Beehive domes in the Bungle Bungle Range in the Purnululu World Heritage Listed National Park

© Philip Schubert/Adobe Stoc

More than meets the eye

Welcome to Purnululu National Park, a World Heritage Listed site that managed to be one of the world’s best kept secrets until relatively recently. Although it has existed for around 350 million years and respected by its Indigenous Australian custodians for upwards of 40,000 years, it wasn’t until 1983 that the area became public knowledge after airborne treasure-seekers stumbled upon the area while making a documentary.

Nowadays, the park’s most popular area is the Bungle Bungle Range, also commonly referred to as the Bungle Bungles. With soaring rocks rising 250 metres above the grasslands, many people liken the maze of domes to giant beehives, however you needn’t worry about pesky stingers - it’s in look only. The formations were instead created over the span of 20 million years as water gradually eroded the orange and black-striped karst sandstone into the stunning shapes we see today.

If you’ve already seen the domes, there’s still plenty more to see in Purnululu National Park - the Bungle Bungles only take up roughly a fifth of the park’s breathtaking 240,000 hectares.