Have you ever heard karst phenomena in Sandstone, If not sees the Spectacular ”Bungle Bungles” in Australia

Bungle Bungles, Australia

Bungle Bungles Range is located in the World Heritage-listed Purnululu National Park. This maze of orange and black striped karst sandstone domes often likened to giant beehives, is one of the best-loved attractions in Western Australia’s Kimberley region.  The area contains the deeply dissected Bungle Bungles Range composed of Devonian-age quartz sandstone.

The formation eroded over a period of 20 million years into a series of beehive-shaped towers or cones. Its steeply sloping surfaces are distinctly marked by regular horizontal bands of dark-grey cyanobacterial crust.

Purnululu National Park covers almost 240,000 hectares of remote areas managed as wilderness. It includes the Bungle Bungles Range, a spectacularly incised landscape where karst sandstone rises 250 meters above the surrounding semi-arid savannah grasslands.

Unique depositional processes and weathering have given these towers their spectacular black and orange banded appearance, formed by biological processes of cyanobacteria which serve to stabilize and protect the ancient sandstone formations.

Once Bungle-Bungles is known to only local people

The Bungle Bungles Range was only known to local Aboriginal owners and pastorals until a documentary team brought it to the world’s attention in 1983. Director Guy Baskin was filming a documentary called Wonders of Western Australia when the crew saw the incredible formations from the air.

Aboriginal people are thought to have lived in this region for more than 40,000 years, and the park holds rich traces of their life. Ancient rock art and burial sites can be found across the park and you can visit some of the sites with a local Aboriginal guide. With its unique geological and historic Aboriginal significance, Purnululu was listed as a World Heritage area in 2003.

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Amazing feature

These 250 meters high cliffs are cut by seasonal waterfalls and pools, creating the major tourist attractions in the park with fabulous names such as Echidna Chasm, Piccaninny, and Cathedral Gorges.  The Bungle Bungles are the most outstanding example of cone karts in sandstones anywhere in the world.

The sandstone karst of Purnululu National Park is of great scientific importance. karst formation on sandstone was recognized by geomorphologists only recently and is still not completely understood. The Bungle Bungles Ranges of the Park also display to exceptional degree evidence of geomorphic processes of dissolution, weathering, and erosion.

The park is located in East Kimberley, about 100 kilometers from the town of Halls Creek and 250 kilometers from the town of Kununurra. You can fly into Kununurra from Perth, Broome, and Darwin.