FIELD NOTES// Purnululu/Bungle Bungles

PURNULULU/BUNGLE BUNGLES - WESTERN AUSTRALIA

-17° 25' 17.04" S, 128° 26' 41.64" E

Purnululu also known as the Bungle Bungles, are incredible sandstone structures created through a process of erosion over 20 million years ago. Purnululu is a sacred place for the First Nations people of the land, and was rediscovered by a film crew in the 1970’s.

The orange and black striped, beehive-shaped domes that cover over 230,000 hectares of land offer a glimpse of a rare phenomenon not found in many other places in the world. An anomaly – for sandstone, which normally disintegrates when exposed to the elements. The outer edges of the Devonian-age sandstone form a crust. The orange is a form of rust, and the black is a type of blue-green algae also known as cyanobacteria. The crust helps to contain the shapes in their beehive-shaped domes.

During the wet season, the Bungle Bungles are subject to raging torrents of water and an above average number of lightning strikes. Soaring overhead, glaring white craters appear where the lightning has struck. Scientists are monitoring how long it takes for the sandstone to be covered once again in that well-known orange and black crust.

Straw coloured tufts of spinifex dot across the landscape. On the opposite side, lime-green spinifex betrays the pathway of bushfire-scarred landscape.

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As I wind my way through the incredible structures, the heat of the sun feels cloying. It’s about 40 degrees today and sweat rolls down my face. I cross a small series of steps and immediately it becomes cooler, the towering walls of the rockface sheltering me from the midday heat.

Stepping down into Cathedral Gorge and I can hear the echo of the place around me. The calmness and coolness offers immediate reprieve.

I’m struck once again by the incredible diversity of nature.

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NOTES

Smells like:

Dry grass and sunshine.

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Sounds like:

Echoing sounds in Cathedral Gorge. The gentle hum or airplanes overhead. Crunching boots on gravel and sand.

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Looks like:

Orange rusts and blacks so deep they look inky blue – shiny in patches like oil. Tufted balls of spinifex grass in straw and lime green. Bare branches of black. Silvery leaves of taller trees reaching above the savannah. Grasses and plants accumulating in crevices and trailing down walls. The murky, silvery green of the watering holes. Cream coloured sand of the dry riverbeds.

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Feels like:

Awe. Amazement. Wonder. Such incredible structures. Thinking about history and geology. The cool breeze that descends around you as you go into Cathedral Cave. Hot sun beating down – 40 degree heat, with sweat running down my face.

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Tastes like:

Vegetable quiche and quinoa salad. Orange juice.