Bungle Bungles
Quick Facts
What are the Bungle Bungles?
The Bungle Bungles are orange and black sandstone rock domes standing 300 metres above the Kimberley plains.
How old are the Bungle Bungles?
It is estimated they are around 350 million years years old. This has been a very sacred place for Aboriginal people for tens of thousands of years. The area is so remote that very few non Indigenous people knew about the Bungle Bungles until 1983.
What is Purnululu National Park?
Purnululu is a National Park in the East Kimberley region of Western Australia. It is 239, 723 hectares. The Bungle Bungles are within the Purnululu National Park.
Where is Purnululu?
The Purnululu National Park is 300 km South of Kununurra. It is a remote location which means care and planning are essential.
The Bungle Bungles at a Glance
The Purnululu National Park is a world heritage site in the East Kimberley region of Western Australia.
The area is often called the Bungle Bungles and this refers to the enormous outcrop of domed formations. The main area that the domes lie on is known as the massif and this area covers 25 by 50 km. The surrounding ranges and mountains are also awe inspiring.
On our Adventure Wild tour we get up early in the morning and drive into Purnululu National Park. We have a very exciting action packed day ahead with walks and hikes planned right throughout the Bungle Bungles.
Initially we drive through Mabel Downs Station and this is a stunning drive. This property is a big working cattle station and occasionally find ourselves driving through a muster or watching giant Brahman bulls eyeing each other off from the safety of our vehicle.
This is a very exciting landscape to drive through as there are huge undulating mountain ranges and a long geologic history which incorporates glaciation, uplifts and the building up of mountains.
As we drive-in to the National Park you start to see the domes from a distance and the closer you get, the bigger they are. We take regular photo stops and get out of the bus so you can walk around and really experience them. Nature has created something really unique here.
The formations are actually very fragile and as we walk through the domes we take lots of time to talk and create understanding of how they formed.
We do one of our larger walks early in the morning and then move on to a shorter walks in the afternoon when the day has warmed up. We walk into Cathedral Gorge which is beautiful and shady. We spend time having morning tea in there. This gives people time to reflect and move around the gorge.
Water has created this amazing space and Cathedral Gorge is very inspiring. The acoustics are remarkable. People often feel like singing or saying a poem. Many people experience it as quite a peaceful spiritual place. It is shaded, beautiful and cool.
After Cathedral Gorge we walk down to Piccaninny Creek which has been sculpted by water and is a dry riverbed. Purnululu gets a lot less rain than other places in the Kimberley as it is closer to the desert areas. This means that water is very special here.
After walking in the southern end of the National Park we drive over to the northern end and walk into Echidna Chasm. It's very cool and huge red 180 metre high walls surround you. This place is entirely special in it's own way.
You can also arrange to have an optional helicopter flight over Purnululu. It's like looking down on a giant piece of Indigenous artwork. This is a very different experience from walking through the landscape.
Purnululu National Park is as an ancient landscape with a fascinating geology and history. At the end of our day as we drive into camp, everyone is exhilarated, excited and ready for a relax around the campfire together to discuss this shared experience.