orange and black striped towers that nobody outside this country had bothered to look at until embarrassingly recently. Was told the dark stripes are alive and are the reason the towers have not fallen over. Put my hand near one and then did not touch it.
The short answer
Purnululu National Park covers 239,723 hectares of the East Kimberley in Western Australia and contains the Bungle Bungle Range: several hundred beehive-shaped sandstone towers, banded in orange and dark grey, rising as much as 250 metres above the savanna. The rock is Devonian quartz sandstone laid down in an ancient riverbed and carved into domes by roughly twenty million years of erosion. The orange bands are iron and manganese oxides on rock that dries quickly; the dark bands are living cyanobacterial crust growing where the sandstone holds moisture. The Kija, Jaru and Malngin peoples have known this country for tens of thousands of years. The wider world learned of it in 1983.
Why it's worth knowing
Two things make Purnululu unusual, and the second one is about us rather than the rock.
The domes should not be standing. The sandstone is soft and friable — it erodes readily, and left to itself the towers would round off and collapse far faster than they have. What holds them is biological. Where a layer of rock retains moisture, cyanobacteria colonise the surface and form a dark crust, and that crust binds and stabilises the sandstone beneath it. The bands can be several metres wide and are only a few millimetres thick. Where the rock dries too fast for the bacteria, you get orange instead: exposed iron and manganese oxides, and no protection.
So the stripes are not decoration applied to the domes. The stripes are the reason there are domes. A mountain range in a hot dry country is being held together by a living film thinner than a fingernail.
And there is a pleasing symmetry with elsewhere in this guide. The cyanobacteria at Hamelin Pool, two thousand kilometres to the south, spent two billion years making the oxygen atmosphere. The same family of organisms here is doing structural engineering. It is the oldest job in biology and the oldest workforce, taking a second contract.
The other remarkable thing is the 1983 date. In 1983 a television crew flying over the Kimberley to make a documentary photographed the range, and the images caused a sensation. The area was declared a national park four years later and inscribed by UNESCO twenty years after that.
None of which means it was found. The Kija and Jaru had been living with it, naming it, painting it and holding ceremony in it for tens of thousands of years, and local stockmen knew it too. What happened in 1983 was that a camera in an aeroplane made it legible to people who had not asked. UNESCO’s own citation records, without apparent irony, that the park “has not been widely known in Australia until recently.”
The field notes
How the domes were made
The sandstone was deposited in a river system in the Devonian — accounts give roughly 360 million years, others closer to 400, and both sit inside that period. Sand accumulated in layers, compacted into rock, and was later lifted.
Then water got into it. Over about twenty million years, creeks and seasonal rain exploited joints and fractures in the sandstone, cutting down through the mass and separating it into the towers that remain. The technical description is cone karst in sandstone, and UNESCO calls it the most outstanding example of that formation anywhere in the world.
The domes are cut through by gorges and chasms — Echidna Chasm narrows to a slot where the walls close overhead and the light arrives only near midday; Cathedral Gorge opens into a natural amphitheatre with acoustics that visitors habitually test and then apologise for.
Living crust, and how fragile it is
The cyanobacterial bands change appearance with the weather. After rain the crusts darken and green as the organisms rehydrate; in the dry they retreat to a near-black film. The domes therefore look measurably different from one week to the next, and dramatically different at dawn and dusk when low sun rakes the banding.
The crust is also why you must not climb them. A stripe several metres wide and a few millimetres thick, supporting a tower two hundred metres high, does not recover from a bootprint on any human timescale. Walking on the domes is prohibited, and the reason is structural rather than merely protective.
The range supports species from both desert and savanna, and at least one endemic: a small and very rare skink, Lerista bungle bungle, named for the place and found nowhere else.
A park with an off season
Purnululu shuts. Roughly from January to March the wet season closes the road and the park with it, and the exact dates move each year with the rains rather than the calendar.
That is not an inconvenience bolted onto the place; it is the same weather that made it. The gorges were cut by seasonal water, the cyanobacterial banding depends on layers that hold moisture, and the colour of the range changes with rainfall. The park is closed by the process that built it.
The practical consequence is a season of roughly April to November, with the shoulders least crowded and the light best. It also means that a great deal of what is written about Purnululu describes a place its author could only have visited in half the year.
Whose country, and the names on it
The park is co-managed by the Western Australian government and the traditional owners through the Purnululu Aboriginal Corporation, established in the mid-1990s. In 2002, living-area leases covering around a thousand hectares within the park were signed with traditional owners, and further leases were envisaged.
Several sites in the range are sacred and restricted, and visitor interpretation draws on local knowledge of the country, its ecology and its creation stories. In the 1970s senior Aboriginal people had petitioned for the return of this country, and expressed their claim partly through painting — work now widely collected, and which functioned at the time as a record of country and history.
