The Bungle Bungle Range is within the 45 000 hectare Purnululu National Park, in the Kimberley region of north-eastern Western Australia. The Park is 260 km south of Kununurra and 110 km north of Halls Creek.
The Bungle Bungles consists of a group of rounded beehive-shaped domes of horizontally-stratified sandstone and conglomerate which were deposited in the Ord Basin about 375 to 350 million years ago. The range is 578 m above sea level, and rises 200 - 300 m above the surrounding plain. It covers an area of about 35 km by 24 km.
The original sediments, derived from erosion of highlands, were laid down by braided streams flowing across wide plains. Their shapes have been produced by uplift and erosion over the last 20 million years, assisted by water penetrating cracks and joints, separating the rock masses with deep, narrow gullies (e.g. Cathedral Gorge in the south, and Echidna Chasm in the north). They have horizontal coloured bands of orange, black and grey which appear to relate to the rock's permeability to water, the darker bands being more permeable, keeping the rock moist and promoting algae and lichen growths. Iron and manganese oxide staining forms a protective orange-coloured coating over the less permeable layers.
Copyright © Australian Museum, 2004