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Territory
Wonders of Western Australia
  Highlights
This giant Australian state is spectacular and very rich with diverse, unusual landmarks. The most amazing wonders of Western Australia are:
- Biodiversity. Most of Western Australia is dry land, but far lands across this desert in the western part of continent serve as refuges of unique fauna and flora.
- Geology and cliff formations. The history of this land is counted in billions of years. Billions of years… Cliff formations in Western Australia often have no analogs. Some of the most amazing ones are Bungle Bungle Range and Wave Rock.
- Aboriginal art. In Kimberley and other regions are located countless examples of indigenous rock art, often of high artistic quality. Truly unique is Murujuga site in Burrup peninsula – possibly the world’s largest art gallery with more than one million drawings.
Map with the described wonders
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Top 25 wonders of Western Australia
Geological wonders
Wave Rock
Wheatbelt Region
Highly unusual cliff formation that resembles an enormous petrified wave. Several more such formations in the vicinity.
Lake Hillier
Goldfields-Esperance Region
Unusual lake in flamboyant rose color, surrounded by lush green forest and the ocean nearby. The unusual color, most likely, is caused by algae Dunaliella salina but the search for the cause continues.
Shell Beach, L’Haridon Bight
Gascoyne Region
One of the few beaches in the world that consists exclusively of shells. Here shells extend for 60 kilometers with a 7 -10 m thick layer.
Bungle Bungle Range
Kimberley Region
An incomparable landscape created by highly unusual rock formations. The landscape is marked by up to 250 meters high sandstone pillars and beehive structures of contrasting light orange and dark colors. Deep gorges, labyrinths. An important site for the investigation of sandstone karst processes.
The Pinnacles (Nambung)
Wheatbelt Region
Desert, filled with amazing limestone formations – pinnacles that rise up to 3.5 m high.
Wolfe Creek crater
Kimberley Region
Western Australia. Visually expressive meteorite impact crater, 875 meters in diameter, 60 meters deep. Created some 300,000 years ago.
Horizontal Falls
Kimberley Region
Sea currents through two narrow chasms (12 and 20 m), caused by tides. Tides there are 10 m high thus several times during the day there is seen impressive sight.
Zircons of Jack Hills
Mid West
The oldest known terrestrial material on the surface of Earth, these crystals of zircon formed some 4.4 billion years ago. The oldest crystal was found on Erawandoo Hill – 4,404 million years old. Exploration of this material provides new information about the early history of Earth.
Walga Rock
Mid West
One of the largest monoliths in Australia, approximately 1.8 km long. Contains Walga Rock Art.
Mitchell Falls
Kimberley Region
Waterfall with 4 cascades. Total height – some 60 – 80 m. Remote, beautiful waterfall in a harsh landscape.
Tunnel Creek
Kimberley Region
Approximately 750 m long cave – a tunnel with a stream running through it. This is a very old cave system, approximately 20 million years old. Amazing speleothems, aboriginal drawings. Freshwater crocodiles have been seen in the cave.
Montgomery Reef tidal falls
Kimberley Region
When the tide is low and a huge amount of water leaves the lagoon of this coral reef, hundreds of waterfalls appear around it. These falls can be up to 4 m tall.
Murchison River Gorge
Mid West
Spectacular river gorge, more than 80 km long and up to 129 m deep. Valuable Ordovician fossils. Endemic species of plants.
Shell House
Mid West
Beautiful and impressive coastal cliffs, Ordovician and Triassic sandstone, and shale.
Abracurrie Cave
Goldfields-Esperance Region
Possibly the largest single cave chamber in the southern hemisphere, with a volume of some 150 thousand cubic meters. Contains Aboriginal stencils – the deepest native cave art in Australia.
Nature’s Window in Murchison Canyon
Mid West
Natural arch in a gorgeous setting with a view of the deep Murchison Canyon seen through the arch.
Biological wonders
Hamelin Pool and L’haridon Bight
Gascoyne Region
Hypersaline shallows with unique biotope – active growth of stromatolites – the oldest known form of life on Earth. Also other unique forms of life.
Lake Clifton thrombolites
Peel Region
A colony of thrombolites in shallow areas of the lake. These colonies of microbial mats resemble round, white stones.
The Boab Prison Tree, Derby
Kimberley Region
An unusual boab (Adansonia gregorii). Its circumference is 14.64 m but the height is just 9.5 m. Boab was used to lock up indigenous Australians in the 1860s on their way to sentencing.
Mont Lesueur
Wheatbelt Region
Flat-topped hills – mesas (Mont Lesueur and Mont Michaud), rising above the surrounding plains. The area contains a very high number of endemic and very rare species of plants.
Dave Evans Bicentennial Tree
South West Region
Giant, 75 m tall karri tree (Eucalyptus diversicolor) with a lookout platform at 65 m height.
Archaeological wonders
Donkey Creek Wandjina paintings
Kimberley Region
Rock shelter with very interesting Wandjina paintings of high artistic value.
Murujuga cliff art
Pilbara Region
Over one million diverse petroglyphs, often showing also extinct animals such as the Tasmanian tiger (Thylacinus cynocephalus) as well as the oldest representations of the human face in the world. The largest collection of cliff art in Australia, created over more than 40,000 years.
Depuch Island rock art
Pilbara Region
Rocks and boulders on this small island are covered with rock art by the Ngaluma people to whom it is an important site of legends.
Gwion Gwion art along Gibb River Road
Kimberley Region
Excellent samples of Gwion Gwion (Bradshaw) style – sophisticated silhouettes of humans and other beings, often mythical ones. At least 17,000 years old. Multiple sites are available upon agreement with local people.
Recommended books
Deserts of Gold, Kalgoorlie & Beyond, Western Australia
Travel into the Western Australian Deserts of Gold. Visit some of the old gold mining towns with Author Jan Hawkins, read about the Golden Trail, the Super Pit, and life in Kalgoorlie, a vibrant gold town in today’s world.
WILDFLOWERS of WESTERN AUSTRALIA
When perusing the literature it became obvious to the author that although there are many published books on the flora of Western Australia these are in hardback and paperback versions (which are often very expensive) and there are very few available for use on tablets and other e-book readers. Frequently the photography in the hard copies is not good enough for easy identification of the plants in Western Australia.
