Purnululu National Park

Site information

• Official name: Purnululu National Park
• Location: Western Australia
• Type: Natural
• Year of inscription: 2003

Purnululu National Park incorporates 239,735 hectares in Western Australia. The park is largely savannah grasslands and lies at the edge of Australia's monsoonal region. It is closed during the wet season. Managed as wilderness, the land is three hundred kilometers from the nearest population center, Kununurra, and remains largely inaccessible. Dating back twenty million years, the area is populated with Devonian-age quartz sandstone eroded into beehive-like cone karsts. Known as the Bungle Bungle Range, the cones are distinctly marked by horizontal layers of cyanobacterial crust. These also work to stabilize and protect the structures. The appearance of the cones varies considerably according to different environmental factors, including seasons, sun position, and rainfall. They are the major tourist attraction of the park.

The karsts offer great interest to the scientific community in demonstrating the geomorphic process of cone karst formation. They have been influenced by a mix of geological, biological, erosional, and climatic factors. At the time of inscription, no persons were registered as living permanently within the site. However, several Living Area Leases have since been issued to a number of traditional owners who live in the area seasonally. Conservation land has been added around the National Park to further protect the region.

History

The sediments for the famous formations are believed to have been deposited between 375 and 350 million years ago when tectonic plate activity was shaping the landscape. A combination of desert winds, millions of years' worth of rainfall, frozen water expansion, and other environmental factors have eroded the sandstones and conglomerates over time into their beehive-like shapes. The Bungle Bungle Range, as an identifiable landscape feature, is considered to be twenty million years old. Another tectonic shift around this time sent the region into an uplift, redirecting water flows, most notably the Ord River.

The Ord River and its tributaries have played a significant role in shaping the cones, cliffs, and gorges in the range. The dark bands marking the formations are a result of cyanobacteria, a single-celled organism and one of the oldest forms of life on the planet. Fossilized versions have been found elsewhere in Australia possibly as old as 3.5 billion years. At least five different species have been identified in the park. Although the cyanobacteria stretch across large expanses of the structures, they are only a few millimeters thick and are fragile to the touch.

Besides local Aboriginals and cattle ranchers, the land was largely unknown until aerial shots were released of the area in 1982 during the making of a documentary. The area was further gazetted in 1987 as a national park, though it was not inscribed as a World Heritage Site until 2003. Since inscription, the land has gained recognition for its aesthetic value, notably for its unique rock formations.

The Karjaganujaru are officially named as the traditional owners of the land, and they have had a presence dating back over twenty thousand years. Non-Aboriginals were first documented in the area in 1879; thousands quickly followed in the pursuit of gold, profoundly affecting local lifestyles. Despite impacts from colonization, the Karjaganujaru have largely maintained their culture and traditions, and in the twenty-first century they work in collaboration with the Western Australian Department of Environment and Conservation to manage the grounds.

Risk from outside impacts, notably upstream mining, are subject to the Australian Government's Environment Protection and Biodiversity Conservation Act of 1999. The Act provides protection for natural features that have been identified as nationally and internationally important ecological communities and/or heritage places. For Purnululu National Park, it largely serves to limit mining efforts that may impact the region and has helped add conservation land around the park as a buffer zone.

Significance

Purnululu National Park offers protection for unique geological formations dating back hundreds of millions of years. It provides important insight into earth's history and geomorphic formation. The formation of the sandstone karsts themselves is a process relatively new to science and leaves much to be explored. Although sandstone structures exist in several locations throughout the world, the Bungle Bungle karsts are by far the largest and most varied of their kind.

Laying on the cusp of two contrasting climatic regions, the park supports a wide range of ecosystems, with vegetation ranging from dry desert shrubbery to rainforest populations along creek valleys. At least five different species of cyanobacteria, one of the oldest and simplest lifeforms on earth, exist in the park. Conservation lands around the park help to combat the effects of overgrazing in the region. Limiting the livestock in the region has helped to restore damaged native vegetation, rest eroded soil, and limit the transportation of alien and invasive species.

Ancient rock art has been found within the park, and the traditional owners continue to practice and develop the medium. Ancient burial sites also exist throughout the region. The practice of ngarrangkarni, a complex ancient tradition known popularly known as the "Dreaming," or the "Law," dictates the relationship of the Karjaganujaru to the land. Both women and men are able to own land and are responsible for contributing and managing resources, though men tend to be responsible for local groups and organizing intergroup transactions.

As a developing traditional culture, the Karjaganujaru offer unique contributions toward the study of human history: They are one of only a small number of known contemporary hunter–gatherer societies (two of which are located in Australia), providing a demonstration of how humans adapt to significant weather diversity. Traditional stories share not only what the place is, but also what has happened there. Their paintings are not only pictures but also maps and records of history. The traditional owners continue to honor the relationship between people and land in both old and new forms, developing new interpretations from old sources.

In 2023, Purnululu National Park opened a new visitor center to accommodate the growing needs of the park. It was designed to help educate visitors about the Jaru and Gija peoples.

Bibliography

Jorgensen, Darren. "Ngarra and the Ngarrangkarni." Art Monthly Australia, no. 288, Apr. 2016, pp. 22–27.

Pinkus, Emily, et al. "Re-Thinking Visitor Loyalty at 'Once in a Lifetime' Nature-Based Tourism Destinations: Empirical Evidence from Purnululu National Park, Australia." Journal of Outdoor Recreation and Tourism, vol. 16, Dec. 2016, pp. 7–15. doi.org/10.1016/j.jort.2016.08.002.

Purnululu National Park. World Heritage List. World Heritage Cultural Centre, UNESCO, 2016. http://whc.unesco.org/en/list/1094. Accessed 5 Dec. 2024.

"New Visitor Centre for World Heritage Listed National Park." Department of Biodiversity, 1 May 2023, www.dbca.wa.gov.au/news/2023/new-visitor-centre-world-heritage-listed-national-park. Accessed 5 Dec. 2024.

Ross, Helen. "The East Kimberley Impact Assessment Project." Interdisciplinary Science Reviews, vol. 16, no. 4, 1991, pp. 313–23.

Strickland-Munro, Jennifer, and Susan Moore. "Indigenous Involvement and Benefits from Tourism in Protected Areas: A Study of Purnululu National Park and Warmun Community, Australia." Journal of Sustainable Tourism, vol. 21, no. 1, 2013, pp. 26–41.