The names are worth attention. Purnululu is the Kija word for sandstone. Bungle Bungle is a corruption, and sources do not agree of what: some describe it as an alteration of an Aboriginal word, others as a mangling of the name of a local grass. Neither reading is settled, and the range is now generally referred to by the park’s Kija name.
- Fly first if you can. The pattern is only a pattern from above.
- Walk Echidna Chasm close to midday, when the light gets in.
- Sit in Cathedral Gorge and be quiet for five minutes before anyone sings.
- Look at a dome in the morning and again after rain. It changes.
- Do not climb anything. The crust does not grow back.
A dome after rain. The crust is alive, so it responds: within hours of a storm the black bands darken and take on a greenish cast as the cyanobacteria rehydrate, and the whole range shifts colour. In the dry they fade back to near-black. It is a mountain range with a visible mood, on a cycle of days.
Tally, in the marginA whole mountain range with a mood, on a cycle of days. I checked twice to be sure it was not me.
Getting there
How to get there. Purnululu is in the East Kimberley, roughly 250 to 300 km south of Kununurra and about 108 km east of Halls Creek. From the Great Northern Highway, the park entrance is reached by the Spring Creek Track: 53 km of unsealed road, high-clearance 4WD only, with creek crossings, and around two hours each way. Caravans and trailers are not permitted. This is not a route to attempt in a hire sedan, and rental agreements frequently prohibit it outright.
The park closes for the wet season, roughly January to March, and the exact opening and closing dates shift with the rains each year. The usual season runs from about April to November. Check with the Department of Biodiversity, Conservation and Attractions before travelling.
Scenic flights are a legitimate alternative rather than a shortcut. The domes were revealed to the wider world from the air in the first place, and the banding reads as a pattern only from above. Fixed-wing and helicopter flights operate from Kununurra, Halls Creek and an airstrip near the park. Many visitors do both: fly to see the shape, walk to feel the scale.
On the ground, the two principal walks are Echidna Chasm in the north — a narrow slot best entered near midday, when light reaches the floor — and Cathedral Gorge in the south, an amphitheatre at the end of a short walk through the domes. Longer routes run deeper into the range and require preparation and, in places, permits.
Practical notes. Carry all your water; there is none reliably available. Camping is basic and must be booked. Fuel up before the turn-off. And do not walk on the domes: the crust that holds them together does not grow back.
Mark this place
Common questions
Why are the Bungle Bungle domes striped?
The bands reflect how quickly each layer of sandstone dries. Where a layer retains moisture, cyanobacteria colonise the surface and form a dark grey-black crust; where the rock dries too fast for them, exposed iron and manganese oxides give an orange band. The dark bands can be several metres wide and only a few millimetres thick.
What holds the Bungle Bungle domes together?
The cyanobacterial crust. The sandstone itself is soft and friable, and the living crust binds and stabilises the surface, protecting the towers from erosion. The stripes are not decoration on the domes — they are a substantial part of the reason the domes still stand.
When were the Bungle Bungles discovered?
The range became widely known outside the region in 1983, when a television crew filming a documentary flew over and photographed it. It had never been unknown: the Kija, Jaru and Malngin peoples have held this country for tens of thousands of years, and local stockmen were aware of it. UNESCO’s citation notes that the park had not been widely known in Australia until recently.
How old is the rock at Purnululu?
The sandstone was deposited in the Devonian period, with published figures ranging from about 360 to 400 million years. The domes themselves are much younger as landforms: they have been carved by erosion over roughly the last twenty million years.
What does Purnululu mean?
Purnululu is the Kija word for sandstone. The alternative name, Bungle Bungle, is a corruption, though sources disagree about its origin — some describe it as an alteration of an Aboriginal word, others as a mangling of the name of a local grass. Neither account is settled.
Can you drive to Purnululu National Park?
Only in a high-clearance four-wheel drive. The park is reached by the Spring Creek Track, 53 km of unsealed road with creek crossings, taking around two hours each way. Caravans and trailers are prohibited, and many rental agreements do not permit the route. The park closes during the wet season, roughly January to March.
Is it worth taking a scenic flight over the Bungle Bungles?
For most visitors, yes — and not merely as a shortcut. The banding of the domes reads as a pattern only from the air, which is precisely how the range came to wider attention in 1983. Flights operate from Kununurra, Halls Creek and a nearby airstrip. Many visitors fly to see the shape and walk to feel the scale.
Can you climb the Bungle Bungle domes?
No. The cyanobacterial crust that stabilises the sandstone is a few millimetres thick and does not recover from footfall on any meaningful timescale. Climbing on the domes is prohibited, and the prohibition is structural as much as protective.