In 1983, an enchanting, secret landscape was finally revealed to the world in all its majesty.

Deep in the East Kimberley, the land lay in wait, its dazzling colours and sculpted landforms known only to the Traditional Owners and a few others. Then a documentary crew revealed its beauty to all; their film, Wonders of WA, showcased the spectacular striped jewels we know as the Bungle Bungles for the first time. Within weeks of the broadcast, dozens of entranced viewers set out to see the beguiling formations for themselves. Four years later, it was declared a national park and, later, a World Heritage site. Even today, it’s still something of a secret because its sheer remoteness restricts visitor numbers but for those who make the effort by helicopter, plane or four-wheel-drive, it’s an unforgettable, haunting experience on a par with Australia’s other natural icons. 

Most of the people who visit Purnululu National Park come to see the fragile beehive-like formations (a landform found in very few places worldwide). They were created as water eroded the Bungle Bungle Range over the past 20 million years. From the air or at a distance, some look like little pyramids or the turrets of ancient castles. Their unusual banding is only skin-deep. It’s dark grey or black where clay particles hold remnants of the wet season’s deluge long enough to encourage cyanobacteria to live, and orange where iron oxide has leached to the surface. The slightest touch breaks this thin skin and the white sandstone beneath blows away like fine flour because it has no silica or other bonding material.

When the sun is low on the horizon, these formations, which locals casually refer to as “the Bungles”, morph through an explosion of colours – purples, crimsons, reds and oranges. During the day, shifting shadows accentuate their shapes and structure, and the sun bleaches the colour from the rock, just as water over time has drained the iron oxide from within. To add to the gaudy display, the park has golden splashes of flowering wattles, spinifex greener than the lushest lawns and cloudless blue skies, all of them vividly reflected in inviting pools.

“It’s pretty hard to leave here without saying ‘Wow’”, says Paul Wainwright, who’s lived and worked in the Bungles for more than 30 years. “I still go down to the beehive formations and never get sick of them. There’s always something different. Colours change. When there’s a big Wet, everything becomes very green”. Paul was one of the first off-roaders to explore the region and one of the two people who first recorded two of the park’s main attractions, Echidna Chasm and Mini Palms Gorge. 

A slot in the range just a couple of metres wide, Echidna puts on a spectacular display in the middle of the day as the sun penetrates its dark recesses. Paul was exploring the steep-sided north-western face of the Bungle Bungle Range with his dad when they found the way in. “We got in to where it bells out a bit and we thought that was where it ended…but it keeps going”, he says. “Today, Echidna is still one of my favourite spots”.

Stunning cabbage tree palms guard Echidna’s entrance, their long, green fronds high-fiving each other while rainbow bee-eaters zip about and great bowerbirds dine on wild passionfruit. The conglomerate rock here is chunky, with large rocks and boulders compressed into 180 m-high orange walls. Palms lean precariously over them, seemingly craning their long necks to listen to the echoing voices and occasional yodelling that rise from the skinny chasm. At nearby Mini Palms Gorge, the palms predominate among the vines, figs and other vegetation. The gorge’s walls – although much further apart – still provide deliriously cool respite from temperatures that push 30°C even in the coolest months. From the air, it becomes clear these gorges are just two of many sliced into the 45,000ha range that withhold secrets of hidden caves, unknown plants and the oldest continuing culture. Some, such as Echidna, are so deep and narrow they only see the sun for a fraction of each day.