Purnululu NP

Campground 1: Spring Creek Rest Area
Facilities: Toilet, Picnic benches.
Good stuff: Great shady spot by a flowing river.
Not so good stuff: The place filled up quickly and it’s a bit of a trek if you want to go to the newer toilets, as the ones by the creek are horrendous
Price: FREE

Campground 2: Kurrajong Camp, Purnululu NP
Facilities: Toilet, Picnic benches, Non-potable water.
Good stuff: Lovely spot between the Northern and Southern sections.
Not so good stuff: A bit pricey just for drop toilets!
Price: $24 for two adults per night (plus $12 vehicle entry)

After missing out on one of our major Gibb “To do’s”, Mitchell Falls, we were a bit bummed out. So a pick me up was in order! This time in the name of a camp roast with a few beers while being awed by the Bungle Bungle Ranges in Purnululu NP- perfect. After stopping off close to the NP turn off we were in high spirits, all until we saw a total fire ban sign… In 2015 people running the NP decided to ban open fires of all kind due to the risk of bush fires. It is totally understandable as this area is rather remote but we were just a bit gutted, the policies must have changed after we had left Brisbane. It is becoming more common for longer “no fire periods” to be enforced and in general NP seem to becoming reluctant to allow cooking fires at all. Sometimes on our trip we feel that the classic Aussie camping experience is on the way out!

On the left sums up much of the scenery along the way down from Kununurra

Our mood soon changed when we were in the park. There are many ways of saying “ It was spectacular/ stunning/ beautiful/ majestic” but in reality us, and those who we met here, had no words to describe this place and just can’t think of anything to say that would do it justice. Sometimes it is pleasant to judge someone’s opinions of the place just by their happy yet shocked facial expression with no words to follow.  This place is unique and if you are considering coming here you should just do it. It is a long way from anywhere but well worth it.

In the northern section Purnululu NP is like a crazy conglomerate tropical paradise (taken along Echidna Chasm walk)...

...and bower birds inhabit the area too, bring on the ladies!

Although you wouldn't want to be on the receiving end of these boulders.

The walks to wander through gorges, in both the northern and southern section of the park, were a great way to get the scale of the cliffs. It is definitely an experience best done in the early morning, with temperatures soaring to 35+ whilst we were there. Expect little shade in the larger gorges and very uneven, rocky ground along the riverbeds just waiting to twist your ankle.

This sums up the Southern section of Purnululu NP...

...we went on longest day walk to Whip Snake gorge (15km including detours on the way back...) and found we weren't alone, now where is the snake...

...the dried out river bed was at an unreal scale with elongate cut outs and circular scoured sections.

It wasn't just the landscape that was impressive, the plants were cool too- pipe cleaner anyone? 

You can also see lots of large scale fractures parallel with the cut out gorges cutting across the river bed and Bungle Bungle Ranges

Our memory of the place won’t be just of the gorges, along the way we seem to have a few situations that we wouldn’t have expected come along, this one was at night time when we were all tucked in bed. Our solar shower (a thick plastic bag that is black on one side to heat up water in the sun) was filled and left outside over night so that we wouldn’t forget to fill it before heading off on our early morning walk. It had ripped the first time we used it and had finally decided that we were going to try and get it replaced. That was all until a dingo decided that they wanted the shower bag too puncturing holes in it while they walked off. Luckily Kyle heard something outside and the dingo scarpered after hearing him come out of the tent. However, the shower bag is now a colander so it had to go in the bin. Bugger…and lesson learnt!

Elephant rock apparently- WA seem to have a lot of these in their NP!

So what is the go with the Purnululu ranges?

The striped appearance of the rock formations is due to cyanobacteria and moisture in the sandstone. Cyanobacteria live on the moist rock beds leading to the black appearance whereas the orange bands are due to iron and manganese leaching out making an orange crust. This is all caused by weathering rather than the colouration happening during deposition.

The sandstones you find in the Purnululu NP were just regular deltaic sandstones. However the beehive shapes were formed due to two phases of uplift and erosion, the first phase was during a wet tropical climate that dissolved silica from the sediments, the second phase meant the rock was very easily eroded due to the lack of silica cement giving the landscape we see today.